The Mystical Swagman

The Mystical Swagman
Author: Gary Blinco
Publisher: Multi-Media Publications Inc.
Total Pages: 392
Release: 2008
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1591461472

It is the 1860s and colonial Australia is no longer just a dumping ground for the pitiful throw-offs of harsh English justice. The colony is rapidly taking on a new identity as a land where opportunities abound for those who are up to the challenge. Many prosper, while others prefer to tramp the endless bush and enjoy what the land has to offer, and still other turn to a life of crime. Into this wild land of rare beauty and constant change comes a quiet young orphan boy named Brennan. He knows nothing of his origins and his only family is an old lady who nurtures him into his teenage years. When she can no longer care for him, he packs a modest swag and a little money and heads into the bush. On the track, he meets up with two old swagmen who quickly become his new family. Tramping the bush tracks, they find many adventures. Set against the backdrop of the beautiful bush, they experience bushfires, floods, droughts, harsh winters, blistering summers, and the kindness and sometimes cruelty of the inhabitants. As he grows, Brennan begins to develop strange mystical powers that come to him in moments of great fear or passion. He is excited and scared at the same time, and he longs to understand his origins and find the source of these mystical powers in the hope that he can learn to master them. This story provides an insight into early Australian colonial history, the land, and its people, as seen through the eyes of a mystical young swagman.

Down a Country Lane

Down a Country Lane
Author: Gary Blinco
Publisher: eBookIt.com
Total Pages: 340
Release: 2014-12-26
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1456600338

In the winter of 1948, a poorly educated jack-of-all-trades moved his ever- increasing family to a small vegetable crops' farm on the Darling Downs, in Queensland. They arrived in a horse and wagon to begin an extraordinary life of hardship and challenge in the bush. This book follows the harsh life of poverty that is eclipsed by the threads of dry humour, love and warmth that embraces a large closely-knit family. The living conditions endured are almost primitive, even for the nineteen fifties, as they fight to carve an existence from the land. His father's lingering fight with lung cancer compounds the pain of his own battle, as a National Service Soldier in the Vietnam War. The accounts of the war are graphic and poignant, and could only emerge from one who has experienced the frightening reality of combat. Highlighted through the suffering and dreams is a mother's undying devotion to her family, as she struggles to raise them, more or less on her own.

The Wounds of War

The Wounds of War
Author: Gary Blinco
Publisher: eBookIt.com
Total Pages: 216
Release: 2015-01-28
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 145660032X

Gunships suddenly descended, fanning out from a central point around the Iroquois and sending streams of machine-gun fire and rockets into the jungle below. The Iroquois peeled away from the main formation and dipped below the tree line under the cover of the assault, dropping swiftly to a small paddy field. They spilled from the chopper and crouched low to the ground. The machine lifted and was gone . . . Six allied soldiers on an impossible, secret mission in Vietnam to find and report on the enemy's supply lines on the motor roads in 'neutral' countries. For Australian Gary Bishop the assignment is one that takes him on a physical and emotional journey into hell. Back in Australia, Gary's new wife Leanne is facing challenges of her own. Alone, pregnant and fighting an attraction to another man, she finds herself drawn in directions that she never anticipated. The wounds of war run deep and Leanne and Gary will need all their strength to survive.

A Place in Time

A Place in Time
Author: Greg Blenco
Publisher: eBookIt.com
Total Pages: 301
Release: 2010-11
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1456600052

Ian Lane is fifty-seven years old and he thinks his country is about to be invaded by force of arms and have its lifestyle and culture changed forever. So he leaves his executive corporate position and decides to rely on his suddenly budding career as a novelist to support himself, his wife and ten-year-old daughter. They set out on a long dreamed of caravan trip around Australia while the country's northern neighbours become more and more determined that Australia should join the powerful Northern Alliance voluntarily - or risk being compelled to do so by force of arms. Australia's allies adopt a wait-and-see attitude while the country bubbles with internal and external conflict and turmoil. When the invasion begins Ian and his wife and daughter are camped at an isolated lagoon deep in the northern outback - prisoners in their own land watching the invaders swarm down the centre of the continent. A Vietnam Veteran - Ian longs to play a part in defending his land. But what can he do when he is stranded in the middle of nowhere?

Along Came a Swagman

Along Came a Swagman
Author: Ernie Palamarek
Publisher: Trafford Publishing
Total Pages: 287
Release: 2007-02-26
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1412244595

G'day, Mate! The awesome Australian Outback is one of the beautiful but dangerous settings for this captivating tale of murky intrigue, murder and myths! Read this fascinating tale! It's a ripper, mate! From out of the mists of Aboriginal Dreamtime, a startling discovery is made by a never-do-well Outback opal miner who hauls up a priceless archeological antiquity in a dented barrel of broken dreams. Paleontologists are astounded! One look at what he found is forever burned into the minds of those who see it, setting the stage for a devious web of deceit. Greed and lust change their lives forever! Millions of dollars are at stake! Sally Fletcher, a tall strawberry-blonde Aussie who is a TV news reporter on Vancouver Island, is at a loss for words as her world comes crashing down upon her when someone starts systematically going after her, her grandfather, and her Canadian mother. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that her Australian father is next on somebody's list. Rune Erikson is hot on the trail of a deadly trio of antiquity-stealing snakeheads who slither through the casinos Down Under! Rune wants to keep rolling sevens but the dice keep coming up snake-eyes! Andy, an Outback swagman on a self-healing walkabout through the harsh conditions of the Outback, becomes embroiled in this adventure. This fascinating third novel in a series features the somewhat-jaded but dashing Rune Erikson who rips through the Outback where hardships and timeless feats of courage are legend. Coloured by romance and eroticism, this intrigue lures Rune off his sailing ketch Valhalla at Victoria's Fisherman's Wharf into the swirling myths and legends of Dreamtime in Australia's Outback.

