Collection: Adult Non Fiction - History

Subject: This volume looks at the northern end of the bay from Williamstown to Geelong in the west and Port Melbourne to Frankston in the east.

The contest between Arthur Phillip and Jean-Francois Laperouse to get to Botany Bay first and to claim rights to sovereignty of either Britain or France over the Australian continent. Margaret Cameron-Ash rewrites the history of the founding of modern Australia. It tells how the French had a jump...

In August 1833, the Amphitrite, a small convict ship bound for the colonies of Australia, was wrecked in a terrible storm on the coast of France. She carried 102 female prisoners, 12 of their children, along with the captain, the crew, a medical officer and his wife. Only three people survived.

The Italian Renaissance shaped western culture - but it was far stranger and darker than many of us realise. We revere Leonardo da Vinci for his art but few now appreciate his ingenious designs for weaponry. We know the Mona Lisa for her smile but not that she was married to a slave-trader. We vi...