Thursday, June 25, 2015

More tales and true in Local Studies : new books on World War One, the Kapooka Tradgedy, and the lost world of Pastoral Holdings circa 1890s




Loss, reverence and longing : ANZAC stories from the home front

This is the official catalogue of the exhibition of the same name , produced and shown by the Wagga Wagga Art Gallery. If you missed the exhibition or are interested in anything to do with World War One, this book alone is well worth reading. Cover to cover, it has beautiful images, moving stories and historical information woven into one perfect whole. 

The Kapooka Explosion: 21 May 1945, by Sherry Morris


Sherry Morris has rescued another important part of Wagga Wagga's history that would otherwise have been lost, with her detailed account of the tragic explosion at Kapooka in 1945. There is also background information, new photographs, diagrams and other documents that fill out the story of what exactly happened that day.




Mackenzie's Riverina, second edition, Including Pictorial Supplement : A tour of the Hay district Pastoral Holdings of the 1890s , articles written by Harold M Mackenzie . Reprinted by the Hay Historical Society.


The preface to this work describes Harold M Mackenzie as "a travelling agent, dealer, and journalist of the late 1800s". (p. 5, Carolyn Merrylees, ed.) The second edition has been updated with photographs old and new, illustrations and maps, and is a cracking read , with Mackenzie's observations on people and properties amusing and informative. Mackenzie has a fine fireside literary style which he uses to great effect in his writing, and you feel like you are sitting with him as he tells his tales. 
If every man, woman or child were sent to goal for 24 hours without the option of a fine for whistling or humming "After the ball", it might have the effect perhaps of making life at present a little more tolerable. Harold M. Mackenzie, p 143, Mackenzie's Riverina 
Winter is a great time to catch up on your history reading so come into the library and have a look through our local history titles !