A collection of Australian loos with great views

During the 10,000-day Vietnam war Australia had agreed with the United States to have a team of Australian Army Special Air Services (SAS) soldiers conduct covert missions into Cambodia. The SAS soldiers would be bivouacked in Thailand. With their names changed for security and personal safety reasons, this is a dramatized story of events that actually happened involving a small band of Australian Special Air Service trained specialists involved in covert intelligence activities who were co-opted into the Defence Intelligence Organisation (DIO) repertoire of Plausibly Deniable assets deployed worldwide into the shadows of political indulgence in locations where Australian forces should not be seen or heard. These Australian SAS Covert operations undertaken are incidents that have never before been exposed and include cross-sovereign-border infiltrations into Cambodia and the daily operations of the elimination of Viet Cong munition dumps. Also revealed are an unauthorized fatal attack by United States Army helicopters on SAS warriors; the rescue of French tourists kidnapped by Muslim terrorists in Mindanao, Philippines, and Operation Eye of the Storm into Northern Kuwait/Eastern Iraq evolving into Desert Storm. As revealed these covert operations included offshore intervention of East Timorese Fretilin Terrorists sabotaging Australian offshore Exploration and Oil Drilling activities in the Timor Sea; Back Door into Hell during the Somalia conflict, plus covert black ops elimination of Muslim Jihadist activities on homeland soil assisted by Israeli intelligence. This astounding exposé opens the closed door behind which governments operate to deal quietly with situations they prefer not to mention.

The 25th anniversary edition of this landmark novel, in which a chilling modern mystery is entwined with one of Australia's most brutal and intriguing historical atrocities. From one of Australia's most awarded writers, Gary Crew, with a foreword and cover illustration by Shaun Tan. On 4 June 1629, the Dutch vessel Batavia struck uncharted rocks off the West Australian coast. By the time help arrived, over 120 men, women and children had met their deaths - not in the sea, but murdered by two fellow survivors, Wouter Loos and Jan Pelgrom. Nearly 400 years later, Steven Messenger discovers gruesome relics from that wreck. Four months later he disappears without a trace. Where is Messenger? Is his disappearance linked to the relics? Someone knows ... somewhere ... 'this stunningly original work defies easy categorization as it spins dual story lines into one spellbinding yarn ... Crew tantalizes to the very end, leaving readers to speculate enthusiastically on the riddles he craftily leaves unsolved. His tale will electrify his audience' - Publishers Weekly 'Strange Objects will continue to tease and perplex readers of all ages long after it has been read' - Australian Book Review 'A supernatural mystery of a high order' - Kirkus Reviews 'The past is alive in us all, and will test our humanity to the full' - Marion Halligan

Kathy Pettingill is a name that’s both respected and feared, not only by Australia’s criminal underworld, but by many in the Victorian police force. As the matriarch at the head of the most notorious and violent family of habitual offenders in Australian criminal history, her life has revolved around murder, drugs, prison, prostitution and bent coppers – and the intrigue and horror that surround such crimes. Her eldest son, Dennis Allen, was a mass murderer and a $70,000-a-week drug dealer who dismembered a Hell’s Angel with a chainsaw. Two younger sons were acquitted of the Walsh Street murders, the cold-blooded assassination of two police officers that changed the face of crime in Melbourne forever. One of the two, Victor, was gunned down himself in the street 14 years later, becoming the third son Kathy has buried. In this revised and updated authorised edition of Adrian Tame’s bestselling The Matriarch, Kathy Pettingill reveals the chilling truth behind many of the myths and legends that surround her family, including her experiences in the blood-spattered charnel house at the centre of Dennis Allen’s empire of drugs and violence. But this is no plea for pity. Forthright and deeply disturbing, like its subject, The Matriarch pulls no punches. Updated and revised for a new generation, this true crime classic is as terrifying and powerful as when it was first published.

Winner of the David Unaipon Award, an engaging, moving and often funny yarn about growing up in the home of two Aunties running a sheep farm in rural Gundagai. Growing up in the shifting landscape of Gundagai with her Nan and Aunties, Sunny spends her days playing on the hills near their farmhouse and her nights dozing by the fire, listening to the big women yarn about life over endless cups of tea. It is a life of freedom, protection and love. But as Sunny grows she must face the challenge of being seen as different, and of having a mother whose visits are as unpredictable as the rain. Based on Jeanine Leane's own childhood, these funny, endearing and thought-provoking stories offer a snapshot of a unique Australian upbringing.

Overview of the history of the Chinese in Darwin, based mainly on the oral history of Chinese Australians in the 'Top End', and to a lesser extent on European documents, official reports, newspaper articles, administrators' letters and contemporary theses. Includes references. The author is organising an oral history project on the Chinese in north Australia for the National Library of Australia, and has published many articles about her work.