Cirrus@Austlit

'It was hot with stillness in the late afternoon air. The billabong surface shone with unnatural stillness, Fresh tracks at water's edge told of pigs just gone. Two bubbles popped to the surface of the pool; 'just decaying vegetation ssid my mind. I should have smelt crocodile.

'What is it about the Northern Territory that fascinates? Why, for 180 years, has it drawn people to come, stay far longer than intended and, often, never leave.

'Arnhem's Kaleidoscope Children is a remembered story of a family's life in a distant world. The place, Oenpelli, in Australia's Northern Territory, is like remote Canada or Alaska, where few others go. It is the landscape of Crocodile Dundee, myriad hues of billabongs, open grass plains, sunlit hills and purple storms, peopled by its many coloured children.

'It is a story of a changing world; how a missionary family and aboriginal community became part of modern Australia over 50 years. The role of my father in opening road transport and crossing of the East Alligator River, developing aboriginal outstations, learning to fly on missionary wages and establishing an aviation service along with assisting the aboriginal peoples of this land to gain royalties from mining is a story that deserves to be told.

'It also tells of my own experience of surviving attack by a large crocodile in a remote swamp. This book and story provides a foundation for my novels in the Crocodile Spirit Dreaming Series. The places in these books are the places in which I lived and worked and many of the stories came little changed from people I knew. In particular my experience in surviving a crocodile attack of a large saltwater crocodile, which mauled my leg as told in this book forms part of the central role of the crocodile as a predator in this novel series.' (Publication summary)

'The girl you love vanishes - you search and search. No trace is found. You see someone who looks so like her - she looks at you but does not know you, no recognition flickers. Is it a mirage, dream or desperate hope? She likes you. You ask and she comes with you. Her mind sees only sunlight. You see dark shadowed edges. Can you remake your life with a person who holds no memory of you? An unknown girl appears on an aboriginal community in far north Queensland. She has no memory of any life before, no one knows her. The people in the community say she just arrived one day. Who is she? Where has she come from? She looks like a missing backpacker, Susan, but her name is Jane. Her past life is an unknown place from where she knows no one. She is trying to make a new life without any connections to her past. This is the final book of the Crocodile Spirit Dreaming Series. It tells the story of an English backpacker who went travelling in Outback Australia with a man who loved crocodiles, and how her life turned into a horror nightmare. She finally gets her freedom only to disappear. Her name was Susan. She was on trial for murder when she vanished. She had been just released on bail, despite pleading guilty, when new evidence indicating self-defense was found. She was also pregnant and expecting twins. Since she disappeared only a pair of shoes she was wearing have been found. They were next to a waterhole full of crocodiles. It is feared that she and her unborn children are dead, taken by crocodiles. More than a year has passed without any other trace of her. An inquest has made an open finding on her disappearance. Is there a link between missing Susan and this girl, Jane, who turns up out of nowhere, knowing no one, remembering nothing? Can this girl, Jane, build a new and happy life with her two small children. Can whatever tragedy haunted her past be overcome? This is the story of the remaking of a new life from the broken shell of the old - and how memories of the old threaten to tear apart the new. And at the dark edge lurks an ancient creature of the deep, a being whose lineage is the long lost Australian Aboriginal Dreamtime, the time when the spirits made this land. Yet beyond this dark is a new place where sunlit shadows dance.' (Publication summary)

'Four passports are found of girls who vanished in Australia. The girl who found them has disappeared too. Who are these girls? Where have they gone? A diary and search in Australia and across the world give tiny glimpses and fragments, but their stories remain elusive. The police search, friends and families search and grieve in alternate measure, but five girls remain gone, their fate unknown. Anne is wracked by guilt at her failure to save her friend, Susan, who vanished one night soon after her release from jail. The evidence suggests she has returned to the place where she and her lover parted, she chose him and the crocodiles over life. She was in advanced pregnancy with twins and so three people are gone. Anne has her friend's story, her voice on a tape is the last fragment left to her of a vanished existence. She must tell this story so that the world can know of this lovely brave girl who seems forever lost. And the families of the other four girls want their stories told too. She has the man's diary, which tells parts, but there is much that makes no sense. It reveals another shadowy girl who may have gone too. She travels to the places from where they have come and were last seen in search of answers. She faithfully records each story, five or even six lost girls, each girl gone, nobody knows where. As she searches patterns emerge which help to explain the why and some of the how, but not where they are now. Almost certainly some are dead, but could some still survive.. She is determined not to surrender all hope that at least one or two may yet be found alive. After a year nothing has been found. She must put it behind her and try to get on with her own life, but guilt and hope keep driving her on, searching still.' (Publication summary)

'The papers call him Crocodile Man. A fisherman found an unidentified head in a waterhole in Northern Australia. A huge and ancient crocodile lives there and does not want to let it go. Police are called to investigate. What first appeared to be a crocodile attack turns into murder. Who is this man who no one seems to know? Who is the unknown girl who was with him before he died? Why did she hide what happened on that fateful day? Book 2 of the Crocodile Spirit Dreaming Series is a dark Outback Noir tale of a girl who is charmed by a man in Outback Australia, only to find he hides a terrible secret.' (Publication summary)

'The Australian Imperial Force, first raised in 1914 for overseas war service became better known by its initials, the AIF. There was a distinct character to those who enlisted in the earliest months and who were destined to fight on Gallipoli. During the war the AIF took its place among the great armies of the world, on some of history's oldest battlefields. The Australians would attack at the Dardanelles, enter Jerusalem and Damascus, defend Amiens and Ypres, and swagger through the streets of Cairo, Paris, and London, with their distinctive slouch hats and comparative wealth of six shillings per day. However, the legend of the AIF is shrouded in myth and mystery. Was Beersheba the last great cavalry charge in history? Did the AIF storm the red light district of Cairo and burn it to ground while fighting running battles with the military police? Was the AIF the only all-volunteer army of World War I? This book shines an unforgiving light on these and other well-known myths of the AIF in World War I, arguing that these spectacular legends simply serve to diminish the hard-won reputation of the AIF as a fighting force. Graham Wilson mounts his own campaign to rehabilitate the historical reputation of the force and to demonstrate that misleading and inaccurate embellishment does nothing but hide the true story of Australia's World War I fighting army. This book deliberately tilts at some well loved windmills and, for those who cherish the mythical story of the AIF, this will not be comfortable reading. Yet, given the extraordinary truth of the AIF's history, it is certainly compelling reading.' (Publication Summary)

'An English backpacker is on trial for murder in Australia . The tabloids say she killed her lover and fed his body to crocodiles.She refuses to say what happened. She is trapped inside her mind in a place of guilt, horror and emptiness. She is determined to plead guilty to protect her child from the deeds of the father. She will kill herself before she reveals what occurred. She awaits conviction and sentencing, expecting to spend her life in jail. One person has the knowledge that may help her - it is the contents of Mark's diary. But he and his helicopter vanish. Everyone thinks he is dead. They were last seen heading into "The Empty Place" - a remote part of Australia's Northern Territory, a place where no one lives and very few have reason to go to. So now Susan is devoid of hope, loosing her sanity and has formed a plan to end it all, for herself. But the detective who discovered Susan's identity continues to seek the truth. He knows there must be another story to explain why. He must discover this man's past to unlock the secret. The rest of officialdom just wants to lock this girl up and throw away the key.' (Publication summary)

'When a fresh faced young English girl visits Australia she goes first to the Barrier Reef. He she meets a charming man from the outback of Australia.Almost before she can think they are engaged in a passionate affair. She finds him and his life fascinating. She agrees to meet him in Alice Springs and travel with him through some of the remotest parts of the Northern Territory. But a series of chance events leads her to believe that he is not who he says he is. Yet she is incredibly drawn to him. Their relationship deepens and becomes ever more intense. She must choose, whether to leave or stay. Can she take a chance and risk being drawn into his murky world. Finally it is just her and him at a remote river, infested by crocodiles. With the crocodiles lie both their destinies.' (Publication summary)