Shorter History Of Australia

Trying to learn a bit more about the history of Australia, a frequent topic here.  Barcelona Jim directed me to:

This book is fantastic, just what the doctor ordered, highly readable, interesting on every page.  It’s so hard to get good condensed history but Prof. Blainey just crushes it.  Some highlights:

(A nepenthes rowaniae of North Queensland from northqueenslandplants.com)

How about the Aranda nighttime divisions?

Delicious trepang:

Photo: Gail Ngalwungirr harvesting trepang on South Goulburn Island (NT Department of Fisheries)

The last convicts:

Stamps!

from Wiki:

t eventually became the best selling mystery novel of the Victorian era, author John Sutherland terming it the “most sensationally popular crime and detective novel of the century”. This novel inspired Arthur Conan Doyle to write A Study in Scarlet, which introduced the character Sherlock Holmes. Doyle remarked, “Hansom Cab was a slight tale, mostly sold by ‘puffing’.”

Shearing as serious sports:

Thursday Island:

source

Looks like a nice place to chill.  How about the Flying Pieman?:

New pasttimes:

What?