Reading List
FIELD GUIDES
Australia: The East, Travellers' Wildlife Guides
Les Beletsky
Featuring 650 full-color illustrations of common fish, reptiles, amphibians, mammals and birds of Australia and an overview of parks and preserves including the Great Barrier Reef.
Australian Birds
Pocket Naturalist
A laminated card featuring commonly encountered Australian birds.
Australian Wildlife
Raymond Leung & James Kavanaugh
This handy fold-out guide features illustrations of almost 150 species of Australian animals. Laminated and pocket-sized, it easily slips into your daypack.
Birds of Australia, A Photographic Guide
Iain Campbell
This full-color guide profiles all 714 species of Australian birds. Its 1,100 photos are accompanied by maps, habitat profiles and descriptions of the birds' sizes, plumages, distributions, behaviors and voices.
Field Guide to the Birds of Australia
Ken Simpson & Nicholas Day
A handbook and field guide to Australia's birds with 2,000 vivid color illustrations, each accompanied by a brief description and revised range map.
Field Guide to the Mammals of Australia
Peter Menkhorst & Frank Knight
A comprehensive guide to 376 species (kangaroos, bandicoots, koalas, wombats and more), featuring 376 full color illustrations.
Fishwatcher's Field Guide, Great Barrier Reef
Idaz Greenberg
A double-sided, laminated card covering the reef fish of Australia, Papua New Guinea and the tropical Pacific.
Reef Fishes of the Indo-Pacific
Matthias Bergbauer
A handy field guide to over 800 species of reef fish common to the Indo-Pacific. In beautiful John Beaufoy style, the guide's colorful and high-quality photographs are accompanied by detailed information on identifying features, size, biology and distribution.
MAPS
Australia Map
ITMB
A handy, folded map at a scale of 1:3,500,000.
GUIDEBOOKS
Eyewitness Guide Australia
Eyewitness Guides
Featuring hundreds of innovative maps, color photographs and choice recommendations for excursions and sightseeing.
Culture Smart! Australia
Barry Penney
A concise, no-nonsense guide to local customs, etiquette and culture with a short overview of the land and people along with practical travel advice.
Eyewitness Guide Sydney
Eyewitness Guides
This superb guide to Sydney features color photography, dozens of excellent neighborhood maps and a district-by-district synopsis of the city's attractions.
Fodor's 25 Best Melbourne
Fodor's
This shirt-pocket guide, with an excellent map of the city, includes a choice selection of attractions, shops and restaurants, ideal for a short visit.
NATURAL HISTORY
Bradt Australian Wildlife
Stella Martin
A guide not just to kangaroo and koala, this compact, illustrated survey, featuring 250 color photographs, takes in habitats, parks and conservation, marsupials, birds and bats.
Chasing Kangaroos
Tim Flannery
In this ode to the kangaroo, Flannery weaves his own coming of age as a scientist with tales of the strange marsupial, past and present.
The Snorkeller's Guide to the Coral Reef, From the Red Sea to the Pacific Ocean
Paddy Ryan
This take-along guide covers coral reefs, fish, invertebrates and plants of the Indo-Pacific and includes 200 color photographs.
HISTORY & CULTURE
Aboriginal Australians
Stephen Muecke
A lively shirt-pocket encyclopedia, illustrating the culture, history and art of the Aborigines.
A Commonwealth of Thieves, The Improbable Birth of Australia
Thomas Keneally
Keneally illuminates the birth of New South Wales with drama and flair, richly evoking the social conditions in London, long sea voyage and the conditions in Australia.
First Footprints, The Epic Story of the First Australians
Scott Cane
In tandem with an ABC documentary of the same name, anthropologist Scott Cane produced this informative history to expose a long list of Aboriginal "firsts." The native tribes, he writes, were not only the first humans in Australia, they were the first oceanic mariners and may claim the first art galleries.
The Reef, A Passionate History
Iain McCalman
McCalman, a historian at the University of Sydney, brings to life the explorers and scientists, beachcombers, divers, indigenous peoples and castaways who first experienced the Great Barrier Reef.
The Songlines
Bruce Chatwin
Rory Stewart provides the introduction to this 25th anniversary edition of Bruce Chatwin's celebrated travelogue. Chatwin transforms a journey through the Outback into an exhilarating, semi-fictional meditation on our place in the world.
Aboriginal Art
Wally Caruana
This well-illustrated survey focuses on the spiritual and geographic sources of art and ritual traditions in Australia. With 187 well produced black-and-white and color illustrations.
Australia
Thomas Keneally
This epic history of Australian art begins with early aboriginal paintings from the 1800s and leads up to contemporary works by modern artists, exploring the inescapable link between the dramatic landscapes and the art scene.
Inside Tracks
Robyn Davidson
The astounding story of Robyn Davidson, as captured by National Geographic photographer Rick Smolan. Davidson spent an entire year crossing the Outback with a dog and four camels to keep her company.
The Road from Coorain
Jill Ker Conway
An absorbing account of a young rural girl's coming of age in post-war Sydney. Conway paints a vivid picture of isolation and beauty -- and of the challenges of a bright, ambitious woman growing up Australian.
Australia, A Traveler's Literary Companion
Robert Ross
Arranged geographically, this collection of works by mostly local writers, including Patrick White, Peter Carey and other luminaries, introduces the cultures, geography and mindset of Australia.