Muckadilla Township is on the Warrego Highway about 40 kilometers from Roma in South Western Queensland. We trust that the insight given by many will benefit Present and Future Generations who appreciate the Characters who came to open up Mount Abundance Properties, Build the Railway, School and Businesses. Then enjoy each others company at Sporting Events. Barry Mc Mullen used to say, “Muckadilla Country is good enough to fatten a crowbar!” – We hope there will always be people who say with a chuckle, “I’ve been to Muckadilla – have you?”
The Book, Hello Sunshine, is the life story of a London child who was still an infant when World War 11 began. It tells of his frightening experiences during that time, then, when Peace came it goes on to describe happier times living and growing up on the North East Kent coast. The story then moves through Chris’ life as a young waiter, a British soldier, serving in Germany and Malaya, a Merchant seaman then a London Fireman. It tells of the struggle make ends meet with a wife and two small children before making the decision to emigrate to Australia. Chris describes the wonderful life he has been able to lead in the Sunshine State of Queensland. There is something to laugh about on nearly every page despite getting the sad news of the death of his younger brother, David just after celebrating his young family’s first Christmas in Australia. Overall, the book has an optimistic sense about it which reflects Chris’s attitude to life and should encourage anybody thinking about starting a new life in a new country to have a go. After all, if Chris can do it, why can’t you?
The stories behind Australia's many, many strange, inappropriate and downright hilarious place names. From Dismal Swamp to Useless Loop, Intercourse Island to Dead Mans Gully, Mount Buggery to Nowhere Else, Australia has some of the strangest, funniest, weirdest and most out-of-place names going - now described and explained in one humorous and fascinating book. Australia's vast spaces and irreverent, larrikin history have given us some of the best place names in the world. Ranging from the less than positive (Linger and Die Hill, NSW), to the indelicate (Scented Knob, WA), the idiotic (Eggs and Bacon Bay, TAS) to the inappropriate and the just plain fascinating, MOUNT BUGGERY TO NOWHERE ELSE is a toponymical journey through this nation of weird and wonderful places. 'A hilarious and unusual tour of Australia and its history.' DAILY TELEGRAPH
People have come to Roma to trade cattle since 1860.This book captures the stories and photos of many of those who, in more recent years, have come here to do business, to learn or just have a look – cattlemen, truckies, buyers, agents, stockmen, tourists, school children and not forgetting the saleyard staff or the ladies in the canteen – all the people who help to create the vibe of the place that is Roma Saleyards, the Biggest Cattle Selling Centre in Australia!
Terrorism is probably the most cowardly act that one human being can commit against another. Terrorists target the vulnerable, the innocent and the weak. The Sleeping Terrorist is the story of a major terrorist event, although fiction it could easily be fact. 9/11 lives on not just in peoples memories but mainly in the way it effects every day living. To take a flight in an aircraft requires extended pre-flight check in time because of the security checks needed to ensure a safe journey. One major act of terrorism continues to have its effect long after the dust and smoke settles. The Sleeping Terrorist comes awake half a world away in a country that would have a low priority rating with the worlds Secret Intelligence Services. They train in a country so vast and sparsely populated that they go unnoticed. They mount an attack using a cover so despicable as to be unbelievable. Will they succeed or be defeated and how? You may be surprised at the outcome.
‘Order, Order!’: A Biographical Dictionary of Speakers, Deputy Speakers and Clerks of the Australian House of Representatives shines a first-ever historical light on the remarkable men and women who have served in these national offices since Federation. The Speakers include Frederick Holder, whose campaign to embed a Westminster-style Speakership died with him when he collapsed dramatically in the parliament; the much-loved Joan Child, Australia’s first female Speaker, whose struggles as a widow with five children fostered her commitment to social justice and made her, in the words of another Speaker, Anna Burke, ‘pretty fierce’; and Ian Sinclair, a warhorse of a parliamentarian who seemed to prove the poacher-turned-gamekeeper principle. The Deputy Speakers, a particularly eclectic assortment, include the strange and bleakly serious James Fowler, who once hopefully mailed a film synopsis to the American director Cecil B. DeMille and who ended his days warning of the perils of democracy. Amongst the Clerks are Frank Green, who, at the height of the Cold War, indiscreetly befriended members of the Communist Party, and the popular Jack Pettifer—a true child of parliament—who grew up in an apartment in the building. This book includes analysis of what sorts of individuals typically filled these vital parliamentary positions, and the appearance of an Australian model of the Speakership based on pragmatic compromise. All three offices are typically more than just creatures of political parties—something that Australians should be prepared to defend against the remorseless encroachment of political partisanship.
Queensland’s Frontier Wars is an attempt to document the known confrontations between either white settlers or white and native police and First Nations people where deaths were reported. It is now an accepted premise that these confrontations were wars to gain access to the land, because, if not wars, then it was mass murder. No one in Queensland was charged with the murder of First Nations during these confrontations. The book shows the invasion from New South Wales into southern Queensland and the advances from the sea in central and north Queensland. The ‘dispersement’ of the First Nations people from their land was violent and efficient using far superior weaponry. This book adds significantly to the true and uncomfortable history of Queensland.
