Great Australian Mysteries

by John Pinkney

Provides the chronicling of Australian true mystery stories. This work includes inexplicable disappearances, some which defy logic, unsolved murders, mystifying phenomena and scientific enigmas.

Genres: Nonfiction, Mystery, Crime, True Crime, History, Short Stories, Australia

336 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

JOHN PINKNEY is a bestselling Australian author, screenwriter and journalist.

*His newest ebook is the novel Grave Injustice: An Afterlife Odyssey.

This dark, pacy science fiction thriller draws on John's career-long research into the paranormal - and the strange phenomena that may occur beyond the barriers of death.
Over the years, he has spoken to numerous people who clinically died and were then resuscitated - returning to describe landscapes and events of breathtaking beauty. The testimonies of these returnees from the brink inspired John to write Grave Injustice.
The narrative extends far beyond NDEs (near-death experiences.) It's set in Sydney and tropical Queensland; describing human love, courage and sacrifice, both earthly and transcendental.
Ranged against the young lovers are a corporate cell of scientifically accomplished soul-thieves,who draw their ideas from Dante's nine circles of Hell.
Terrifyingly, the novel portrays brutal conflict between good and evil. And it's hard, for a host of reasons, to predict which will prevail.


John Pinkney's other ebooks include Haunted: the Ghosts that Share Our World...Australia's Strangest Mysteries #1 and #2...A Paranormal File: An Australian Investigator's Casebook...The Mary Celeste Syndrome...Alien Airships Over Old America...Thirst: an Inheritance of Evil...The Girl Who Touched Infinity...The Key and the Fountain.
John's original screenplay Thirst, directed by Rod Hardy and produced by Anthony I. Ginnane won Best Horror
Film prize at the Asia-Pacific Film Festival. His 3-act drama, The Face in the Mirror, was co-awarded Best Stage Play in the General Motors/Elizabethan Theatre Trust competition.
He has written several hundred drama episodes for TV - and his paperbooks, including such titles as Great Australian Mysteries 1 & 2, Haunted, Unexplained and Unsolved have been numerously reprinted. His 3-volume Mazeworld series has appeared in USA and UK and in translation through Europe. His logic puzzle books Think!, Think Again! and Wordgames have also been published internationally.
For many years John was a prominent writer with Australia's Age newspaper, subsequently moving his column, Pinkney Place to Rupert Murdoch's national daily The Australian. Here he covered the century's most extraordinary UFO case: the disappearance without trace of young pilot Frederick Valentich, after radioing Flight Services that he was being 'orbited' by a gigantic craft. [full story and photographs are in A Paranormal File.]
John has had a lifelong interest in the unsolved and unexplained. His fascination with the unknown took its most practical form when, with lawyer-friend Peter Norris, he co-founded the organization known today as VUFORS - the Victorian UFO Research Society. John and Peter collaborated to host the weekly radio series The Truth Behind UFOs and Do You Believe in Ghosts?
Over the years John Pinkney's broadcasts and columns have attracted a large mail from listeners and readers describing their brushes with the bizarre. Readers of his books continue the input.

Reviews

[Diane in Australia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting collection of 27 chapters, each one delving into a specific Australian mystery. In some of the areas, he also very briefly mentions other countries where similar mysteries have occurred. Seeing as this was printed in 2003, a few may be in need of an update, but not many. Most of the mysteries have remained mysteries.

He covers a wide range of unexplained happenings, such as; disappearances, crimes, 'monsters', unnatural phenomena, etc. If you're concerned that it might be crammed with UFO sightings, or 'ghosts', it's not. There is one chapter regarding UFOs, and none on ghosts.

It's the kind of book you can dip into, read a chapter or two, and come back for more later. The last chapter, Stones that 'Fell from Nowhere', is one of my favourites. Unreal!

3 Stars = I liked the book. I enjoyed it. I'm glad I read it.

[Tracy Smyth · Rating 4 out of 5]

There were some interesting stories in this book. I found it quite an enjoyable read

[✰ BJ's Book Blog ✰Janeane ✰ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting look at some of Australia's most enduring and unsolved.

I am sure in the time since this book released there has been some more insights and investigations into some of the more recent cases discussed.

