Books published by Wakefield Press

Irish South Australia: new histories and insights is a fresh look at the Irish contribution to South Australia. It includes the most recent work by passionate researchers covering adisciplines from archaeology to cultural studies through to local and state history.

She is the one I really want; that wandering spirit, the woman who gave birth to my grandfather and could not let him go, even when he had separated himself from her, from the land of his birth, and from all that he had known.It's a long way from a small southern German village to a farm in New South Wales, but in 1889 Anna Werner sets off alone on a foolish mission, to search for her son who has disappeared in Australia. From Hamburg to the exuberance of the 'Marvellous Melbourne' of the 1800s and the immigrant life of the Riverina German farming community of Jindera, Anna discovers as much about herself as she does about the thriving country she encounters.In Search of Anna is based on the true story of one woman's long and perilous journey from the small German village of Lewin, to the farms of Jindera in Australia. It has been extensively researched and is full of vivid detail about life in Germany and Australia during the 1800s. It is a sensitive exploration of the relationship between mothers and sons, and tells of a woman's search for herself.

In this lively, provocative collection, some of Australia's leading historians - and a Miles Franklin shortlisted historical novelist - challenge established myths, narratives and 'beautiful lies' about South Australia's past. Some are unmasked as false stories that mask brutal realities, like colonial violence - while others are revealed as simplistic versions of more complex truths. 'Each generation writes history that speaks to its own interests and concerns,' write historians Paul Ashton and Anna Clark. In Foundational Fictions in South Australian History, which grew out of a series of public lectures at the University of Adelaide, an impressive range of contributors suggest different ways in which familiar narratives of South Australia can be interpreted. These essays tap into wider debates, too, about the nature and purpose of history - and the 'history wars' first flamed by John Howard.Stuart Macintyre highlights South Australia's central role in several national events. Humphrey McQueen questions the origins and influence of the money behind South Australia's so-called progressive founding. Lucy Treloar suggests historians can learn from novelists when it comes to understanding the past. Steven Anderson argues that Don Dunstan's achievement in abolishing capital punishment owed much to a historical movement. And Carolyn Collins highlights the role of anti-conscription group Save Our Sons (SOS) in not just ending the Vietnam War, but broadening the appeal of the anti-war movement.

Reinhold (Jack) Schuster was an illegal German immigrant. A trained soldier in the German Armeekorps, he sat out both world wars in the Australian outback of Broken Hill. Jack's story debunks the myth that salutes the mining town as the birthplace of solidarity - by exposing divisiveness, prejudice and powerlessness. The only enemy attack to take place on Australian soil during World War I occurred in Broken Hill, and Jack was there to witness the mob violence that followed. He watched unionists stone the troop trains heading off to war and learned of brutality against his countrymen in the Torrens Island internment camp. Christine Ellis's grandfather came to life through stories told by her mother - some of which defied belief. Christine's research confirmed them. Silver Lies, Golden Truths is Jack Schuster's story. It tells of the love between a father and his young daughter, of idyllic family times, and the cruel cost of working in the mines.

In this book, for the first time, all of the State's grasses have been carefully drawn to show their salient features, including more than 450 line drawings and 20 paintings illustrating typical members of each tribe. In recent years there has been an enormous growth in interest in grasses for agricultural and horticultural purposes. After South Australia's Native Grass Resources Group identified a need by land managers for up-to-date information, the State Herbarium of South Australia agreed to undertake the preparation of this handbook.Descriptions, illustrations and keys provide the essential information, while special features such as ecological notes provided by field workers and brief statements of distribution for Australia and overseas are also included. Grasses of South Australia provides easy-to-read and valuable information for everyone with an interest in grasses, whatever their expertise, including people living and working in rural areas and those involved in conservation and re-vegetation.

Pens and Bayonets gives voice to the young Australia soldiers who volunteered to fight for our freedom in the Great War. They answered the call willingly, with many thinking it may be all over before they got there. How wrong they were. South Australia, and Yorke Peninsula in particular, were proud to provide soldiers for their country. The letters were written during quiet periods and give us an insight and sometimes graphic account of the day-to-day encounters during the Gallipoli campaign and various offensives on the Western Front and Palestine. Communication options abound in the modern age, but imagine the challenges of 100 years ago, with your son, brother, uncle or nephew on the other side of the world, fighting in what we now know to be horrendous conditions, writing a letter home. It would take months for the letter to arrive. With the letter came a connection with family that gave a belief that their loved ones were safe and, importantly, the needed hope that the end of the Great War would bring them home. The letters the soldiers received, many weeks after being written, gave comfort and solace to these men, and provided their only contact with loved ones. Don Longo has gathered many of these moving letters, and set them in their historical context, to bring these soldiers back to life.

