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The Big Book of Australian History
Drawing on the impressive collections of the National Library of Australia, this comprehensive book provides children with an interesting and engaging overview of the history of Australia. It covers many of the main events in the nation’s history, including:
• Ancient Australia
• The Dreaming
• Voyages of discovery
• Founding colonies
• The explorers
• The lure of gold
• Settling the land
• The growth of cities
• Federation
• Becoming Anzacs
• Modern times
• The Great Depression
• Defending Australia
• Building for the future
• Controversial issues
• The sporting life
• Embracing multiculturalism
• On the world stage
• Through good times and bad
Packed with colourful images and interesting facts, The Big Book of Australian History introduces children to the many people and events that have made Australia what it is today. It also encourages them to think about how Australia has evolved as a nation.
The book features stunning images from the collections of the National Library of Australia by artists such as Ellis Rowan, John Gould and S.T. Gill. It also tells the stories of some of the most significant contributors to Australia’s cultural, political, sporting and social life, including Captain James Cook, Governor Lachlan Macquarie, Prime Minister Gough Whitlam and aviator Charles Kingsford Smith.
This is a book to dip into and savour. Author Peter Macinnis’ enthusiastic retelling of Australia’s story is infectious. Among the big events and the great moments that have shaped the country, Macinnis also includes lesser-known, interesting details that bring Australian history to life.
For example, did you know that, in 1934, the ABC developed ‘synthetic’ cricket, in which radio broadcasters gave a ball-by-ball description of the game, using sound effects to simulate the sound of bat on ball and the applause of the crowd?
The Big Book of Australian History was created with the help of a consultant historian, Indigenous advisor, and experienced history editor and writer Dr Stephanie Owen Reeder, winner of the 2012 NSW Premier’s Young People’s History Prize.
(From the publisher's website)
• Ancient Australia
• The Dreaming
• Voyages of discovery
• Founding colonies
• The explorers
• The lure of gold
• Settling the land
• The growth of cities
• Federation
• Becoming Anzacs
• Modern times
• The Great Depression
• Defending Australia
• Building for the future
• Controversial issues
• The sporting life
• Embracing multiculturalism
• On the world stage
• Through good times and bad
Packed with colourful images and interesting facts, The Big Book of Australian History introduces children to the many people and events that have made Australia what it is today. It also encourages them to think about how Australia has evolved as a nation.
The book features stunning images from the collections of the National Library of Australia by artists such as Ellis Rowan, John Gould and S.T. Gill. It also tells the stories of some of the most significant contributors to Australia’s cultural, political, sporting and social life, including Captain James Cook, Governor Lachlan Macquarie, Prime Minister Gough Whitlam and aviator Charles Kingsford Smith.
This is a book to dip into and savour. Author Peter Macinnis’ enthusiastic retelling of Australia’s story is infectious. Among the big events and the great moments that have shaped the country, Macinnis also includes lesser-known, interesting details that bring Australian history to life.
For example, did you know that, in 1934, the ABC developed ‘synthetic’ cricket, in which radio broadcasters gave a ball-by-ball description of the game, using sound effects to simulate the sound of bat on ball and the applause of the crowd?
The Big Book of Australian History was created with the help of a consultant historian, Indigenous advisor, and experienced history editor and writer Dr Stephanie Owen Reeder, winner of the 2012 NSW Premier’s Young People’s History Prize.
(From the publisher's website)
288 pages, Hardcover
First published September 1, 2013
About the author
Peter Macinnis
77 books65 followersDuring 2021, Macinnis has republished revised versions of all of his out-of-print books. The website listed above tells you how to get them. In 2024, he published The Lesser of Two Eagles, where you can learn that in an auction, you get something for nodding
Happy grandfather, travels, writes for adults and youngsters, mainly history or science. Published by the National Library of Australia (Australian Backyard Naturalist May 2012, another book Curious Minds October, 2012, Big Book of Australian History, 2013, 2015, 2017). Talks on ABC (RN), translated into 7 other languages. Winner of the W.A. Premier's Prize for Children's Literature 2013 and other awards.
Writing blog Old Writer on the Block. Google it and say g'day!
McManly on most social media. His Kokoda Track: 101 Days was a 2008 Eve Pownall Honour Book in the CBCA 'Book of the Year' awards. His Australian Backyard Explorer was the 2010 Eve Pownall Book of the Year (listed in 2011, in the prestigious international White Ravens list of children's literature). In 2012, his Australian Backyard Naturalist won a Whitley award, and the WA Premier's Children's Literature Award in 2013. After a few busy years doing other stuff, his Australian Backyard Earth Scientist won the long-winded Educational Publishing Awards Australia prize for best "Student Resource – Arts/Science/Humanities/Social Sciences/Technologies/Health and Physical Education/Languages ".
He has had half a dozen titles rated as "Notable Books" by the Children's Book Council of Australia: that's equivalent to short listing.
Happy grandfather, travels, writes for adults and youngsters, mainly history or science. Published by the National Library of Australia (Australian Backyard Naturalist May 2012, another book Curious Minds October, 2012, Big Book of Australian History, 2013, 2015, 2017). Talks on ABC (RN), translated into 7 other languages. Winner of the W.A. Premier's Prize for Children's Literature 2013 and other awards.
Writing blog Old Writer on the Block. Google it and say g'day!