Swagman: The Guardians of Time Book One

Swagman: The Guardians of Time Book One
Author: Vivienne Lee Fraser
Publisher: Vivienne Lee Fraser
Total Pages: 247
Release: 2019-09-01
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 064821818X

What if Waltzing Matilda's Swagman didn't die when he jumped into the lake? What if he ended up in medieval England embroiled in a plot to set a new king on the throne? For once in his life Swagman John is lost for words. Accused of stealing the lamb he rescued fears being thrown in jail. But instead of protesting his innocence he backs into the waters of the billabong and falls. Certain he is dead, John cannot believe the lamb when he tells him he has been brought through a time and space portal to Medieval England. When Mistress Barabal and Squire Stanislaus stumble upon John in the New Forest he is taken back to Winchester Castle where he actually finds the King has been killed and his brother Prince Henry is about preparing to take his place and his new friends are assisting him. Suddenly talking lambs are the least of his worries. Caught up in political intrigues he does not fully understand, John finds dungeons and magic are not just for fairy tales, and that there are people prepared to go to great lengths to see William the Conquerer's other son crowned king—even as far as murder. Just as John wonders if going to prison for stealing sheep was not a better option all along, he finds there is an even more sinister foe meddling in with history. Against such odds how can John set history straight so he can return home to his family?

On the Wallaby, The Diary of a Queensland Swagman

On the Wallaby, The Diary of a Queensland Swagman
Author: Edward S Sorenson
Publisher: DigiCat
Total Pages: 112
Release: 2022-09-15
Genre: Fiction
ISBN:

'On the Wallaby, The Diary of a Queensland Swagman' is an adventure novel written in first-person perspective by Edward Sorenson. This is a plain bush yarn, relating in a humorous vein the experiences and adventures of a young man, who, finding himself stranded in Brisbane, where he knew no one, shouldered his swag and struck out into the bush to look for a job. His track from Breakfast Creek to beyond the Maranoa River, may be traced on the map, for he deals only with real places—and real people—and what he goes through is what the majority of swag men go through. Always an optimist, he sees the humor of the situations, and his narrative is embellished with details of bushcraft, and with the yarns and the fun of campfire and track.

Westerly

Westerly
Author:
Publisher:
Total Pages: 408
Release: 1985
Genre: Literature, Modern
ISBN:

Mostly French

Mostly French
Author: Alistair Rolls
Publisher: Peter Lang
Total Pages: 224
Release: 2009
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 9783039119578

This book, which was inspired by a conference on plural conjugations of Frenchness (La France au pluriel) held in 2007 at the Universities of Technology, Sydney and Newcastle, focuses on the concept of national belonging as it pertains to detective fiction, with particular emphasis on French and Australian detective fictions and the encounter and crossing over between them. The objective is not only to use the concepts of 'French' and 'Australian' detective fiction productively, via the analysis of French and Australian detective-fiction novels, but also to challenge and undermine the very notion of national detective fictions, which are so often assumed to be transparently meaningful. The contributors to this volume focus variously on the following areas: comparative analysis of the genesis of French and Australian detective fiction; translation of Australian (and other) novels into French; translation as a genre; Frenchness as a stereotype, its role in individual novels and its spectre in all detective fiction; and readings of individual French and Australian detective novels. Overall, this book aims to challenge assumptions about French detective fiction, its influence on other national fictions and its explicit and implicit presence in all detective fiction.

Australia & New Zealand

Australia & New Zealand
Author: Susan Griffith
Publisher: Vacation Work Publications
Total Pages: 516
Release: 1996
Genre: Travel
ISBN: 9781854581457

Designed with the independent traveler in mind, the Travellers Survival Kit guides contain a wealth of information for those who want to break free of the tour groups and the restrictions they pose. What better way to experience a country than firsthand? Each TSK guide is structured for ease of use. At the start of each guide is vital information, must-have knowledge travelers should read before they go. Following this are individual chapters, covering everything from the climate for a country to where to find the best shopping bargains. City by city, each country is detailed thoroughly! Health care organizations, employment agencies, accommodations, restaurants, local media, available transportation -- all this and more is included to help prepare travelers for the adventure of a lifetime. Who knows? Once travelers experience a country off the beaten tourist track, they may never want to come back! -- Thorough information covering major cities in each country, as well as vital information on health care, travel restrictions, law enforcement, and more -- TSK guides are the guides to consult when planning that trip away from the tour buses and camera entourages -- the independent way to see the world!