Small group tour of Australia's Kimberley

After The Boss Drover and His Mates made such an impact, Anne Ingham began recording a different sort of outback story: The moving tale of Maggie Lilly and the pioneers who shared the heroic struggle for the life in the Northwest. Now an energetic 88, Maggie has moved to Kunnunurra, from the Bow River Station which she and her family built up. Her amazing life is a snapshot of the 20th century and its characters.

Australia's Kimberley was the cultural hub of the Ice Age world. Today, it holds within its bounds the world's largest collection of Ice Age figurative art, giving us vital clues to the origins of other cultures and civilisations right across the world.

Back at a time when most of Europe lay deep beneath ice sheets, a people in the remote and rugged Kimberley Ranges of north-west Australia created figurative paintings of such verve and talent that they surpass all other of the world's rock art.

Known as 'Bradshaws', after pioneer farmer Joseph Bradshaw who chanced upon the first examples in 1891, the Kimberley paintings feature lithe, graceful human figures depicted in a fashion altogether different from that of even the oldest traditional art, providing extraordinary visual insights into the everyday lives of Ice Age people.

So who were these Bradshaw people? When did they live? What happened to them?

Ian Wilson describes the early research on the Bradshaw paintings, and explains how advanced dating techniques have shed new light on the findings. He explores the theories put forward on for the origins of these seafaring people; one possibility is that they arrived from the Andaman Islands, where pygmy-like tribes still survive. Farther afield still the author draws connections with Saharan peoples, and he even unearths startling similarities with South American tribes.

Lost World of the Kimberley is a wide-ranging and provocative look at the very Australian, yet also potentially international, mystery of the Bradshaw paintings of the Kimberley one of Australia's least known, yet most extraordinary, national treasures.

A groundbreaking presentation, in a revised edition, of Indigenous Australian storytelling as it actually sounds; these stories provide a fascinating picture of the life of the people of the west Kimberley after colonisation. Paddy Roe was a legendary figure in the revival and maintenance of law and culture in the Broome area in the mid-twentieth century. In this book he continues and revitalises one of the great literary traditions of Australia. Stephen Muecke is a leading Australian academic whose work has encompassed a number of disciplines in the humanities. With Paddy Roe, Muecke is co-writer of the prize-winning Reading the Country.

Australian Geographic, in Association with Woodslane Press is delighted to introduce a new series of photographic souvenir guides to some of Australia’s most beautiful and iconic places. The 64-page large format books will be full of vibrant photography, accompanied by a concise but fascinating commentary by some of Australia’s most experienced travel writers. One of the first two books in the series, the Australian Geographic Book of the Kimberley is an indispensable reminder and souvenir for both international and Australian visitors to this very special place. Armchair travellers and children will pick it up time and again to whet their appetites and perhaps to plan their own visits.

Includes sections on geography, wildlife and culture, Kununurra and Lake Argyle, El Questro, Purnululu (Bungle Bungles), Gibb River Road, Mitchell River, the Dampier Peninsula and Broome.

The story of Jandamarra - legendary Aboriginal 'freedom fighter'.

Shortlisted, Eve Pownall Award for Information Books, Children's Book Council Book of the Year Awards 1998
Special Mention, Individual Category, Centre for Australian Cultural Studies National Awards 1997
Shortlisted, Children's and Young Adults Award, Western Australian Premier's Book Awards 1997

Jandamarra - hero or criminal?

One hundred years ago, Jandamarra led his people against the white occupation of Bunuba lands. At 21 he organised his first ambush, and by the age of 24 he was dead. To his people he was a hero, to the whites a dangerous 'baddie' who must be captured at any cost.

Kimberley Warrior is a gripping frontier story set in the rocky mountain ranges, gorges and tunnels of the Kimberley region in Western Australia. It is also the story of a complex, gifted person caught between two worlds, black and white.

This retelling of Jandamarra's story is authorised by the Bunuba people.

About the Author

John Nicholson is a former architect, now a full-time author and illustrator.

100 Things To See In The Kimberley, by local guide Scotty Connell, is the culmination of a life spent exploring Australia's wild and remote north west. Scotty grew up in the Kimberley and has made it his mission to thoroughly explore the region via air, land and sea. In that pursuit, Scotty's led elite Nepalese Gurkhas on wild, wet season training missions, hiked through the Kimberley's untamed ranges looking for unnamed waterfalls and hosted celebrities looking for unique Aussie experiences. All because he loves showing intrepid visitors why his backyard is the best backyard on earth. Inside you'll find 100 of the best things to see and do all across the Kimberley - from stunning waterholes to cool off in, to incredible, natural wonders that are found nowhere else on earth.

Australia's Kimberley was the cultural hub of the Ice Age world. Today, it holds within its bounds the world's largest collection of Ice Age figurative art, giving us vital clues to the origins of other cultures and civilisations right across the world.