It covers a wide range of subjects, and kept me interested as I read.

[Tricia · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fairly interesting book about some mysteries in Australia.

Some of it seems a bit unbelievable but it combined these with unsolved crimes.

[Sharon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book. Not as big a fan of this book, as I was of haunted. Very intresting though.

[Stef Rozitis · Rating 1 out of 5]

I don't know how this ended up on my TBR shelf (maybe aliens put it there) but he lost me at "man-monsters" hiding in the bush even though at one point he explained that they can be female too. There's a couple of rants about how irresponsible people are if they don't believe in UFOs and don't insist that the authorities take these more seriously. I am almost sure that governments do investigate things like that and that there is nothing persuasive for anyone to leak. But life's too short for me to die on that hill he can believe what he likes.

Traces of benign offensive language in some places which in a more serious book I would have been outraged by but in this one a mild roll of the eyes sufficed. Interestingly, though he mentions that "Aborigines agree with this" a few times he can never quote an actual spokesperson that is Indigenous, they appear in the book as just an amorphous mass except when one of them is dying from having the bone pointed at him.

This will "learn" me to look at covers more carefully, I honestly thought by "mysteries" he meant murders and robberies. Historical mysteries which if researched carefully would have interested me. There were a couple of those but reported in a sensationalistic way. This is like a sterotype of a "tabloid newspaper" and probably written for an overseas market since the Australia in it is exoticised and stereotypical and since he claims having written for "the Australian" as proof of credibility (Murdoch's fluff is not perceived as credible to those of us who suffer from it).

After I realised what sort of a book it was I tried to at least enjoy it as fiction. I wouldn't bother TBH

[S.C. Skillman · Rating 4 out of 5]

A curious, sometimes disturbing, sometimes chilling and sometimes annoying account of Australia's unsolved crimes, UFO sightings, alien abductions, strange disappearances and bizarre paranormal events. I found the author's narrative over-presented on occasions, and rather pedestrian. He gives too much information about some of the criminal and missing persons cases.

As for the unsolved criminal cases described here, I found myself feeling they are less a mystery than simply a story of a failed police investigation due to inadequate methods. Certainly it makes us feel very grateful for modern advances in police detection techniques such as the use of DNA evidence etc.

However, I did enjoy the way the book offers us a sometimes wry picture of careless individuals falling prey to the unknown in a vast continent which often has a way of baffling and disorientating those who fail to treat it with respect.

[Keybo Taheri · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this a few years ago while I had a desk job. Kept my interest and had some unusual Australian local mysteries. Kind of a Ripley's Believe It or Not. Nothing groundbreaking just page turning mysteries that just manage to keep your attention and with language that is decent and interesting. I have read his other works and am reading another book by his and I didn't realize there was a sequel to this book so I plan on getting it if I find it. 4 starish.

[Fay · Rating 2 out of 5]

A bit of a ho hum read - I enjoyed the well known stories like the Beaumont children and Lasseter's Reef but the UFO sightings and such like brought the tone of the book down.

[Nora Peevy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a collection of mysteries. It's enjoyable, but not in depth reading. I'd look at this as a book for anyone being introduced to these cases for the first time and a book for easy reading on vacation or recovering from illness. Without doubt, there are enough ideas here to spark your own writing on weird phenomenons.

[Tracey · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a collection of mysteries that has been pulled together by John Pinkney. Some of the crime stories have been part of the Australian psyche for some time, especially that of the disappearance of the Beaumont Children and Juanita Nielson.
Then there is stories about bunyips, missing ships, strange lights and every other strange going on is collated and presented.
There are some interesting bits and pieces of information and it is an enjoyable read.

[Jason Carpenter · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ok for a light read. Good range of subject matter for short stories. Some interesting stories from Australia's past.

[Nikki · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting

[Keyan Taheri · Rating 4 out of 5]

good book, picked it up to begin reading to pass time, finished it in a week. It was just interesting, especially reading stories relating to the Australian region and a lot of our unknown history.

[Ben Garrard · Rating 2 out of 5]

the writing is unimaginative and repetitive but there are some interesting stories in here.

[Mike P · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very entertaining