Hiking Tropical Australia: Queensland And Northern New South Wales is a comprehensive, "traveler friendly" walking guide to Australia's eastern tropical and subtropical regions. Covering an area of approximately 1600 miles beginning around Grafton (in northern New South Wales) and reaching down into the lower portion of wild, rugged Cape York Peninsula (in farm north Queensland), Hiking Tropical Australia coverage extends inland as well to include national parks such as Girraween and Carnarvon that lie in the transition zone between tropical and outback landscapes. Enhanced with more than 100 maps and pictures, Hiking Tropical Australia divides topical Australia into six zones defined by ecology and topography: the eastern and western scenic rims; sand, sea, and islands; escarpment and range; the granite belt; and far north Queensland, above the Tropic of Capricorn. Travelers will find precise directions for reaching all the parks and trails; difficulty ratings and notes about the special attractions of each hike; as well as vivid descriptions of what will be encountered along the way. Hiking Tropical Australia is a unique and invaluable guide for the vacationing visitor, and has a wealth of information helpful to native Australian as well.

I used the book this summer while traveling in the northern part of Queensland. I found it to be an ideal companion to the more general guides (Lonely Planet, Fodor's, etc.). The book helped my husband and me to figure out the best places to hike, when we had fairly limited time and many things we wanted to do. It provides the perfect amount of information in a useful format; for each hike the author lists trail distance, hiking time, level of difficulty, and main attractions, and then gives a helpful description of what hikers will see. The author also provides brief descriptions of parks and state forests. I like that the book describes hikes of varied lengths and difficulty. I highly recommend this book to people of any age or fitness who want to hike in the northeastern part of Australia.

In the past 12 years, I've reread this gem 4 times - and look forward to the next time. The leading characters are superbly portrayed, as the good guys try to protect a deceased scientist's uncanny system that predicts Aussie weather, 12 months in advance.. The manuscripts are protected by two binge drinkers, both in their eighties, both with colorful cattle drover backgrounds. A key aspect of the plot: Upfield offers colorful insights into the differing psychological nightmare/illusions associated with various types of liquor - and gets these distinctions into the unraveling of the plot.. The central old-timer comes across much like the old geezer prospector in Treasure of Sierra Madre. Plus: Bony's wily ability to outsmart his police-bosses is top-rate here. Don't miss this one!

This is another Bony tale that gets better with each reading. And it has enough uprorious battling that it'd make a super movie. Somewhere in the south central hills, two Irish gangs are carrying on bootlegging operations. A govt agent gets murdered as he ventured to close, so Bony is called in. Patiently he learns more and more , bit by bit. As he gets nearer to identifying the villain, he also has to find a way to help the romance along between a gal of one 'gang' and a young man of the other, Along the way, Bony has to take on a mighty leader in a knockdown, bloody brawl - not just once, but twice. If you're ever thinking of going to Australia, this book will force you to go out into those hills and try to find remnants of these colorful settlers! This one is right up there for me with The Battlin' Prophet, The Bone is Pointed and Murder Must Wait. Hey: you don't have to be Irish to love this one"

Part 1 of the Yandilli trilogy, (which is about to have part 4 released!) Captivity Captive is a fictional solution to a true story: the unsolved Gatton murders that occurred in Queensland, Australia, in 1898. Using facts from the case, relocating the events a little further south, Hall uses the real names of victims and family to tell the tale of two sisters and a brother who were found shot and bludgeoned to death in a paddock in 1898.

The novel opens at the death bed of Barney Barnett, a man who was engaged to the youngest victim, Ellen, who attempts a fictitious confession more than 58 years after the murders, in order to gain notoriety. His lies are seen through by the Inspector who has come to hear him, and by the remaining survivors of the Malone family - Patrick, our narrator, and the now paralysed Jeremiah, and mentally handicapped Willie.

From there we are drawn back into the depths of Patrick's memory, and he tells a history of his family -- here Hall veers away from murder-mystery genre territory here by sketching unique, distinctive characters -- in all its violence, ignorance and brutality, before inevitably leading us back to where we want to be -- what really happened on Boxing Day, 1898 that led to the gruesome deaths of Michael Malone - aged 29, Norah Malone, aged 27, and Ellen Malone, aged 18. The truth is shocking, the violence disturbing, and the sexual tensions of the novel gripping and unsavoury.

My only beef with Captivity Captive is that too often, Rodney Hall leaves the reader guessing about exact events. He seems to like us to guess about exactly what the victims and the perpetrator(s) of the crime got up to on Christmas Day, and then on that fateful next day.

A very captivating and harrowing novel about the dark sides of the lives, memories and personalities of the people who carved farms out of the ancient Australian forest, and a superlative psychological examination.

Death of a Swagman was written in the mid point of Arthur Upfields career and shows in his attention to detail and his ability to capture the feling of Australian country towns in the early part of our century. The story is a good detective novel in its own right with plenty of plots and action and red herrings. Bony's relationship with Rose Marie is used as a strong pivot point throughout the novel giving a useful viewpoint of the running of the town from a child's perspective. The advantage of this book over other bony novels is the character development of the subjects. This gives a depth and humanity which remains after the story is finished. The narrative of the swagmans lifestyle and its mythology is addressed here with great detail and provides a refreshing glimpse of a bygone era.

A charming book about Queensland. It presents 71 driving or ferry tours for 1 or 2 days. Each tour is described on two pages, together with a chart and about 4 wonderful pictures. The text is well balanced with the pictures, informative and concise. A really fine book to give you a first inspiring view of Queensland.

If you're planning a holiday...this is the book for you!

It's unfortunate that the cover of this book detracts and distracts the reader. Between the covers it is a collection of interesting and enlightening tales which show the depth of writing currently being developed in Queensland.

This book contains loads of beautiful and accurate photos of the various fish, coral and plant life in and around Australia's Great Barrier Reef. I was first lent this book by an experienced diver who had already been to the Great Barrier Reef. There was also a copy on the dive boat I was on when diving the reef. I found it enormously helpful in filling out my dive logs because the photos look so much like the wildlife I just encountered on my dive. I was able to use the book when I couldn't remember the names of various fish and animals I wanted to note in my log. It's very accurate; stunning photography. If you want to know what the reef looks like or want to refresh your memory this is the source! I'm also surprised about the limited availability of this book considering the huge amount of divers the reef attracts.

This is a fascinating book.

First off, it presents a close-up view of what the last stages of language death are like -- the language is spoken by only two or three people very old people. They may speak it well, or may speak it haltingly, or may only remember a few phrases. And then they die, and there went the language. Since most of the languages in the US and in the world are headed toward that fate in the next forty years, I think it's time people get to see what it looks like, and what a great loss it is.

Second off, this book is the closest I've seen anyone manage to explaining what it is that we linguists do. If only this book got half the press that Steven Pinker's ramnblings get!

And third off, this book recalls some of the daily experiences of the author's travels in rural Australia, among the Aborigines. As one rarely reads anything about Australian Aborigines, or rural Australia in general, this alone makes it interesting. I, for one, had no idea that the Aborigines were, until recently, in a situation combining some of the worst features of Apartheid and of what the US was doing to its Natives in the 19th century.