This book was published in 1987 and knowledge of the history and significance of Austrailian studio pottery has increased since then. However this is the most useful work for identifying studio works and to obtain short bios. on the artists. It is highly sought by collectors of Australian pottery and is a worthy addition to a reference collection. Note a new book covering Australian Studio potters will be available SHORTLY through the Shepparton Art Gallery, Austalia. The Author is Greg Hill.

A classic text on Australian wood. Out of print now, but prized by all in the trade. A must for serious joiners.

The 1980s was a time of peace building all over the world. So much so that the united Nations declared the International Year of Peace (now the work continues, highlighting the creation of a living culture of peace and non-violence in the year 2000 International Year for the Culture of Peace). Australia emerged as a rich source for mining uranium and many of the people who wanted to say and do something about peace at all levels felt the time was pressing.

Gillian Fisher journeyed to the centre of Australia to protest the mining. She returned determined to make contributions to peace work wherever she could. And she found a multi faceted program developing in Hyde Park, the large and beautiful lung in the middle of downtown Sydney. Throughout the summer month of January people from all the main peace organisations, performers, artists, ordinary people were coming together each lunch time to hear about the work being done to promote personal, community and international peace.

The Peace Pavilion sat lightly on the land, fashioned by hand from timber, a canvas roof and sliding doors that made the building to be a nucleus of light for meditation, a display space or a stage. Gillian came every day for a month. She met all the speakers and performers, and most of the visitors and passers-by and she shared her experiences of a rich life and a transforming trip to the ancient centre of the land. She documented it all in photos too and researched all the organisations where people who wanted to make a difference could make a start. And then she gifted ehr work to all who had made a contribution to the Peace Pavilion.

This is a very even handed book. There are lots of inspirational quotes and background information on all sorts of people, there's no judgment about the relative value of all the activities that the book touches on. So do get hold of a copy if you can.

Just for the record the Peace Pavilion idea has moved to another version and there will be a most wonderful pavilion in Centennial Park Sydney from September 2000 to celebrate the International Year for the Culture of Peace, the Sydney Olympics and the Centennary of Federation for Australia in January 2001.

AUSTRALIENATION.PORTRAIT OF A BI-CULTURAL COUNTRY

A book of photographs can sometimes be so well chosen that turning the pages becomes like reading a poem. Ogden's black-and-white compilation, spanning every mainland Australian state and the years '72-'99, is so exquisitely apt that it achieves this effect. He begins, movingly, with the open faces of aboriginal children in the Northern Territory; he then shows the indigenous presence in inner-city Sydney, and in prison. Abruptly the focus turns anglo: little white kids, subcultures, suburbia, the army, the old and the eccentric. Gradually people vanish altogether from the picture to be replaced with images of urban decay and futility, walled-up doorways and 'registered lawns'. The environment closes in, and the punchline hits home. Ogden, who is white, calls Australienation his "comment as a photographer on bi-cultural Australia" - 'bi-cultural' because of the vast gulf separating the original inhabitants and the peoples who arrived later. There are no koalas or Harbour Bridges on show here, just everyday scenes conveyed with unaffected humour, subtlety and humanity, as intimate as a personal diary and profound as a state-of-the-nation address, the collection speaks volumes.

Nick Dent,black & white magazine review, Dec '99.

Aviculture in Australia. The title says it all. This is a fantastic book for both the beginner and the experienced enthusiast. I heartily recommend a read. It covers housing, feeding, pest and desease as well as individual bird descriptions. Plus much much more. I guarentee that if you pick it up, it will be a while til you put it down again!

"Baby Bilby, where do you sleep?" is a lovely combined story and information book for young children. It explores the secret world of the Australian desert, as the reader asks each animal where it sleeps (you get a glimpse through a cut-out page) and then turns the page to find out. It's a nice book for reading at bed-time, or for hunting through the pictures for hidden things. (Bilbies are tiny little marsupials with pointed noses - as seen on the front cover.)

Baby Bilby was a 2002 honour book for both the Children's Book Council of Australia's "Book of the Year: Early Childhood" and Eve Pownall Award for Information Books categories.

Tells about Austrailia, and makes you want to see what its like. Even has information on getting there.

The Bamboo Flute was a very interesting book about a boy called Paul, who's family was poor. He meets a man called Eric the Red who tells and shows him how to make a flute out of bamboo.

The late Australian lawyer Sir Garfield Barwick, who in a lifetime became the country's leading Queens' Counsel, then member of federal Parliament, Attorney-General, External Affairs Minister, Privy Councillor and Chief Justice of Australia, remains one of the most controversial figures in the nation's history. Combative by nature, he navigated such tumultuous events as the attempted nationalization of Australia's banks by a socialist government (he fought for, and saved, the banks), the attempted banning of the Communist party by a conservative government (he fought for the ban, but it was rejected as unconstitutional), a nasty political witch-hunt known as the Petrov affair (he helped hunt KGB witches), an equally nasty artistic witch-hunt known as the Dobell affair (Dobell never recovered from Barwick's devastating cross-examination) the Vietnam War (he was foreign minister at the time Australia fought there), the 1975 dismissal of an Australian prime minister (while Chief Justice, Barwick secretly counseled this) and the building of the new High Court building in Canberra. As Marr shows, Barwick scaled professional heights no other lawyer will match, and as an advocate was never equaled: as such, he has earned the respect and affection of a good many of his peers. However, he is most remembered for fostering the High Court's string of zealously pro-taxpayer decisions, virtually eviscerating the tax code, leading to an equally aggressive legislative counter-attack. This is not a sympathetic biography, and Barwick himself was furious when it was published, but neither is it the hatchet-job he claimed it to be. The definitive expose of Australia's legal institutions.