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Full Description
Some of the world's oldest stories are told beneath Australian skies. Master storyteller Graham Seal takes us on a journey through time, from ancient narratives recounted across generations to the symbols and myths that resonate with Australians today.
He uncovers tales of ancient floods and volcanic eruptions, and shows us Australia's own silk road. He locates the real Crocodile Dundee and explores the truth behind the legend of the Pilliga Princess. There are old favourites like the great flood at Gundagai, the boundary rider's wife, and the Australian who invented the first military tank. There are little known figures like mailman Jimmy, who carried the post barefoot across the Nullarbor Plain, architect Edith Emery and Paddy the Poet, as well as the unusual sporting techniques of the Gumboot Tortoise.
These yarns of ratbags, rebels, heroes and villains, unsettling legends and clever creations reveal that it's the small, human stories that, together, make up the greater story of Australia and its people.
'Graham Seal has the knack of the storyteller' - Warren Fahey
'Australia's Greatest Stories is worth returning to after the first reading. It's one of those books that reveals more as the reader takes the time to stop and think about the long journey Australians have taken over the centuries. It is a gentle reminder that the stories never stop coming and we are all charged with the responsibility of passing them on to future generations.' - Queensland Reviewers Collective
Contents
Note
Timeline
Introduction A Journey Through Time
Money values and measurements
Language
Spelling
1 Seeing the Country
The Superhighways of Sahul
Nurundere Makes the Sea Flow
Star Stories
Meeting the Tiwi
A Mystery Island
A Peaceable Possession
Castaway
Stealing the Bones
2 The Unsettled Land
A Lost People
Land of Monsters
Flesh-Shrivelling Curses
Lone Graves
Devil of a Place
A Ghost of Gold
The Obliging Dead
The Haunted Asylum
A Million Spooky Acres
Dangerous Journeys
3 Heroes and Heroines
The Great Rescue
The Boundary Rider's Wife
Posties
Hell
Ambitions of the 'Fair Sex'
Almost Sir Lancelot
Anonymous No Longer
War Widows
The Gumboot Tortoise
4 Ratbags and Rebels
'The Only Female Prisoner'
Genius or Fool?
A Convict Transformed
Red Ribbons and Bright Gold
You Can't Wipe Out Carr-Boyd
The Legend of Galloping Jones
A Poet of the Kerb
The Death of Crocodile Dundee
5 Troubled Times
Rights and Wrongs
The Devil Himself
Cutting Cane
We Gave Them Hell
The Battle of Brisbane
The Peace Ship
The First Boat People
Playing with Covid
6 Celebrations
A Horse of Light
One Long Party
Keeping Christmas
Light Up the Night
Hunting for Halloween
One Day in September
More Than a Meal
7 Creations
Creative Convicts
The Dreaded Tomhooka!
Where's Christina?
The Anzac News
A Special Kind of Magic
Louie the Fly
A Crystal Mystery
Wi-Fi
8 Communities
Eliza Batman's £ Notes
An Unlit Beacon
How to Build a Village
Goldfields Folk
God's Line
Melbourne's Pleasure Dome
MacRobertson's Steam Confectionery Works
The Grain Races
A Community of the Air
9 Ourselves
People of the Rock
The Hairistocracy
Australian 'Natives'
A Broken Soldier
The Plot to Save Australia
Crossing the Yellow Line
The Clash of Symbols
A Pale Blue Dot
Acknowledgements
Image Credits
Notes
