Browse by category
Bloodbath - 1945 VFL Grand Final by Ian W. Shaw
Category: Sport
The 1945 VFL Grand Final was Melbourne's first major sporting event after the end of World War II. The game was advertised as "the Victory Grand Final" and signalled an end to global violence and bloodshed. Ironically those are the characteristics that will forever be associated with the game which has ...Show more
Glenrowan by Ian W. Shaw
Category: Australian History
The siege of Glenrowan is more than just an Australian legend. The 41 hours when the Kelly Gang took over Ann Jones' Glenrowan Inn and held the police at bay have become a part of the Australian psyche. Most people know the bare bones of the story, but few know the names and actions of some of those wh ...Show more
Missing: War, Sacrifice and the Search for Justice by Ian W. Shaw
Category: Military History
The tragic and carefully researched story of a WWII fighter pilot’s brutal sacrifice and the painstaking search for the truth. Not all casualties in wartime occur on the frontline; when a loved one is posted “Missing,” hope and fear bloom in the hearts of those who wait for news. Lives can fray when th ...Show more
Murder at Dusk - How US Soldier and Psychopath Eddie Leonski Terrorised Wartime Melbourne by Ian W. Shaw
Category: History
Far away from any World War II battlefront, the citizens of Melbourne lived in fear of a serial killer - the Brownout Strangler. May 1942: Melbourne was torn between fearing Japanese invasion and revelling in the carnival atmosphere brought by the influx of 15,000 cashed-up American servicemen. But tho ...Show more
On Radji Beach: The Story of the Australian Nurses After the Fall of Singapore by Ian W. Shaw
Category: Military
When Singapore fell to the Japanese in 1942, amongst the evacuees who scrambled to leave were 65 Australian nurses. They boarded a coastal freighter named the Vyner Brooke, which was sunk by the Japanese. The shipwreck survivors marooned on Radji Beach, including 22 nurses, voted to surrender, but were ...Show more
On Radji Beach - Vivian Bullwinkel and the Vyner Brooke by Ian W. Shaw
Category: Biography
When Singapore fell dramatically to the Japanese on 15 February 1942, hundreds of people scrambled to the docks to flee. Amongst the evacuees were 65 Australian nurses who boarded a coastal freighter named the Vyner Brooke. They only made it as far as the waters off Muntok Island near Sumatra. There, Ja ...Show more
Operation Babylift: The Incredible Story of the Inspiring Australian Women who Rescued Hundreds of Orphans at the End of the Vietnam War by Ian W. Shaw
Category: Military | Series: Orphan Babies of Vietnam War
In late March 1975, as the Vietnam War raged, an Australian voluntary aid worker named Rosemary Taylor approached the Australian Embassy seeking assistance to fly 600 orphans out of Saigon to safety. Rosemary and Margaret Moses, two former nuns from Adelaide, had spent eight years in Vietnam during the ...Show more
The British Museum Dictionary of Ancient Egypt by Ian Shaw (Lecturer in Egyptian Archaeology at the University of Liverpool)
Category: Australian History
Featuring facts, illustrations and insights, this title answers various questions on ancient Egyptian topics from Abydos and ankh to Zoser and zodiac. This provides explanations and descriptions of the important ideas, events and personalities throughout 4,000 years of Egyptian civilization.
The Ghosts of Roebuck Bay: The 1942 Bombing of Broome, and its Tragic Aftermath by Ian W. Shaw
Category: Military
The Japanese attack on Broome is the second most deadly air raid on Australia soil in our history and yet it's almost entirely overlooked. On 3 March 1942, nine Japanese Zero planes strafed the small town planning to destroy the aerodrome and American planes. With no notice, the townsfolk could only put ...Show more
The Golden Gang: Bushranger Frank Gardiner and the biggest gold robbery in Australian history by Ian W. Shaw
Category: Australian History
Atop the hierarchy of Australian bushrangers sits Ned Kelly – the ultimate outlaw, and just below him, the tragic figure of Ben Hall, who joined a gang led by a man whose name today is less well known, but who in his day was much more famous than Hall or any other bushranger – Frank Gardiner. Mastermin ...Show more