Australia Travel Books Page 2

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Australia; Reef, Rainforest, Red Heart by Darren Jew. Published by New Holland Publishers. ISBN 1864363770. Recommended retail price $29.95.

An ancient land of contrast and extreme, Australia is blessed with some of the most biologically diverse ecosystems on earth. From the abundant life of the Great Barrier Reef and tropical rainforests to the stark beauty of the oldest ranges and rivers on earth, it is home to unique plants and animals isolated on this island continent for millennia.

In Australia Reef, Rainforest, Red Heart renowned wildlife photographer Darren Jew takes you on a stunning visual journey. Over 120 full-color photographs will transport you through deserts, forests and reefs, and bring you face to face with Australia's unique wildlife.

Inspired by his father's travels in Antarctica to pursue a career in nature photography, Australian wildlife photographer Darren Jew has photographed much of the world's great wildlife and landscapes, from Alaska to Africa. Darren spent eight years as photographer for the Queensland National Parks and Wildlife Service. Based in Brisbane, Darren's work is published widely in magazines, books, posters and cards. Soft cover, 160 pages. Published in 1998.

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Australia; Treasure Island by Joel Nathan. Published by New Holland Publishers. ISBN 1864362790. Recommended retail price $24.95.

Australia is a land full of surprises and contrasts with countless unforgettable adventures to offer visitors. In over 200 captivating photographs, Australia Treasure Island highlights the diversity of this fascinating continent. Exploring some of the country's most popular tourist regions, Australia Treasure Island includes images of Kakadu, where rocky cliffs form the world's oldest canvas and depict stories reflecting the Aboriginal Dreamtime; Australia's national capital, Canberra, where valuable art of a different kind is displayed, and a hot-air balloon ride over Lake Burley Griffin at Dawn presents the charms of this showpiece city; spectacular coastal vistas such as the awe-inspiring Twelve Apostles and the tranquil, seductive White Haven Beach; as well as the country's unique wildlife - koalas, kangaroos and the less-seen thorny devils and quokkas. Australia Treasure Island combines all of these images - the rugged red center, sparkling cities, captivating islands, mysterious caves, and the dazzling underwater gardens of the Great Barrier Reef - with informative text to present the natural beauty and grandeur of this vast and ancient land.

Joel Nathan established his career as a successful creative director in an advertising agency. It was an interest in photography and travel that led him to write articles for newspapers, specialist journals, travel magazines and airline periodicals. Joel now writes full-time on subjects as diverse as natural science and history, as well as developing scripts for film and television.

Shaen Adey is a wildlife and environmental photographer with a passionate interest in nature conservation. Her most recent photographic assignments have led to extensive travel throughout Australia, capturing the diversity of its landscapes, people and wildlife on film. In addition, she has been commissioned to provide the photography for various works on South Africa and Singapore. Shaen is the winner of several awards and her work has been published internationally. Hard cover and oversized, 144 pages. Published in 1997.

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Bed & Breakfast - Australia's Best by Jane Schonberger and George Morency. Published by Lanier Publishing. ISBN 1580081967. Recommended retail price $14.95.

You are cordially invited to spend an unforgettable evening in an Australian Country Inn. This handsome traveler's companion includes a glossary of Australian terms, description of each state, general directory of properties, and detailed information with over 150 illustrations to complement each B&B reviewed.

• Victorian Guest Houses
• World-Class Country Estates
  
• Historic Homesteads
• Luxury Island Resorts
• And many more to CHOOSE FROM:

'1 commend the amount of research that has obviously gone into a book of such caliber- I am sure readers won't be disappointed' -Julie Averay, The Americas, South Australia .

"Australia's best B&B's are featured in this indispensable guide with personal reviews, illustrations and booking details~ -New South Wales News

Authors Jane Schonberger and George Morency are Los Angeles-based writers/producers who have traveled extensively, particularly around the Pacific Rim. They penned Bed & Breakfast Australia's Best after six months of criss-crossing the continent and staying in over 200 B&Bs. With the growth of tourism Down Under and the increase in the number of Bed & Breakfasts, Schonberger and Morency take some of the guesswork out of choosing an appropriate establishment All of the properties included in this guide are personal recommendations, and the authors guarantee that travelers will make at least one new Aussie "mate." Soft cover, 319 pages. Published in 2000.

Boomerang Road: A Pedalling Pom's Australian Odyssey by Quentin van Marle. ISBN 1904744249. Published by Troubadour Publishing. Recommended retail price $27.00.

