The Coastlines Series
Allow me to introduce you to Coastlines – a series of five books, each with a different theme, about the Australian coastline.
What you will find in Coastlines are the stories, places, events and images that have drawn my attention, held my interest and stirred my imagination as I have travelled around our extraordinary coastline over the past ten years.
The books focus on the 16th to 19th centuries, an era of exploration and discovery in the southern oceans and an important period in Australia’s maritime history.
Coastlines does not attempt to re-tell our recent history but investigates the stories that lie behind the pages of the history books – tales of intrigue, courage against adversity, and murder and mayhem on the high seas.
Coastlines opens a window in time to the social fabric of the era, revealing much about the reasons European settlement of this land followed the pathway it did.
NOTE: The Coastlines series of books is being updated, and currently not available. Watch this space for further information.
What you will find in Coastlines are the stories, places, events and images that have drawn my attention, held my interest and stirred my imagination as I have travelled around our extraordinary coastline over the past ten years.
The books focus on the 16th to 19th centuries, an era of exploration and discovery in the southern oceans and an important period in Australia’s maritime history.
Coastlines does not attempt to re-tell our recent history but investigates the stories that lie behind the pages of the history books – tales of intrigue, courage against adversity, and murder and mayhem on the high seas.
Coastlines opens a window in time to the social fabric of the era, revealing much about the reasons European settlement of this land followed the pathway it did.
NOTE: The Coastlines series of books is being updated, and currently not available. Watch this space for further information.
Coastlines I
Coastlines I contains an overview of the scope of the project and establishes an historical context for the later books in the series. The book provides an opportunity to reflect on why the early European maritime explorers made their way to our continent’s shores and includes information on the mapmaking and navigation methods of the times, the first European presence in Australian waters and the first charting of the Australian coastline.
Coastlines I also contains the complete bibliography of references used when researching and writing the series.
Coastlines II
Coastlines II focuses on Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, French and British maritime expeditions to Australia during the 16th to 19th centuries and tells the stories of the intrepid commanders and adventurers who took part in these expeditions.
Coastlines III
Coastlines III is dedicated to the ships that carried the explorers – they too have stories worth telling.
In this book I have also recorded details of lighthouses erected to protect the ships and those who sailed in them, and the tragedy of unfinished voyages that ended in shipwreck.
Coastlines IV
Coastlines IV describes the establishment of a number of Australia’s first European settlements, including those that grew into our capital cities. There are stories associated with the islands close to our coastline and readers will also meet some characters, heroes and villains of the times.
Coastlines V
In Coastlines V readers will see, in photographs and poetry, what called to me visually during my travels – the features of our coastline that literally took my breath away.