Back at a time when most of Europe lay deep beneath ice sheets, a people in the remote and rugged Kimberley Ranges of north-west Australia created figurative paintings of such verve and talent that they surpass all other of the world's rock art.

Known as 'Bradshaws', after pioneer farmer Joseph Bradshaw who chanced upon the first examples in 1891, the Kimberley paintings feature lithe, graceful human figures depicted in a fashion altogether different from that of even the oldest traditional art, providing extraordinary visual insights into the everyday lives of Ice Age people.

So who were these Bradshaw people? When did they live? What happened to them?

Ian Wilson describes the early research on the Bradshaw paintings, and explains how advanced dating techniques have shed new light on the findings. He explores the theories put forward on for the origins of these seafaring people; one possibility is that they arrived from the Andaman Islands, where pygmy-like tribes still survive. Farther afield still the author draws connections with Saharan peoples, and he even unearths startling similarities with South American tribes.

Lost World of the Kimberley is a wide-ranging and provocative look at the very Australian, yet also potentially international, mystery of the Bradshaw paintings of the Kimberley one of Australia's least known, yet most extraordinary, national treasures.

After The Boss Drover and His Mates made such an impact, Anne Ingham began recording a different sort of outback story: The moving tale of Maggie Lilly and the pioneers who shared the heroic struggle for the life in the Northwest. Now an energetic 88, Maggie has moved to Kunnunurra, from the Bow River Station which she and her family built up. Her amazing life is a snapshot of the 20th century and its characters.

The Kimberley is a remarkable, yet little-known region of Australia. Occupying an immense area of the continent's northwest, it is remote, sparsely populated, and features an abundance of natural diversity. As a region, it stands apart. The great arc of ranges to the south and east effectively isolates this area from the rest of the mainland. The deeply indented coastline to the north, fortified by rugged cliffs and washed by monstrous tides, completes the Kimberley's natural borders. Home to an amazing array of wildlife and vegetation, the Kimberley is also one of the world's last great natural refuges. From its scorched desert fringes and vast eucalypt woodlands, to pockets of remnant rainforest and coastal mangrove communities patrolled by saltwater crocodiles, the Kimberley's variety of habitats has few equals. This volume delves into the most remote and least-known parts of this wild frontier. A vibrant and informative text, accompanied by stunning photographs, superb paintings, and personal reflections, reveals many aspects of the Kimberley, from its natural history to the history of its exploration. With a strong cultural emphasis, this book also explores the area's Aboriginal history and the significance of rock art. This memorable book will truly captivate readers and leave them with an understanding of the complexity of one of the world's few remaining wild frontiers.

Out of the Desert is a compelling collection of stories, art and photographs from the Walmajarri people of the Great Sandy Desert, in north western Australia. It tells of their remarkable exodus from remote desert country to an unfamiliar modern society. Within only one generation the Walmajarri desert dwellers left their traditional places behind to face station life and a world far beyond the sandhills. These accounts of a recent past reveal the challenges of the epic journey north to station country, the courage of the Walmajarri in confronting the unknown, and their first contact with white people.

In Every Mother’s Son is Guilty, Chris Owen provides a compelling account of policing in the Kimberley district from 1882, when police were established in the district, until 1905 when Dr. Walter Roth’s controversial Royal Commission into the treatment of Aboriginal people was released.

Owen’s achievement is to take elements of all the pre-existing historiography and test them against a rigorous archival investigation. In doing so a fuller understanding of the complex social, economic and political changes occurring in Western Australia during the period are exposed. The policing of Aboriginal people changed from one of protection under law to one of punishment and control. The subsequent violence of colonial settlement and the associated policing and criminal justice system that developed, often of questionable legality, was what Royal Commissioner Roth termed a ‘brutal and outrageous state of affairs’.

At a hinge-point in his life, artist and ex-gallerist Tony Oliver travelled to the East Kimberley, where he plunged into the crosscurrents and eddies of the Aboriginal art world. He would stay for almost a decade, working alongside a group of senior Gija artists, including acclaimed figures Paddy Bedford and Freddie Timms, to establish Jirrawun Arts, briefly one of the country’s most successful and controversial Aboriginal painting collectives.

The Stranger Artist follows Oliver’s journey and the deep relationships he formed, an experience that forever altered his life’s trajectory. His story will draw readers close to what he came to know of Kimberley life: the immersion of culture and spirituality in the everyday, the importance of Law, the deep and abiding connection to country, and the humour and tragedy that pervade the Aboriginal world.

Evocative and absorbing in equal measure, The Stranger Artist tells not only of the connections that can be formed through the sharing of mutual interests and experiences, but of what it takes to live between cultures.