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Throughout his life Don Wall has loved music and entertaining. In the days before television in Hornsby Shire audiences were entertained by singers and instrumentalists and at the top of every local bill was a young man with a rich bass-baritone voice named Don Wall. Don served with the RAAF during the war and then joined the Public Service. As an officer with the Australian Tax Office he travelled throughout NSW and had many interesting and challenging experiences. At the same time he continued with his music: from the 1950s he was involved in classical programmes and in the Gladys Moncrieff Show on the radio, he entertained at Clubs and recorded albums with Festival Records. Later he worked in television, was an entertainer with P&O Shipping, and house compere at Oatlands House. In later years Don has been active in local radio and lawn bowls. Belonging to the pioneer Wall family, he has memories of Berowra, Asquith and Hornsby that stretch back to the days before the Pacific Highway was built. This book will appeal to family and local historians and to everyone with an interest in popular music.
Soft cover, B5, vi +58 pages, illustrations, index.
Axel Poignant (1906-1986) is a major figure in Australian photography. In these brilliant images he explores the way of life of descendants of pioneer settlers living along an isolated tributary of the Hawkesbury half a century ago. Soft cover, quarto landscape, 48 pages.
'Nostalgic, unassuming and deeply personal.. it has a heart as big as this great continent of ours.'
The author describes his childhood during the 1930s and 40s at Bar Point where his relatives owned a boatshed for visiting anglers. There were no roads, electricity or telephones. Everyone travelled by boat including the parson, postman, grocer and an extraordinary variety of salesmen. This is a valuable and entertaining contribution to the record of life along the river. Soft cover, B5, 96 pages, 33 illustrations, maps, index.
'This delightful memoir covers the effect of World War II on the remote river communities and introduces readers to an array of river personalities.
The author looks back on 70 years of life along the Lower Hawkesbury. He recalls his childhood in Brooklyn and later experiences as skipper of Surprise II and the Sackville. For the past 40 years he has worked at the slipway built by his father in 1921 and he describes many of the craft repaired there and the people associated with them. The book gives us a rare view of life along the river since the 1920s. Soft cover, B5, viii + 64 pages, 30 illustrations, map, index.
'An interesting and worthwhile account of activities on this major river system.
What was it like to grow up in a rural suburb 60 years ago? This book recalls the simple pleasures of childhood games and everyday life in the days before TV and computer games. Pocket money was earned by selling home-grown vegetables, collecting firewood and retrieving lost golf balls. Mothers were occupied with housework without the aid of modern appliances. Salesmen called offering clothing, medicines and cash loans. The author captures the joys and hardships of life in the 1940s and 50s in an affectionate memoir enlivened with amusing anecdotes and memorable portraits of local characters. Cartoon illustrations by Peter Davis.
Soft cover, B5, vi + 58 pages, illustrations, index.
The Lachlan, Nepean, Shoalhaven, Snowy, Warragamba and Wollondilly are some of the rivers that feature in this reminder of what we have lost as a result of damming and polluting so many of our waterways. The author draws upon her own experiences to recall the pleasures and challenges of canoeing the wild rivers of New South Wales before they were 'tamed' and despoiled: skilfully shooting rapids, camping amidst spectacular scenery, swimming in crystal clear waters, and sharing the day's adventures with fellow paddlers around the campfire in the evening under the stars. These recollections are supplemented with stories by other enthusiasts and liberally illustrated with photographs from the author's extensive archive. Sadly, only a handful of the pioneers of canoeing in New South Wales are still with us but this book captures their experiences in a way that will appeal to anyone who has ever paddled a canoe or kayak. Soft cover, A5, iv + 60 pages, illustrations.
Born into a naval family in Portsmouth, John's childhood extended through the hardships of the Great Depression to the Blitz of the 1940s and five years of separation from his family during evacuation to the safety of the countryside. This was followed by a decade in which everything was either rationed or in very short supply. All these experiences had a profound impact upon John's character and attitudes. After WWII everything was scarce except work and John threw his energies into an extraordinary variety of jobs and occupations: working at a local bakery, delivering mail, taxi driving, soldiering, selling firewood, driving speedboats for holiday-makers, delivering kerosene, and teaching in primary school for four years.
In 1956, in search of more intellectual stimulus, he enrolled at Bristol University to study philosophy and subsequently taught in universities in Ireland, England, Canada, Papua New Guinea and Australia. These academic activities were combined with a variety of other adventures: cruising holidays on the River Shannon, fieldwork in remote areas of New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, and establishing a new political party in Australia. The traditional values of academic life were steadily eroded during the 1980s so John decided to take early retirement and break some new ground. John describes a series of decades in which remarkable changes occurred to family, social and institutional life. It was a period incomprehensible to young people today but it produced a generation of resourceful, hard-working individuals who never assumed that natural resources were unlimited.
Soft cover, limited edition, A4, vi + 206, illustrations, selected publication list, index
Copyright 2011, Deerubbin Press