Australia & Oceania Audiobooks in History

Where Soldiers Lie: The Quest to Find Australia's Missing War Dead

What drives veterans, military experts and forensic investigators to dedicate years to search for and identify the remains of fallen warriors? What does it mean to the families of the dead to be able to lay them to rest? Over thirty five thousand Australian soldiers and airmen are still listed as Missing In Action from the wars of the 20th Century. Telling the moving story of the determination and skill of the searchers who apply old-fashioned detective work and cutting-edge science to solve the mysteries of the missing and bring peace of mind and solace to their families and to all those who serve, Where Soldiers Lie follows these investigators and scientists on their mission to locate and identify unrecovered war casualties and to unlock their secrets. From the jungles of Vietnam, where one man led a decade-long battle to recover and bring home the final six, to Korea, Papua New Guinea and the fields of the Somme, Flanders and Fromelles, Where Soldiers Lie is a deeply human story of perseverance, luck and resolution, a story of incredible determination against difficult odds, of exacting forensic analysis and painstaking detective work, to uncover and identify the remains of Australian soldiers, in battlefield over the decades, and to bring their remains home. Powerful, moving and compelling reading.

Ian McPhedran, Ian Mcphedran (Author), Peter Byrne (Narrator)

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Where Soldiers Lie: The Quest to Find Australia's Missing War Dead

What drives veterans, military experts and forensic investigators to dedicate years to search for and identify the remains of fallen warriors? What does it mean to the families of the dead to be able to lay them to rest? Over thirty five thousand Australian soldiers and airmen are still listed as Missing In Action from the wars of the 20th Century. Telling the moving story of the determination and skill of the searchers who apply old-fashioned detective work and cutting-edge science to solve the mysteries of the missing and bring peace of mind and solace to their families and to all those who serve, Where Soldiers Lie follows these investigators and scientists on their mission to locate and identify unrecovered war casualties and to unlock their secrets. From the jungles of Vietnam, where one man led a decade-long battle to recover and bring home the final six, to Korea, Papua New Guinea and the fields of the Somme, Flanders and Fromelles, Where Soldiers Lie is a deeply human story of perseverance, luck and resolution, a story of incredible determination against difficult odds, of exacting forensic analysis and painstaking detective work, to uncover and identify the remains of Australian soldiers, in battlefield over the decades, and to bring their remains home. Powerful, moving and compelling reading. 'At times it is a heartbreaking story. At other times, it's a detective story. On a deeper level, a book such as Where Soldiers Lie, which honours and commemorates these lost heroes, offers a form of grief and acceptance in its own right.' Herald Sun

Ian McPhedran (Author), Peter Byrne (Narrator)

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Whatever Happened to Ned Kelly's Head

Who stole the priceless Picasso from the NGV? Was Errol Flynn a Nazi spy? Did an Australian kill the infamous Red Baron? If you think Australia's history is straightforward, you're dead wrong. This is a land of the strange, the spooky and the unexplained. From the eerie ball of light that stalked a terrified family across the Nullabor, to the whereabouts of Victoria's parliamentary mace, to the unidentified body found propped up on an Adelaide beach, and, yes, to the whereabouts of Ned Kelly's skull, you'll find our history has plenty of mysterious twists and unanswered questions. With his signature wit, Eamon Evans investigates Australia's most curious mysteries, digs up the evidence and lays it out for the court of public opinion to decide. What Ever Happened to Ned Kelly's Head? will have you scratching your head and wondering long after the last page.

Eamon Evans (Author), Eamon Evans, Jay Hackett (Narrator)

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War at the End of the World: Douglas MacArthur and the Forgotten Fight for New Guinea 1942-1945

One American soldier called it "a green hell on earth." Monsoon-soaked wilderness, debilitating heat, impassable mountains, torrential rivers, and disease-infested swamps-New Guinea was a battleground far more deadly than the most fanatical of enemy troops. Japanese forces numbering some 600,000 men began landing in January 1942, determined to seize the island as a cornerstone of the Empire's strategy to knock Australia out of the war. Allied commander-in-chief General Douglas MacArthur committed 340,000 Americans, as well as tens of thousands of Australian, Dutch, and New Guinean troops, to retake New Guinea at all costs. In this gripping narrative, historian James P. Duffy chronicles the most ruthless combat of the Pacific War, a fight complicated by rampant tropical disease, violent rainstorms, and unforgiving terrain that punished both Axis and Allied forces alike. Drawing on primary sources, War at the End of the World fills in a crucial gap in the history of World War II while offering listeners a narrative of the first rank.

