Australia Day Books

Out of the 5 or 6 books I've reviewed on NZ travel, this is the one that will be actually carried and used on my month-long trip. The information is never vague; for example excursion trips are described, the top providers are listed with all necessary details. Maps are extensive and frequent. I particularly liked the fact that while there are many ideas for budget travel, also included are the special hotels or restaurants or offroad trips that can cost more but are considered worth it. This guide is for everyone, versus Lonely Planet, (the backpacking crowd) or Fodors ( high end spenders) or Inside Guides (good pictures and background, no practical information).

About a father in the 1920-30's telling his son about the old days in Australia. The fathers version is somewhat different in telling than his former mates view. Very interesting, humerous and the author doesn't let you forget who the characters are from a previous chapter. Would like to find more of this authors writings if there are any.

I thought this screenplay was absolutely great. It was actually better than the movie even. I liked that Faith(portrayed by the superb Juliette Lewis in the film.) was used more in the book. She was my favorite out of everyone. I wish they had used more of the scenes she was in for the movie, it would have made it better.If you have seen the movie you should really read it, it will make you appriciate it more. If you are a fan of the movie or science fiction, I suggest you check this book out. It also includes really cool pictures from the movie!

Thought Canadian history was boring? Thought nothing much happened between the first and second world war? Think again. This well-written book details the lives of girls and women, from the way parents were encouraged to raise their babies to how teenagers managed to keep well-clothed in the depression. It is full of vivid detail, primary sources, and images. Truly, a wonderful, fascinating, fabulous book. It gave me lots to talk about with my grandmother. :) Very readable, my father enjoyed it too!

This is one of the most laid back, comical and most well researched books I have ever seen on three of Australians most well loved bands. It gives an outsiders view of the inside of being a "Rockstar" but follows the section of each bands lives carefully and Mathieson manages to portray them in a complete light: not just the cahsrts and music scene but also the relationships that must go onto support the bands. It details how long silverchair have been "mates", how Janet English, of spiderbait, longed to get out of their small town and see the world and of Tim Rogers (you am i) watching the world go by. Beautifully detailed it shows how human each band is. My favourite passage is the end of Spiderbait when Kram takes over the narritive. A true treat not only for Aussie's but for music lovers of all kinds......

I am a huge fan of silverchair, i am in their fan club have their autograph and have been to their concerts. Now dont get me wrong this book is cool, but wasn't very well written and didn't explain much. If you want some silverchair stuff, subscribe to their fanclub and you get free stuff catalogues and more. You can subscribe by mail and to figure out how go to chairpage.com which is their official web page

I'm a huge fan of silverchair - them being my favorite band. Not to mention, I'm also a big fan of Australian music. I found this book to be incredibly informative, and just all around awesome! It gives you insight on some cool stuff that you might've not known. If you're a big fan of silverchair, like I am, then I would most definitely recommend purchasing this book.

I'm a huge fan of silverchair - them being my favorite band. Not to mention, I'm also a big fan of Australian music. I found this book to be incredibly informative, and just all around awesome! It gives you insight on some cool stuff that you might've not known. If you're a big fan of silverchair, like I am, then I would most definitely recommend purchasing this book.

I'm a huge fan of silverchair - them being my favorite band. Not to mention, I'm also a big fan of Australian music. I found this book to be incredibly informative, and just all around awesome! It gives you insight on some cool stuff that you might've not known. If you're a big fan of silverchair, like I am, then I would most definitely recommend purchasing this book.

I actually bought 4 different guide books to plan my trip Down Under. I ditched 3 of them almost immediately because Frommer's format was easier to read and locating appropriate information quicker. The advice on suggested tours was especially accurate; the boxed information warrants a second (or third) look - Frommer's never steered us in the wrong direction. Take the price information with a grain of salt as seasoned travelers know that pricing can and will fluctuate.

Don't buy any other guides - relax and enjoy your trip. Aussies are the most laid-back, patient crowd on the planet. It's an amazing country!

My life partner and I found Frommer's Australia powerful...entralling...a ferociously well-paced entertainment! We found ourselves knee deep in quicksand and this book, I kid you not, saved our skins. I mean literally! But all in all we found it a smart, craftsman-like, viscerally compelling guide, eh.

I actually bought 4 different guide books to plan my trip Down Under. I ditched 3 of them almost immediately because Frommer's format was easier to read and locating appropriate information quicker. The advice on suggested tours was especially accurate; the boxed information warrants a second (or third) look - Frommer's never steered us in the wrong direction. Take the price information with a grain of salt as seasoned travelers know that pricing can and will fluctuate.

