'the biggest cleared area was my vegetable patch ... I ran and lay down and made a little tent over myself. I thought it would preserve the last of the oxygen. Under the blanket I could hear explosions - the gas bottles from the houses further up, and I could just imagine all my neighbours dead up the road. the wind was roaring, the trees cracking: an awful lot of noise ... I thought I wasn't going to survive.' Peter Luke, Gaffneys Creek, Victoria 'the sky got darker again ... I started to...

From ABC Books' Australiana range comes GREAT AUSTRALIAN FLOOD STORIES, stories of humour, survival and courage in the face of one of our country's most powerful natural forces: flood.'I tried to follow the road but the rushing waters pushed me into a deep rut where I lost my footing and was swept away downstream in the overflow of the river ... I got very frightened at the noise, and the water swept me along ... but I kept saying to myself, "Don't panic." Hampered by the big mail b...

Life with New Zealand's remotest family in a follow-on from the bestselling A Life on Gorge River by Robert Long. In 2010, New Zealand met its remotest family, through the writing of Robert Long - aka Beansprout - and we were intrigued. Now Beansprout's wife, Catherine Stewart, tells her story, and answers many of our questions. Why did she decide to join him on the wild West Coast, two days' walk from the nearest road? Why and how did they raise their family there? Was it terrifying to be...

An earthy, entertaining collection of yarns about twenty larger-than-life outback characters. Meet Ron Canlin, who one day began sculpting the sandstone walls of his opal mine. Ten years later, every drive and tunnel in Ron's claim is full of wonderful sculptures - the eighth wonder of the world. Or Peter Venables, with his flowing white beard, puffing his pipe like a character from the pioneering 1800s, whose teams of Clydesdales plough, sow and harvest the crops they eat. Or Janie Marsha...

"This book is about the people I met as I crisscrossed Australia by train and plane and L-plated car: the undefeated dreamers and wild-hearted romantics, the obsessed hobbyists and beautiful failures. It is about heroes and legends, illusions, delusions and hope, and one or two men with shit for brains who ought to be locked up."As anyone who's ever read Mark Dapin's column and features in Good Weekend knows, he's an immensely funny, acute and vivid observer of Australian ...

Master storyteller Bill 'Swampy' Marsh travels our wide brown land collecting yarns and memories from the authentic voices of rural Australia. the people you will meet in these stories will touch your heart as Swampy brings to life all the drama and delight of life in the outback. By turns frightening, hilarious, wonderful, tragic and poignant, these tales are sure to get you in, hook, line and sinker.

the Royal Flying Doctor Service is a unique icon of Australian culture. Since its beginnings with the Reverend John Flynn in 1928, the RFDS has helped build a nation. Its many pilots, doctors, nurses and support staff still risk their lives daily to save others. they, and the remote stations and communities that they serve, have become enduring symbols of what it means to be Australian. In MORE GREAt AUStRALIAN FLYING DOCtOR StORIES Bill 'Swampy' Marsh has gathered together another fascina...

William McInnes' bestselling memoir, A Man's Got To Have A Hobby, takes us back to the long summer holidays of the 1960s and 70s, and the last of the baby-boomer childhoods. William writes with humour and affection about his family, and especially his mum and dad, who talked to the TV set and enjoyed life in their house near the bay.William McInnes is a talented writer and a natural storyteller. A tail-end baby boomer, he recalls summer holidays that seeme...

How Hard Can it Be? is the fourth hilarious volume in Jeremy Clarkson's The World According to Clarkson series.How hard can it be...To build a power station without upsetting the eco-mentalists? To seek world domination if you've been hit the ugly stick? For the Met Office to get yesterday's weather right?In volume four of The World According to Clarkson, Jeremy Clarkson pours scorn on the nonsensical, the dumb, the idioti...

In And Another Thing... the outspoken and outrageous presenter Jeremy Clarkson, shares his opinions on just about everything.Jeremy Clarkson finds the world such a perplexing place that he wrote a bestselling book about it. Yet, despite the appearance of The World According to Clarkson, things - amazingly - haven't improved. Not being someone to give up easily, however, he's decided to have another go.In And Another Thing... the k...

Jeremy Clarkson, shares his opinions on just about everything in For Crying Out Loud.The publication of The World According to Clarkson in 2004 launched a multi-million copy bestselling phenomenon. But to no avail.Jeremy's one man war on crimes against common sense has not yet been won. And out hero's still scratching his head at the madness of it all. But it's not all bad. He's learnt a little along the way, including:• Why binge ...

Patty spent the first thirty three years of her life living with her family on remote outback station properties - Old Bando, Minetta, Old Outstation - in south west Queensland, Australia. When her brother, Kerry developed a brain tumor, they moved to live in Charleville - a small outback town. Patty has an understanding of the land, and a great love of reading. Look beyond the words to a life lived devoid of any luxuries, without ever a complaint, but full of simple joys, happiness and lo...