Library News - Recent Acquisitions

There was only one survivor of the ill-fated Burke and Wills Expedition from Melbourne to the north coast of Australia, which began in 1860. The expedition is usually described as a dismal failure...but was it? This is the story of a phenomenal surveyor, William Wills. Told by a modern day surveyor who walked in Wills' footsteps and visited places never before seen by other researchers. He discovered a surprising truth. Follow the adventures of two investigative explorers as they unravel a mystery using Wills' original notes. David Hillan and his photographer wife, Yvonne Hill, discover the truth about Burke and Wills' journey towards the coast. Was Camp 119 really their furthest camp north? rga 919.40431 H649 a 2021.

Donated by Burnside Historical Society.

Osmond Gilles (24 August 1788–25 September 1866) was a settler, pastoralist, mine owner and the Colony of South Australia’s first colonial treasurer.

rgpam 994.230924 G477.

[Works issued by the Hakluyt Society; Third series, no. 37]

This volume brings to publication for the first time the manuscript of William Fergusson, a Scottish ship’s surgeon who sailed for the East India Company in the 1730s. Written in 1767, while in retirement, Fergusson’s diaries are the memories of his youth spent travelling the world during his apprenticeship. They detail the four voyages he took, the first, a passage from Scotland to England with a lading (sic) in Ireland, and three others to the East, calling at ports in the Atlantic, southern Africa, Arabia, India, and Southeast Asia, before reaching as far as China. Fergusson’s manuscript offers a rare new source on what were by then the relatively routine voyages of the East India Company’s early trading network, providing a treasure trove of comments on the politics, economics, societies, and religious beliefs and practices he witnessed along the way. In his manifesto, readers will discover Fergusson’s impassioned polemics on natural religion, devotional ‘enthusiasm’, just governance, all while he implores the principles of rationality and reason. It is truly a manifesto of Enlightenment thought.

rg 610.92 F354 a 2021

Donated by Lesley Abell.

Of all the radioactive elements discovered at the end of the 19th century, it was radium that became the focus of both public fascination and entrepreneurial zeal. Half Lives tells the fascinating, curious, sometimes macabre story of the element through its ascendance as a desirable item, a present for a queen, a prize in a treasure hunt, a glow-in-the-dark dance costume, to its role as a supposed cure-all in everyday 20th-century life, when medical practitioners and business people (reputable and otherwise) devised ingenious ways of commodifying the new wonder element, and enthusiastic customers welcomed their radioactive wares into their homes.

rg 546.396 A141 a 2021

Donated by Andrew Peake.

The Biographical Register attempts to provide some basic information on birth and death, and the surveying achievements of surveyors who operated in South Australia. It does not attempt to be a comprehensive biography of the 460 surveyors featured.

rga 526.9092 P357 b 2022

Donated by George Willanski.

Story of the American-Australian Scientific Expedition to Arnhem Land; mainly Oenpelli region; describes rituals, religious beliefs, bodily decoration, myths and women’s status.

rga 305.89915 S613 a 1954

Donated by George Willanski.

The story of the discovery of the famed Wahgi Valley in the highlands of New Guinea – of its past state and present prospects.

rga 572.995 S613 a 1954

Donated by Andrew Lothian.

The origins of the pandemic and measures taken globally and in Australia to combat it are described.

rga 331.1099423 L882 b 2021