Don't buy any other guides - relax and enjoy your trip. Aussies are the most laid-back, patient crowd on the planet. It's an amazing country!

Our group of six friends just returned from a two week trip to Australia. We did much planning ahead of time using this guide. It was so helpful that even our travel agent was impressed with the information we could give her about our plans to travel by plane, car, and train. Information about each of the cities we visited was right on the money. We stayed in some of the hotels recommended and ate at some of the restaurants. With the information we had ahead of time, our trip went very smoothly. Practically everytime anyone had a question regarding just about anything in the area we were visiting, I just grabbed the book and had the answer.

I went to Australia this summer (or their winter), and I took this book along with me. I read the book on the plane, and it seeemed helpful, but once I got there, I realized the book was lacking. First off - a lot of the places that were discussed in the book (specifically hotel rooms) were grossly misquoted on price. Secondly, the section on Melbourne (where I spent most of my time) I felt was inaccurate and the listing for hotels was extremely small. And the places listed were not very good places either in that they were either too small (and required MONTHS of advanced booking) or were too expensive for the average traveller. I found the Lonely Planet Guide to be much better and more helpful, giving the reader a more objective view of available hotels and eateries. I found a dozen or so inexpensive places to stay and eat that should have made the book. Even the Sydney section (where I also spent some time) was not very good, and the book was too Sydney-centric to be of much use to someone moving about the country. It's obvious that the writers of the book couldn't see beyond Sydney and New South Wales. Hopefully future additions will be more balanced.

If you can find a copy of this book, read it. Douglas Mawson, a veteran of the 1907-1909 Shackleton expedition, returned to the Antarctic in 1912 with his own team. His sledge journey with two companions turned from a harsh but rewarding exploration into a terrifying fight for survival in an instant. At almost the same time as Scott was busily scribbling inspiring hoo-hah in his diary trying to cover up his appalling faults of leadership and organization, Mawson was courageously fighting for his life and refusing to lie down and die. An incredible story! One hopes that Australia remembers Sir Douglas Mawson and his fortitude. He is an example to all of us.

I am so delighted this book has been reissued because the original version was impossible to find. This is a story that earns its subtitle, "The Greatest Survival Story Every Told". This story is incredible and you truly feel that you as a reader are experiencing Mawson's ordeal yourself. It does what a book should do--it puts you on the ice with Mawson, his companions and the dogs. This is a rare book that makes you think--at the moment when Mawson thinks it--that you are so glad he still has "one more paw" left to eat.
Read this book and you will never be the same. It's an awesome book, thrilling and it shows you by comparison what is lacking in so many so-called adventure tales: cojones.
I am surprised this has never been made into a movie and I might write it myself. It's just a fantastic, inspiring story.

The other reviewer's comments are appreciated, this book will redefine your definition of "discomfort". He may not be one of the most well known, but Mawson was one of the world's greatest, and toughest explorers.

This is a depressing book. But you should read it. You will learn from it something about will and determination. You may also learn that you are not doing yourself a favour by making your life, and your family's life so comfortable.

My wife asked, "Why do they go there?"

You will have to read the book to find out.