I am indeed a partof all those I have met,and must learn who I am.A politician, a cooking contest winner, a troubled clergyman, a much-married socialite, a TV evangelist - what could they have in common? Why do they (and half a million others) travel to Oberammergau, the small German village that has staged a Passion Play every tenth year since 1634?In a four-day bus trip, very different people are drawn together for diverse reasons, similar to the varied group whom Chaucer brought to life in his Canterbury Tales. But these travellers do not tell invented stories to entertain each other; they reveal to us with raw and often painful honesty their own lives and motives.Shortlisted for the 2014 OMEGA Writers CALEB Poetry Prize

Colouring the Rainbow uncovers the often hidden world of Queer and Trans Blak Australia and tells it like it is.Twenty-two First Nations people reveal their inner reflections and outlooks on family and culture, identity and respect, homophobia, transphobia, racism and decolonisation, activism, art, performance and more, through life stories and essays. The contributors to this ground-breaking book not only record the continuing relevance of traditional culture and practices, they also explain the emergence of homonormativity within the context of contemporary settler colonialism.Colouring the Rainbow is a real, searing and celebratory exploration of modern culture in post-apology Australia.

Everybody has a theory about the Titanic. But what actually happened? Here, in one fascinating volume, are detailed answers to the questions that have been asked time and again about that fateful night. Is it true there weren't enough lifeboats on board? Did the lookouts really miss spotting the iceberg because they weren't given binoculars? Did owner Ismay order the ship to go faster than normal because he was trying to break the transatlantic speed record? Should we believe the band went down playing Nearer, My God, To Thee?

Sad and funny, sexy and sensitive, angry and insightful: the deeply personal stories in this book reflect a rainbow of experiences and emotions, as diverse as the storytellers themselves. Join chief editor Maria Pallotta-Chiarolli and the Australian LGBTIQ Multicultural Council for a journey of discovery through queer multicultural multifaith Australia, with more than sixty voices from across the spectrum of sexualities and genders, families and relationships. Annette Xiberras, lesbian Wurundjeri Elder with a Maltese father, provides a Welcome to Book and insights into her Indigenous-migrant family. Filmmakers Tony Ayres and Franco Di Chiera share their experiences telling stories from minority cultures on Australian screens, while Benjamin Law talks queer Asian-Australian identity, and making The Family Law for SBS. Broadcaster Faustina Agolley talks about being 'out' as a woman of colour, and Anton Enus tells us about coming out as a 'coloured' gay man in South Africa. Entertainer Paul Capsis reflects on doing Cabaret in the age of Trump while Asiel Adan talks about non-binary gender across the US border in Mexico. Meanwhile, Christos Tsiolkas imagines Ari, the protagonist of his iconic novel Loaded, now middle-aged, during a weekend of mass violence in distant Paris, while Patrick Abboud travels the world so he can come home. Alyena Mohummadally searches for reconciliation between her queer and Muslim identities and Tony Briffa shares a personal story of growing up with intersex variations and the rigidity of Western medicine.

During the last century, global domestic cat numbers rocketed past 200 million, along with a surge in cat diseases and numbers of feral cats and sick, injured and malnourished cats. Cat shelters are overflowing. Hundreds of thousands of cats are euthanised every year by despondent animal welfare workers. Misplaced sentimentality, sometimes promoted by corporate greed of cat food companies, has exacerbated this situationthrough promoting irresponsible feeding of strays.Ecologist and author John Read has travelled the world consulting cat experts and collating the most recent science. In Among the Pigeons he balances the allure of indoor cats with the animal welfare, human health, and conservation issues they create when allowed to roam. But he also presents solutions, from breeding ideal indoor pet cats to development of humane and targeted tools to control feral cats.In striking parallel to the repercussions of human-induced climate change, warnings about the damage wrought by free-ranging cats have been largely denied or overlooked. But we ignore these issues at our peril. For our own mental health and endangered wildlife worldwide, time is running out.