James P. Duffy (Author), Joe Barrett (Narrator)

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Walk a War in My Shoes

On the 25th August 1895, Ernest Alfred Hall was born into a pioneering Australian family that lived on a 313-acre property called 'Cloverdale' near the hamlet of Beech Forest, south of the Otway Ranges, some 200 kilometres south west of Melbourne, Victoria. As a child, it seemed he would be destined for the life of a farmer in a country that was just realising its independence through Federation, yet his path was to be diverted by the cataclysmic events that befell Europe and the British Empire. So it was, that one month short of his 20th birthday, Ernest caught the train to Melbourne and enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force. At only 5' 3' he was never going to be the biggest soldier in the army, but as his father said to him, 'It's not the size of the dog in the fight, son, but the size of the fight in the dog.'  Like so many, Ernest Hall embarked for the war to end all wars. Unlike so many, his letters and records survived. This is his story.

Murray Ernest Hall (Author), Geoffrey Boyes (Narrator)

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Voyagers of the Titanic: Passengers, Sailors, Shipbuilders, Aristocrats, and the Worlds They Came Fr

Late in the night of April 14, 1912, the mighty Titanic, a passenger liner traveling from Southampton, England, to New York City, struck an iceberg four hundred miles south of Newfoundland. Its sinking over the next two and a half hours brought the ship-mythological in name and size-one hundred years of infamy. Of the 2,240 people aboard the ship, 1,517 perished either by drowning or by freezing to death in the frigid North Atlantic waters. What followed the disaster was tantamount to a worldwide outpouring of grief: In New York, Paris, London, and other major cities, people lined the streets and crowded around the offices of the White Star Line, the Titanic's shipping company, to inquire for news of their loved ones and for details about the lives of some of the famous people of their time. While many accounts of the Titanic's voyage focus on the technical or mechanical aspects of why the ship sank, Voyagers of the Titanic follows the stories of the men, women, and children whose lives intersected on the vessel's fateful last day, covering the full range of first, second, and third class-from plutocrats and captains of industry to cobblers and tailors looking for a better life in America. Richard Davenport-Hines delves into the fascinating lives of those who ate, drank, reveled, dreamed, and died aboard the mythic ship: from John Jacob Astor IV, the wealthiest person on board, whose comportment that night was subject to speculation and gossip for years after the event, to Archibald Butt, the much-beloved military aide to Theodore Roosevelt and William Taft, who died helping others into the Titanic's few lifeboats. With magnificent prose, Voyagers of the Titanic also brings to life the untold stories of the ship's middle and third classes-clergymen, teachers, hoteliers, engineers, shopkeepers, counterjumpers, and clerks-each of whom had a story that not only illuminates the fascinating ship but also the times in which it sailed. In addition, Davenport-Hines explores the fascinating politics behind the Titanic's creation, which involved larger-than-life figures such as J. P. Morgan, the ship's owner, and Lord Pirrie, the ship's builder. The memory of this tragedy still remains a part of the American psyche and Voyagers of the Titanic brings that clear night back to us with all of its drama and pathos.

Richard Davenport-Hines (Author), Robin Sachs (Narrator)

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Uluru: The History and Legacy of the Australian Landmark Considered Sacred by the Local Aborigines

The magnificent monolith the locals call "Uluru," situated in the heart of Australia, hovers over a patchy bed of desert poplars and spinifex grasslands. The pleasant, but otherwise unexceptional surroundings of the spellbinding sandstone landform only further accentuates its majesty, one that can be appreciated from a variety of angles. To lime-colored budgerigars, mighty brown falcons, passengers in planes and helicopters, and other creatures blessed with the gift of flight, the free-form rock is reminiscent of the fossil of a spiky fish, a misshapen arrowhead, or perhaps a peculiar, ocher-tinged seashell peeking out of the sand. To those gazing upon the natural gem on solid ground, the flat-topped, burnt sienna beauty, marked with character-forming dimples, ripples, and ridges, looks more like a sleeping, thousand-year-old turtle, particularly through squinted eyes.   Its striking appearance aside, Uluru, also known as "Ayers Rock," is far more than an unmissable landmark. Uluru represents an inimitable symbol of life and culture, and a place of worship sacred to the region's aboriginal inhabitants. Given the long and riveting history attached to this hallowed rock, the aura of mysticality and mystery that clings to Uluru should come as no surprise. Not only does the rock's flaky surface change color throughout the day - going from a deep violet with hints of gray to a light lilac, to a fiery orange-red during sunrise, and from its usual apricot-gold to a faded orange, to a dreamy purplish-pink at dusk - Uluru, they say, is an endless source of inexplicable happenings and paranormal occurrences.  