Boomerang Road is the thoughtful, humorous and anecdote packed account from Quentin van Marle, a middle-aged British journalist who makes a 4000 kilometre trek by mountain bike from the vast cattle stations of Australia's far north, all the way south to Melbourne. To fill his weekly slot on BBC Radio 5 Live, the author pedals off the tourist map and encounters a colourful assortment of characters who inhabit today's small town Australia. Among them are bush pilots, cattlemen, and crocodile hunters; oddball hotel owners, bartenders, drinkers, and gamblers; outback musicians, dreamers and lost souls.

Illustrated with wonderfully evocative drawings, the book is liberally sprinkled with flashbacks to a previous time - when as a 16 year old, the author sailed 12,000 miles from home to become a teenage jackaroo on an Australian cattle station. Four decades on, he arrives back at that same station astride a bicycle, pedalling into some alarming deja-vu. More disturbing was his return to a tiny Queensland trawler port where he receives a jolting reminder of a previous and very human error of judgement.

Like the return flight of a boomerang, by the time he completes his trip, the narrator has come full-circle in a working life that began on a 1960s cattle station and which has taken him to all parts of the world since as a journalisty, yachtsman, and travel writer. With all its rattling skeletons and hard boiled one-liners, Boomerang Road is not just another travelogue. It is the result of one man's observation of the faults, absurdities, and sometimes idiotic values of the human condition. Soft cover, 232 pages. Published in 2004.

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Brisbane & Gold Coast City Map published by Lonely Planet. ISBN 1-74059-434-7. Recommended retail price $5.99.

This handy size map is fully laminated and folds easily - even guys can do it. The laminations mean you can make notes on it with water based inks and wash them off later. Seven different maps give coverage to all the hot spots and a map of the Suburban and Urban rail/road netowrk is also given.

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Brisbane & the Gold Coast, Insight Pocket Guides by Paul Phelan. Published by Insight Guides. ISBN 0-88729-366-2. Recommended retail price $12.95.

This Insight Pocket Guide includes a pullout map of Brisbane and the Gold Coast. It is the guide that answers the questions you'd ask a friend who lived in Brisbane. Which places are really worth seeing? What excursions shouldn't be missed? Where are the great places tourists haven't yet discovered? Written by a local host, it is based on intimate knowledge of the city and the surrounding area. Everything you need is in this pocket guide.

¨ History and Culture
¨ Tailor-made itineraries
¨ Selected Excursions
¨ Shopping, eating out and nightlife
¨ Essential practical information
¨ Detailed pull-out map

Soft cover, 96 pages. Published in 2000.

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Bushwalking in Australia by John Chapman and Monica Chapman. Recommended retail price $17.95, our price $17.

Australia is a country of wide open spaces and much of it is accessible on foot. If you want to go hiking in Australia then this Lonely Planet Guide is highly recommended. There are full track notes for 35 walks together with advice on planning, equipment and accommodation options. Sections on flora and fauna add to the value of this guide but I’d check out Australia’s nature section for more comprehensive books to supplement this one. Soft cover, 353 pages.

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Cold Beer and Crocodiles; a Bicycle Journey into Australia by Roff Smith. Published by National Geographic. ISBN 0792263650. Recommended retail price $14.

American Roff Smith had been living in Australia for 15 years when he pared his life to what could be carried on a touring bike and pedaled off on a 10,000 mile odyssey around the continent. "I wasn't particularly fit,," he admits early on, "I wasn't all that young, and for a six-foot-tall journalist I tipped the scales at a much-too-comfortable 14 stone (196 pounds). I had never traveled in the outback - nor, for that matter, had I ever strayed too far out of the suburbs. Everything I knew about what lay beyond that sea of red-tiled roofs could be chiseled on an aspirin tablet."

The outcome is Cold Beer and Crocodiles - a gritty yet vivid immersion in Australia's cattle stations, mining towns, aboriginal communities, rain forests, and above all its arid, blistering deserts, where midday temperatures soar to 130 degrees and the endless miles leave the author exhausted, out of water, and all but dead. There are narrow escapes along the way, wild tropical storms, a grisly bike crash, and in-depth encounters with the men and women who call Australia home.

"Fresh, crisp, and insightful." - Publishers Weekly

"Smith's exposure to wind, heat, rain and tough terrain makes him appreciate early chronicler Henry Lawson's description: 'There are no mountains in the outback, only ridges on the floor of hell.'" - Sandra White, The Independent (London).

Soft cover, 283 pages. Published in 2000.

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Eastern Suburbs Walks by Joan Lawrence. Published by Hale and Iremonger. Recommended retail price $7.

