Australia's Best Unknown Stories: And Tales You Thought You Knew...

by Jim Haynes

From Jim Haynes, one of Australia's most successful and prolific authors, comes a collection of classic Australian stories, yarns, and furphies. . . all of them unknown. Things are not always as they seem, or as we've been told. Was the Ghan really named after the Afghan traders, and do we really know what the Ashes are? From the remote outback and cattle stations to coastal towns, Jim introduces us to the liars and larrikins, the bushies and the stockmen, to tell the funniest, the most amazing, and the most eccentric stories that capture the heart of the Australian spirit.

384 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2014

About the author

The son of British migrants, Jim attended Sydney Boys’ High and Sydney Teachers’ College. He taught in schools and universities in NSW and Britain, has two masters’ degrees in literature, from New England University and the University of Wales in the UK, and is the author of 24 books.

Jim’s book, Australia’s Best Unknown Stories, made it into the top ten best-seller list for his publishers Allen & Unwin. He was Writer in Residence at Charles Sturt University in 2011 and has also taught writing, performance skills and song-writing for The Arts Council of NSW, University of New England, SA Arts Council, Victorian Folk Council and Australian Performing Rights Association.

A professional entertainer since 1988, Jim has recorded for Festival, Sony and ABC Music and has had many songs in the Country Music Charts, including a number one with ‘Since Cheryl Went Feral’ and a national hit with ‘Don’t Call Wagga Wagga Wagga’. He won the Comedy Song of The Year award four times and toured his own show for many years.

Jim still performs as an entertainer and speaker, works in radio as the Australiana expert on 2UE.
Jim was awarded the Order of Australia Medal in the Australia Day Honour's List in 2016, 'for service to the performing arts as an entertainer, author, broadcaster and historian'.

Reviews

[Justine · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book looked like it would be better than it was, but overall wasn't a bad read. Some stories I found boring, some captured my interest and some left me confused but thats the difference between authors! The topics of the stories were mostly interesting and I definitely learnt some things. There was too much poetry throughout the book for my liking though.

[Naomi Grace · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was actually pretty entertaining, I think am just not much on the short story sort of book. Little bit too much about the war for my liking, but part 3 was my sort of book with random stories from the outback.

[Todd Horner · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty good. Some stories were really great. The dunny cart, the loaded dog and the bard of cup week were my personal favorites. Some parts I found a bit boring. Lots of poetry, some poems were good but they are generally not my thing. Still worth a look.

[Bree · Rating 2 out of 5]

For the first 100 pages the stories were interesting, but I didn't enjoy the rest.

[Tim · Rating 5 out of 5]

I know more about Australia after reading this book, and have read a ton of poetry. My favorite is "The Dunny Cart."

[Glenn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Closer to 2.5stars… There was some fanstatic information in the book, but some stories were too long and way to much poetry. Did like reading about Frank Ifeild (one of my mum’s favourite singer)

[Janelle]

I really expected to enjoy this. I like the author/narrator and the topic appealed to me, but for some reason I was just bored with it.