Charles River Editors (Author), David Bernard (Narrator)

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Tough Country

Tall tales of bushmen, bulldozers and back-country blokes 'It was the mid-1970s and I was about eight, I thought it was completely normal for your old man to pull out a high-powered deer-hunting rifle and fire it through the kitchen door from the breakfast table...' In the 1970s and 80s, Barry Bellamy was a fair old bushman, traversing the back-country from Hawke's Bay to the far north in a blue ex-airforce Land Rover. His son Mike would join him as he took up work, wherever he could get it. Tough Country is Mike's story, about a bygone era of bushmen, scrub-cutters, hunters and shepherds. Later, Mike forged his own life working on the land, and his stories of the characters of the 1980s and 90s, from tradies to digger-drivers, are as hilarious as they are quintessentially Kiwi.

Mike Bellamy (Author), Christopher Brown (Narrator)

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Tough Country

Tall tales of bushmen, bulldozers and back-country blokes 'It was the mid-1970s and I was about eight, I thought it was completely normal for your old man to pull out a high-powered deer-hunting rifle and fire it through the kitchen door from the breakfast table...' In the 1970s and 80s, Barry Bellamy was a fair old bushman, traversing the back-country from Hawke's Bay to the far north in a blue ex-airforce Land Rover. His son Mike would join him as he took up work, wherever he could get it. Tough Country is Mike's story, about a bygone era of bushmen, scrub-cutters, hunters and shepherds. Later, Mike forged his own life working on the land, and his stories of the characters of the 1980s and 90s, from tradies to digger-drivers, are as hilarious as they are quintessentially Kiwi.

Mike Bellamy (Author), Mike Bellamy (Narrator)

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Torpedo Run: The Story of WWII Submarine Hero Eugene B. Fluckey

The remarkable true story of Eugene Fluckey, the US Navy's most innovative-and aggressive-submarine commander of World War II   Over the course of five combat patrols during the Pacific War, Commander Fluckey reinvented submarine warfare, pioneering audacious strategies to hunt and sink Japanese warships and merchant vessels. At the helm of the USS Barb, he directed his boat to attack warship convoys-never mind the lop-sided odds-and to slip into heavily defended enemy harbors to launch torpedoes at unsuspecting targets. "Lucky" Fluckey's submariners often attacked from the surface, brazenly sinking the enemy with the Barb's deck guns. Once, he even sent sailors ashore on one Japanese island on a perilous mission to blow up a Japanese train. Fluckey and his crew sent an astounding seventeen enemy ships, including an aircraft carrier, to the bottom of the sea.   In Torpedo Run, acclaimed naval historian Don Keith dives into the most thrilling and dangerous tales of Fluckey's war, as he guides his gallant crew against the Japanese fleet. For his heroism and intrepidity, Fluckey earned four Navy Crosses and the Medal of Honor, and showed what a submarine-and he-was capable of.

Don Keith (Author), Vincent Caruso (Narrator)

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This Could Be Serious

Sex, drugs, rock and roll, Absinthe, splatter, death, internet dating and MUCH MORE. The story of an innocent Sydney boys journey from slum to splendour along the explosive rock and roll highways of the 70's, through heartbreak and happiness. Having made and lost fortunes, 4 wives and adventures all around the world. Julius Grafton is a writer, former rock and roll roadie, and entrepreneur doing business in the music, events and media industries. This fast moving story gathers some unbelievable chapters in a colourful life lived hard. You meet plenty of interesting people: Bruce Jackson, Eric Robinson, Garry Glitter, Roger Davies, A. J. Maddah and Tom Misner all get a chapter.

Julius Grafton (Author), Graeme Hague (Narrator)

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Thicker Than Water: History, Secrets and Guilt: A Memoir

Cal Flyn was very proud when she discovered that her ancestor, Angus McMillan, had been a pioneer of colonial Australia. However, when she dug deeper, she began to question her pride. McMillan had not only cut tracks through the bush, but played a dark role in Australia's bloody history. In 1837 Angus McMillan left the Scottish Highlands for the other side of the world. Cutting paths through the Australian frontier, he became a feted pioneer, to be forever mythologised in status and landmarks. He was also Cal Flyn's great-great-great-uncle. Inspired by his fame, Flyn followed in his footsteps to Australia, where she would face horrifying family secrets. Blending memoir, history and travel,Thicker Than Water' evokes the startlingly beautiful wilderness of the Highlands, the desolate bush of Victoria and the reverberations on one from the other. A tale of blood and bloodlines, it is a powerful, personal journey into dark family history, grief and guilt.

Cal Flyn (Author), Cal Flyn (Narrator)

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