Settlers Under Sail
by Don Charlwood
Published by Burgewood Books, 1978
Many Australians will have read Don Charlwood’s All the Green Year while at high school, but may not know that Charlwood also wrote about Australia’s early maritime history in Wrecks and Reputations and Settlers Under Sail – an account of the 1878 wreck of the Loch Ard, west of Cape Otway in Victoria. Charlwood’s connection with sailing ships dates back to the 1860’s when his uncle, Edward Charlwood, kept a shipboard diary of his journey to Australia with his new bride. Continue reading →

The Forgotten Islands by Michael Veitch
Published by Viking, 2011
Michael Veitch’s ‘adventure through the islands of Bass Strait starts with the tale of a young assistant lightkeeper, who, at the turn of the twentieth century, disappeared from Deal Island. Deal, like the other islands Veitch sets out to explore, is a windswept remote island off the coast of Tasmania. In The Forgotten Islands, Veitch’s quest is primarily to explore an Australia he hardly knows, but uncovering the reason for the young man’s disappearance figures as a lesser, but just as interesting, quest. Continue reading →

Beacons of Hope by Donald Walker
Published by Neptune Press, 1981
Donald Walker appears to leave no historical stone unturned is his history of the Cape Otway and King Island lighthouses. Part lighthouse, part maritime, part social, and part political history, Beacons of Hope provides a detailed analysis of why and how these two significant lighthouses were planned, built and lit in 1848 (Cape Otway) and 1861 (Cape Wickham, King Island). Continue reading →

From Dusk to Dawn – A History of Australian Lighthouses
Published by Macmillan Australia in association with the Department of Transport and Communications, 1988
Written by historian Gordon Reid to coincide with Australia’s Bicentenary, From Dusk to Dawn is an authoritative history of how Australia and its system of coastal lights developed. It entwines early exploration of Australia’s coastline with British rule and explains the challenges faced by the home rulers trying to balance domestic needs with those of a new colony shaping up as a rich trade and immigration destination. Continue reading →

Lighthouses of Australia – Images from the End of an Era
by John Ibbotson, Published by Australian Lighthouse Traders, 2001
Lighthouses of Australia is the ultimate large-format pictorial guide to lighthouses around the Australian coastline. It’s a reference book with a difference: it gives historical and technical information about the lights as well as beautiful photographs capturing the lighthouses and their locations. This is book at home on your reference shelf or coffee table. Continue reading →

 Shipwreck! was written by Kathleen A. Foster and published by Philadelphia Museum of Art to coincide with an exhibition at the Museum in 2012. Winslow Homer’s painting, The Life Line – even on a book cover – captures the emotional drama and peril of a shipwreck rescue in the 1880s. The Life Line was acclaimed … Continue reading →