The title of this book is dishonest. There is little pretence to this being a comprehensive history of Australia. Instead, its focus is almost exclusively on the British colonists' policies and attitudes towards the indigenous inhabitants, and towards migrants of non-British background. On its own terms, it is very well written. The writing style is by far the most engaging that I've ever encountered in an historical text - and this very fact betrays what is really going on here: David Day has written a polemical argument, rather than a history.
*
The tone of the narrator borders on the humorous - it is angry, in a sneering and critical way, so much so that it reminded me of the work of the Austrian (not Australian) novelist, Thomas Bernhard. Like Bernhard, Day does not shy away from repetition. His argument is one of insistence. Facts are shaped to fit his purposes, and then deployed effectively. For those figures whose actions he dislikes, he feels entitled to make ad hominem attacks; thus Prime Minister Menzies is described as 'rotund' and 'stout', his bodily habitus being fair game for Day; relatedly, Day feels comfortable offering cursory psychological analyses of political figures - thus Menzies' and PM John Howards' attitudes are 'explained' by their childhood circumstances in country Victoria and suburban Sydney respectively - this is more the stuff of politcal satire than of history.
*
It is also not accurate to dub this a thoroughgoing revisionist history. Its scope is just too limited. For instance, there is a glaring neglect of women's roles - Day has perpetuated this neglect, rather than questioning it. He mentions various racial groups, but does nothing to tell their history - they are only important in their being the target of racist British colonial attitudes.
*
There is a frustrating lack of clarity in the presentation of basic chronology. Even on facts central to Day's argument, such as the size of the Australian population, both migrant and indigenous, he refrains from providing tables or summaries. Extracting the factual basis upon which to build an argument, be this his or one's own, is very difficult.
*
His biased perspective at times leaves him looking a little silly in the face of events. Thus, for several hundred pages he carps against the Colonialists' fears of the "Asian hordes", virtually laughing at them rather than seriously analysing the source of their fears - when the Japanese do begin their expansion in WWII, Day is embarassed; he is left to pull up his trousers with claims such as that Japan never intended to invade Australia, this claim being justified in cursory fashion. Worse still, changes in Australian attitudes and policies are left without an explanation. Day admits, and tacitly praises, the change in policy regarding the origins of migrants after WWII; but he is unable to enter a discussion as to why this change occurred. Having branded Australians as predominantly racist, Day simply recounts this change as an uncharacteristic, if welcome, deviation from the norm - it is left to PM John Howard to re-establish Day's argument. As a history, this is very weak - rather than exploring causes for events, Day gives up, implicitly saying, "Well, this just happened". For me, this is one of the most disappointing aspects of this text - the condemnation of racism, and the acknowledgemnt of atrocities, is stirring and vital, but Day gives little clue as to the forces which mollified such detestable inclinations.
*
Similarly, in regard the issue of how ownership/proprietorship is established over a territory is conceptually barren. Day circles around this issue, establishing its prominence in Australian history, problematizes it, but then fails to offer any conceptual machinery with which to clarify matters. He does not draw analogies with other countries. He does not invoke legal distinctions, nor their conceptual basis. In the end, he merely states the problem. The discussion remains at the level of - the indigenous people say that they were here first, and that they were using the land; the British colonialists say that for land to be claimed it need be worked and permanently settled - Colonial courts have upheld this argument up until the last few decades, when the Mabo and Wik judgements have called it into question. Of course, this is fine as far as it goes, but it does not go very far considering how central this issue is to the structure of Day's entire book.
*
I would certainly not recommend this book as an history, revisionist or otherwise. As an historian Day is not very insightful. However, I would encourage this work to be read as a polemic. Day adopts a position contrary to that implicit is some older historical texts, and he writes with verve and a cynical edge. The manipulative tone is a worthy counter to that spouted by current Australian politicians.

[This review is based on the original 1996 edition.] This is an excellent overview of Australian history. It covers the entire period from settlement to the modern day (which day depending on the edition you have). Day presents Australian culture as a colonial one, dispossessing a native population, dependent militarily and morally on a mother country, and believing its claim to proprietorship of the land, to use his term, is under constant scrutiny by other contenders. There is also information about the physical development of Australia. Personally though I found that to be a bit lacking. It could have done with a few more facts and dates about when different areas were settled and more about the specific political and social conditions.

Dispossession of the original inhabitants and owners of Australia is the first of Day's two main themes. As he shows later, this has largely been ignored until the last few decades, and is still a topic of hot political debate. Day presents the fact of dispossession and the killing of Aborigines through the records and statements of the people of the time. They knew what was happening, did not consider it something to be disguised or concealed, and used various justifications for it, depending on time period and the conscience of the individual. Day presents all the justifications as attempts to render the Aborigines inhuman, or at least lesser humans, and therefore expendable. He himself utterly rejects that and consistently refers to the killings as murder or massacre. He presents the colonists as having a deliberate though not systematic policy of massacre, occurring when new lands were to be used. Also, it may be worth noting that he contrasts this with the events in the other white Dominions of Britain and in America. In Australia, there were no official attempts to negotiate with the Aborigines. There was no attempt to portray it as other than a takeover, except through the denial of Aborigines being humans to begin with.

The second theme is the fear of dispossession, and not feeling at home in this country. He goes through the various stages of White Australia, from the obsession with "bleaching" Australia through deportation of non-whites and restricting immigration to the British Isles, to the gradual government recognition of the policy's abandonment by the people of Australia. He also goes through the various stages of industrial development of Australia, and shows through quotes how this was related to possession of this country. All throughout, the fear of dispossession is shown through quotes that talk about quite explicitly, and for an amazingly long period of time. The feeling of being far from the mother country is one that he has to show indirectly. Most of it is shown through the statistics of travel and immigration policies. However, as he shows, it was made quite explicit in World War II, which also began the shift of colonial allegiance from Britain to America.