What better way to stretch one’s mind and one’s legs than by walking the suburbs, particularly Sydney’s eastern suburbs. Discover the gracious mansions of Double Bay, Paddington’s one-humble workmen’s cottages, and Potts Point’s naval establishment. Take a leisurely stroll around Woollahra or Watson’s Bay.

Or you could venture to Cascade Street in Paddington which commemorates the cascades at Glenmore Falls which Robert Cooper used for his gin distillery; travel out to Vaucluse House where in 1831 William Charles Wentworth entertained ‘upward of 4,000 persons… with piles of loaves and casks of Cooper’s gin’ to celebrate the departure of his hated rival, Governor Ralph Darling.

The easy-to-follow maps, the anecdotes, and the profiles of some of the area’s more notable residents will amuse and entertain as you come face to face with Sydney’s diversity and history. Soft cover, 128 pages.

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Explore Queensland: Over 70 Tours of the Sunshine State by Bruce Elder. Published by New Holland Publishers. ISBN 1864362006. Recommended retail price $29.95.

Queensland's fame for diversity is clearly evident in its range of landscapes: the impenetrable rainforest of Cape York and the endless plains of the outback; the ribbon of high-rise apartments along the Gold Coast and the sleepy towns of Thargomindah and Quilpie; the unspoiled beauty of the Great Barrier Reed off Cairns and the Whitsunday Islands; and the bustling urban sprawls of Brisbane, Bundaberg, Rockhampton, Mackay, Townsville and Cairns.

The aim of this book is to provide travelers in Queensland with a rich cross-section of tours. While the vast majority of these journeys can be done on good sealed roads in a conventional vehicle, there are many which require specialist forms of transportation. In the case of Fraser Island, for example, the two journeys most commonly available from the marina at Hervey Bay and the ecotourism-orientated Kingfisher Bay Resort are discussed. In the case of the cruises to the Outer Reef at Cairns-Port Douglas and in the Whitsundays, journeys made by the author with commercial operators are described. There are also other operators working in these popular destinations and the reader should not assume that these journeys are the only ones available.

This book comes with complete with all of the following:

• Comprehensive step-by-step tours
• Clear and concise route directions
• Detailed, easy-to-follow maps
• Distance and climate charts
• Informative fact panels

Soft cover, 176 pages. Published in 1997.

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Explore Wilderness Australia; Over 80 ecotours across the Australian continent by Neil Hermes. Published by New Holland Publishers, 1997. ISBN 1864362243. Recommended retail price $29.95.

This extensive guide to Australia's magnificent and diverse wilderness regions provides practical information including:

• Details of access, facilities and recreational activities
• Clearly marked maps
• Tips on driving in remote areas
• Over 220 color photographs
• Contact numbers of the parks, tour operators, information suppliers and adventure sport facilities
• Informative panels on local wildlife and adventure sports
• Advice on how to care for the fragile wilderness.

Soft cover, 192 pages. Published in 1997.

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Great Barrier Reef: Islands of Australia's by Hugh Finlay, Mark Armstrong, and Tony Wheeler. Published by Lonely Planet Publications. ISBN 0864425635. Recommended retail price $14.95.

The Great Barrier Reef is one of the world's natural wonders, a stunning ocean wonderful of bright corals, exotic marine life and dotted with idyllic tropical islands (I am so glad I didn't write this). Whatever your budget or the activities you want to enjoy - diving, snorkelling, hiking or just lying on a beach - this comprehensive guide will help you find you own tropical paradise.

• 24-page full colour marine life section
• 48 maps, including all the resort islands
• where to stay - from the best resorts to camping on your own tropical island
• detailed guide to diving, snorkelling, and all the other reef activites
• transport options from helicopter to high speed catamaran

Soft cover, 249 pages. Published in 1998.

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Great Barrier Reef, The: Australia's tropical paradise by Alison Cotes. Recommended retail price $49.95.

The Great Barrier Reef is one of the planet's best known and best-loved natural wonders which is recognized by its World Heritage status. But there is no single Great Barrier Reef; larger than Great Britain and half the size of Texas, it defies easy categorization.

Alison Cotes's Great Barrier Reef is a look beyond the biology. The text deals with the history, geography and biology of the entire area and does so in a very readable and accessible text. Needless to say the book is profusely illustrated with the work of some of Australia's best photographers. If you are heading out to visit the Banana Benders (Queenslanders) this is the ideal pre-trip coffee table book, particularly if your interests include some of the above water things this region has to offer.

I have a few minor biological quibbles: echinoderms are defined as "starfish, jellyfish and sea urchins" but generally the biology is accurate and up to date and the photographs are stunning. Highly recommended. Hard cover, 160 pages. Published 1998.

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Last modified on Thursday, July 21, 2005