A man of substance in war and in peace, Dr Donald Beard, AM, is a leader, and known for his compassion, humility and charm. The Diggers' Doctor tells of his extraordinary life as a surgeon, as well as his love of cricket and deep friendship with cricketers, including Sir Donald Bradman. It was in the Beards' backyard that The Don faced Jeff Thomson and hit his last cricket ball.Dr Donald Beard has embraced those from all walks of life and considers himself enriched by the experience. Surgery, cricket, music, theatre, reading and his love for Margaret, the greatest love of his life, has warmed him to thousands. It has indeed been a fortunate life.'Don Beard - "the Doc" - is a familiar and much-loved figure at cricket grounds around Australia and the world. In another part of his extraordinary life, as an army doctor, he is equally revered. His role as a doctor tending to soldiers in combat in Korea is a byword in the Australian Army. At the Battle of Kapyong in 1951 his inspirational care and leadership contributed to the love the soldiers had for this strong man of peace and compassion. His invariable good humour, stamina and great professional skill made him a wonderful role model for further generations of medicos in uniform. I am delighted that one of Australia's great cricketers is writing about the Doc, one of nature's gentlemen.' - General Peter Cosgrove, AK, MC (Retd)

When South Australia was founded in 1836, the British government was pursuing a new approach to the treatment of Aboriginal people, hoping to avoid the violence that marked earlier Australian settlement. The colony's founding Proclamation declared that as British subjects, Aboriginal people would be as much 'under the safeguard of the law as the Colonists themselves, and equally entitled to the privileges of British subjects'. But could colonial governments provide the protection that was promised?Out of the Silence explores the nature and extent of violence on South Australia's frontiers in light of the foundational promise to provide Aboriginal people with the protection of the law, and the resonances of that history in social memory. What do we find when we compare the history of the frontier with the patterns of how it is remembered and forgotten? And what might this reveal about our understanding of the nation's history and its legacies in the present?

Edward Thompson Mobsby, father of twin baby girls, volunteered for war service and was shot down by the Japanese in New Guinea in 1942. John Read's quest for an apology for the death of his grandfather took him and his family from suburban Australia to a startling discovery in the mighty Owen Stanley Ranges, and on to Hiroshima.John learned about Miyuki, a Japanese woman who had also taken her mother to New Guinea to answer questions about her grandfather's death. When they eventually met in Osaka, their long conversations brought understanding, reconciliation and, almost, forgiveness. And, critically, revealed the value of crosscultural dialogue in helping spare future generations from the despair and waste of international conflict.

The People's Poet Transformed is a gem of a book positioned beautifully to engage young people with language so that they see how powerful literature can be created out of everyday life, deeply and sensitively observed. Road-tested by teachers, it encourages students to become creators of ideas and texts and to use language to transform both texts and their own view of themselves as people with stories worth hearing. - Garry Costello, Former secondary principal, English teacher & Chief Education Officer for DECD, South AustraliaGeoff Goodfellow has been an outspoken voice in schools over many years, engaging thousands of students through his poems to think about contemporary issues with his honesty, passion and wit. This wonderful publication combines Geoff's powerful poetry and prose with Rebecca Bond's creative teaching practice to provide excellent approaches to the compulsory Transformation Task in the new SACE Stage 1 English course, as well as Stage 2 English Literary Studies. - Alison Robertson, President, South Australian English Teachers' AssociationTo see Geoff Goodfellow perform is to be caught up in vignettes of experience and observation that become dramatically real. Geoff's collaboration with educator Rebecca Bond is that rare find-an engaging and accessible text that actually works in the classroom. - Richard Noone, Curriculum Leader English, Westminster School, South Australia

Anzac biscuits, baked in Australia and New Zealand for over a century, have a powerful connection to the national identity and culture of both countries. But what is the story of this national icon? Were they eaten by troops during the First World War? When did coconut make an appearance? And where do you stand on the crispy versus chewy debate? Culinary detective Allison Reynolds has travelled Australia, New Zealand and England delving into war files and family cookbooks to investigate the provenance of this extraordinary everyday biscuit.

Barossa Journeys: Into a valley of tradition creates a sensory experience where the flavours of wine and food intermingle with the celebrations of festivals and music. Favourite places and enchanting, out-of-the-way sites are revealed. Explore places as evocative as the long-lost village of Hoffnungsthal, and the strange cave home of the eccentric explorer Menge. Wander through historic cemeteries and puzzle over inscriptions written in Gothic text; view traditional Fachwerk cottages and Lutheran churches. Listen to the tales of the Barossa: of the migration of Prussian refugees, the entrepreneurship of British and German winery pioneers, and the planting of Yalumba's vineyards on moonlit evenings. Follow the secret treks of the potter.The Barossa's old customs and symbols are also explained: the black Lutheran wedding dress; the tin-kettling rite; the featherstripping evenings; the pagan meanings of harvest celebrations; and the Wends and their folklore and witchcraft beliefs.