Finally, this book is well written and enjoyable just to read. The author generally strives for balance, except on whether Aborigines are human, and that killing them was, and is, murder. In fact, there are a few times when Day is so dispassionate and detached it is a little creepy. So, this book achieves what it set out to do: present a broad overview of the history of Australia, with a focus on two areas of crucial importance to understanding Australians, our society and why our governments make the types of decision they do. I highly recommend it.

This book mostly looks at the racial aspects of the colonization and founding of Australia. Most chapter headings indicate the views of the colonists as being very anti Aboriginal. Although the account is biased and highly subjective it lends itself to a very interesting read, one that any scholar of Australia or the far east and especially anyone interested in Indian-white relations will enjoy. The book details the original encounters with the natives as well as contemporary native issues, such as the 1988 bicentennial of the founding in which a massive wave of Aboriginal protest swept the nation to draw attention to the plight. Of course parallels with American Indians are everywhere. A very interesting book, although `Fatal Shore' is probably a superior and less anti-European account.

Seth J. Frantzman

I am planning to be an exchange student at the University of Canberra and of all the travel books I read, this met my needs the best. The book was honest about student discounts and the quality of youth hostels. The features I liked best were the planned walking tours of cities and the special attention to "Fun and Free" attractions. The author writes in a clear, friendly, engaging manner, I feel I know what to expect from Australia after reading this book.

I just got back from a 3-week trip to Australia during which I used this book constantly, though my version is from 1999 and I don't know what version amazon.com is selling right now. I visited many of the places Frommer's recommended and stayed at a few of the lodgings listed as well (specifically, the Sydney Central Youth Hostel and Springfield Lodge, both good choices if you are on a budget and want a place that's clean and comfortable). Some people I travelled with part of the time preferred my guide over theirs (a Fodor, I think) so much that I let them borrow it after I flew home and they stayed behind. If I could change one thing, I would color-code the seperate chapters- it was difficult to locate things in my edition since everything was printed in black or red. Still, this book was extremely handy for me and I'm glad it was the one I chose to buy.

When we were considering what to do during our month in New Zealand, travel agents were pleading with us to have everything lined up before "the Y2k rush." So, being the literal engineering types, we bought a couple of books -- the Lonely Planet NZ and the Frommers for Under $50/day -- and started poring through them.

Our initial impression of the Lonely Planet book was too dense to be useful to us. The Frommer's guide, however, had suggested itineraries based on the time one could spend in New Zealand. Even better, the author, Elizabeth Hansen, was available to "consult" on the trip on an hourly basis. Because we'd be toting our 18-month old, we used her services and pre-booked the entire trip.

Once there, we found the Lonely Planet book much more useful. The Lonely Planet guide excels at providing abundant information about towns, including attractions, restaurants and maps giving a rough layout.

For example, one of the folks at a Visitor center clued us into Farewell Spit, an area we were going to forego because it was well off our chosen route. As it turned out, Tahuna Park, our campground in Nelson was pretty bad (right under an airport takeoff path; lots of people permanently living there; undermaintained kitchens), and we didn't relish the idea of spending three days there as originally planned.

The side trip to Farewell Spit was long and we'd have to find some place relatively nearby to the Spit to make it a reasonable trip. Unfortunately, this is where the Frommer's guide was very weak. It caters more to the B&B crowd, and there isn't that much north (or west) of Nelson. The Lonely Planet book, however, paid for itself by suggesting a lot of options, providing maps of the little towns, and listing restaurants where we might stop at for "snack time."

In summary: The Frommer's book is helpful for initially planning your trip.

The Frommer's book has more of a focus on higher-end accomodations, e.g., motels or beds and breakfasts, and covers a smaller area. This is not such a big deal unless you want to venture too far off the beaten path.

We felt the author's services were worthwhile.

Don't underestimate the value of the Visitor Centers scattered throughout New Zealand. They were generally very good at providing local information. Most will also book special activities for you.

I recently spent two weeks in New Zealand. This was the only book I took with me and it was the best choice. I had looked through others but, I would recommend this book to anyone who is planning a holiday there. The pricing was a bit outdated due to the exchange rate, but all the other information was dead on! I did the things recommended in Rotorua, Taupo and Napier and I was well prepared! The for free or nearly free things to do and see were the best. I cant wait to go back!