McManly on most social media. His Kokoda Track: 101 Days was a 2008 Eve Pownall Honour Book in the CBCA 'Book of the Year' awards. His Australian Backyard Explorer was the 2010 Eve Pownall Book of the Year (listed in 2011, in the prestigious international White Ravens list of children's literature). In 2012, his Australian Backyard Naturalist won a Whitley award, and the WA Premier's Children's Literature Award in 2013. After a few busy years doing other stuff, his Australian Backyard Earth Scientist won the long-winded Educational Publishing Awards Australia prize for best "Student Resource – Arts/Science/Humanities/Social Sciences/Technologies/Health and Physical Education/Languages ".
He has had half a dozen titles rated as "Notable Books" by the Children's Book Council of Australia: that's equivalent to short listing.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
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November 23, 2013Actually, not so much read then as finished writing then...
A note from the author: I have a policy of NOT rating my own books, but I was really pleased with the way this turned out. It is heavy, 1.5 kg, but there is an epub e-book due out soon, for less than half the price. AUD$15, I understand.
I commend this e-version to overseas readers in particular, but even more so for Australian readers. That is because this e-book is not the usual print-book-on-the-screen, because we pushed the envelope.
Well, to be blunt, we shoved the envelope out the window. This is no mere-smear shovelware, shoe-horning the dead-tree version into a non-atoms form, because the National Library of Australia indulged, even welcomed, my fantasy of creating Something Completely Different.
There are something like 500 hotlinks in the text, taking the reader with a web-connected e-reader to a wealth of extra information, mainly contemporary news reports from the National Library's wonderful Trove collection of historic newspapers.
I hope that other e-book makers will follow suit. There is an e-book on gold rushes in production which follows the same philosophy, and a bushrangers one, right behind that. Neither of those will have a dead-tree equivalent.
A note from the author: I have a policy of NOT rating my own books, but I was really pleased with the way this turned out. It is heavy, 1.5 kg, but there is an epub e-book due out soon, for less than half the price. AUD$15, I understand.
I commend this e-version to overseas readers in particular, but even more so for Australian readers. That is because this e-book is not the usual print-book-on-the-screen, because we pushed the envelope.
Well, to be blunt, we shoved the envelope out the window. This is no mere-smear shovelware, shoe-horning the dead-tree version into a non-atoms form, because the National Library of Australia indulged, even welcomed, my fantasy of creating Something Completely Different.
There are something like 500 hotlinks in the text, taking the reader with a web-connected e-reader to a wealth of extra information, mainly contemporary news reports from the National Library's wonderful Trove collection of historic newspapers.
I hope that other e-book makers will follow suit. There is an e-book on gold rushes in production which follows the same philosophy, and a bushrangers one, right behind that. Neither of those will have a dead-tree equivalent.
January 22, 2016
It’s when reviewing books like this that I wish that I had a proper degree in Australian history. Not, of course, instead of my degree in Literature and Classics (which included history subjects exploring Ancient Greece and Rome), but as well as. The Big Book of Australian History is a comprehensive history, which tackles some aspects of Australia’s past about which I have little expertise, and the new federal government shows signs of restarting those unedifying History Wars, so this review isn’t going to tackle questions of historiography or factual accuracy. That’s best left to professional historians. I am going to restrict myself to commenting as to its readability, coherence, and appeal to the young people for whom it is written.
I loved this type of general history book when I was young, but I don’t remember ever coming across one that was about Australia. My parents bought us many books when we were children, but they were (or purported to be) histories of ‘The World’ ancient and modern i.e. the 20th century world. In these books, published in the 1950s and 1960s (almost always, for some reason, with a red cover) Australia was an afterthought. They were probably published in Britain…
Written with the help of indigenous advisor and history editor and writer Dr Stephanie Owen Reeder (who won the 2012 NSW Premier’s Young People’s History Prize), The Big Book of Australian History covers many topics, conveniently arranged in ways that will suit students doing projects, but also appealing to kids who just want to browse through it to discover what they might be interested in. Chapter length varies from six to twelve pages and more, with clear layout and headings, and profuse full-colour illustrations, sourced from the NLA and other libraries. Most importantly it’s mostly written in kid-friendly language which may lure young people away from Wikipedia which is so often incomprehensible to them. Sentences are not too long, vocabulary is not too complex, and it’s mostly written in the active voice.
To read the rest of my review please visit http://lisahillschoolstuff.wordpress....
I loved this type of general history book when I was young, but I don’t remember ever coming across one that was about Australia. My parents bought us many books when we were children, but they were (or purported to be) histories of ‘The World’ ancient and modern i.e. the 20th century world. In these books, published in the 1950s and 1960s (almost always, for some reason, with a red cover) Australia was an afterthought. They were probably published in Britain…
Written with the help of indigenous advisor and history editor and writer Dr Stephanie Owen Reeder (who won the 2012 NSW Premier’s Young People’s History Prize), The Big Book of Australian History covers many topics, conveniently arranged in ways that will suit students doing projects, but also appealing to kids who just want to browse through it to discover what they might be interested in. Chapter length varies from six to twelve pages and more, with clear layout and headings, and profuse full-colour illustrations, sourced from the NLA and other libraries. Most importantly it’s mostly written in kid-friendly language which may lure young people away from Wikipedia which is so often incomprehensible to them. Sentences are not too long, vocabulary is not too complex, and it’s mostly written in the active voice.
To read the rest of my review please visit http://lisahillschoolstuff.wordpress....
December 16, 2014
An excellent resource with thorough, balanced and well-expressed content, visually vibrant and easily accessible through clear sign-posting.
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December 16, 2019
Brief but clear introductions to Australian history. The pictures really help convey important messages.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews