Cirrus@Austlit

'Something is happening. I can hear bullets going off, and people are running down towards the Eureka field...

'In 1854 Rosa Aarons and her family travel from London to the goldfields at Ballarat. She makes new friends, learns to ride a horse and helps her family get by. Soon Rosa becomes caught up in one of the most dramatic events in Australian history: the Eureka Stockade. As the battle between the miners and the soldiers rages around her, Rosa's main concern is the safety of her beloved Papa.' (Publication summary)

You’d hardly kno'w our street anymore… it looks like some place in Africa where there’s been fighting, not like Sydney. I know they had to pull down houses that you couldn’t live in no more and they’ll put up new ones instead only they’ll be different so The Rocks’ll really never look the same again, will it?

'The year 1900 was a momentous one for Kitty Barnes. Bubonic plague, the Black Death, was killing large numbers of people; the country was on the verge of becoming a federation; Kitty’s brother was in Africa fighting in the Boer War; and Kitty was finding herself somewhat attracted to Reggie, the boy down the road.' (Publication summary)

'Thomas dreams of escaping his bleak life in a small town and becoming a world-famous journalist. Guided by his adventurous spirit and insatiable curiosity, he smuggles himself aboard an American whaling ship, and finds himself caught up in one of the most daring escape plans in Australian history. ' (Publication summary)

'When fourteen-year-old Tom Taylor moves to Darwin with his family, he hardly guesses that tragedy will soon change his life forever. Although Tom helps to dig slit trenches, and though the Japanese edge closer through Malaysia and Singapore, the war seems far away.' (Publication summary)

'I looked over my shoulder and saw a black stallion heading my way. There was a man riding the stallion and he was familiar somehow. As he got closer I could see a small child on the saddle in front of him...

'When Ben Cross runs away from his brutal uncle, he is looking for adventure. But he finds much more than that when he joins the bushranger Thunderbolt and becomes the cockatoo – or lookout – for the bushranger’s gang.

'In between raiding cattle stations, inns, stores and mail coaches Ben befriends Thunderbolt’s wife Mary Ann, helping in her endless hunt for food and hiding places in the wilderness.

'But at the end of a year of running from the law, of dramatic rescue and desperate shootouts, both Ben and Thunderbolt know they must give up the bushranging life.

'If they can...' (Publieher's blurb)

'Victor McDonald is cricket mad. He plays for his school team and his dream is to meet his cricketing hero, Don Bradman. But Australia is in the grip of the Great Depression. Work isn't easy to come by. Victor's father has lost his job and the family is moving to Sydney. Despite the daily struggle of life in inner Sydney, Victor not only sees Don Bradman in action, he even gets to meet him. With the England cricket team coming to Australia, Victor knows it's going to be a great cricket season. But England has some nasty surprises in store. This will be one cricket season the Australians - and Victor - will never forget.' (Publication summary)

'It is 1915 and Australia is involved in the First World War. Young Australian men are dying in the trenches of Europe. To soldiers fighting in France and Gallipoli, the village of Wirreebilla in the Adelaide Hills seems peaceful and far away. But is it really so peaceful? German settlers are increasingly being treated as aliens by Wirreebilla locals and old friends become the new enemy. When Emma Shelldrake experiences this hatred first-hand, she begins to understand how difficult wartime can be for everyone.'

Source: Australian War Memorial.