1
of
1
Convict-era Port Arthur
Misery of the deepest dye
Ratings/reviews counts are updated frequently.
Check link for latest rating. ( 57 ratings, 8 reviews)
Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still
learning, it may not be perfect - your
feedback is welcome!
Summary
Read More
Format: Paperback / softback
$4000
Unit price
/
Unavailable
AVAILABLE WITH SUPPLIER
Ships from our Auckland warehouse within 4-6 weeks
Found a better price? Request a price match
Convict-era Port Arthur
$4000
Unit price
/
Unavailable
Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?
Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and
still learning, it may not be perfect - your
feedback is welcome!
Description
An evocative narrative of the many tragedies that fell upon those who were forced to serve time in Port Arthur, one of the most remote and feared convict locations in Australia.
Detailing the development of the prison and its outlying stations, including its dreaded coal mines, and providing an account of the changing views to convict rehabilitation, Convict-era Port Arthur focuses on a number of individuals, telling the story through their eyes. Charles O'Hara Booth, a significant commandant of Port Arthur; Mark Jeffrey, a convict who became the gravedigger on the Island of the Dead; and William Thompson, who arrived just as the new probation system started and was forced to work in the treacherous coal mines.
Convict-era Port Arthur will, for the first time, provide a comprehensive history of Port Arthur, its horrors, and its changing role over a fifty-year period. In gripping detail, using the experiences and words of the convicts, soldiers, and administrators who spent time there, David W. Cameron brings to life these deeply miserable days.
Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?
Convict-era Port Arthur by David W. Cameron is praised for its detailed examination of historical data from the convict era, such as the number of lashes given annually and coal mine productivity. The book is noted for allowing the era's authentic comments and thoughts to narrate the story, avoiding modern retrospective judgements. Cameron's approach is appreciated for letting the historical context speak for itself without imposing contemporary interpretations.
Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9780143795100
Publisher: Penguin Random House Australia
Format: Paperback / softback
Date Published: 01 June 2021
Country: Australia
Imprint: Viking Australia
Audience: General / adult
DIMENSIONS
Spine width: 32.0mm
Width: 154.0mm
Height: 232.0mm
Weight: 564g
Pages: 448
About the Author
David W. Cameron received his PhD in biological anthropology in 1995 at the Australian National University and is a former Australian Research Council QEII Fellow at the Department of Anatomy & Histology, University of Sydney. He has conducted fieldwork in Australia, Europe, the Middle East and Asia. He is the author of several books on Australian military history and primate evolutionary biology and has published over 60 papers in internationally peer-reviewed journals. He lives in Canberra.
Also by David W. Cameron
View all-
The Battle for Lone Pine
Most Australians have heard of Lone Pine. Too few know why. Over four days in August 1915, Australians and Turks were thrown into some of the fiercest fighting of the war, on a small plateau in Gallipoli known as Lone Pine. Thousands of lives were lost. Seven of Australia's nine Gallipoli VCs were earned during brutal hand-to-hand combat in dark...Paperback$2400Elsewhere:$2600Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
Assassination of the Butcher of Prague
On 4 June 1942, one of the most powerful figures of the Nazi Third Reich, Reinhard Heydrich, the ‘Butcher of Prague’ and architect of the 'Final Solution', died from wounds suffered in an assassination attempt carried out just days before. His death caused shockwaves in the Nazi State, resulting in savage reprisals, with Hitler ordering the annihilation of two village...Paperback$3200Elsewhere:$3500Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
Bloody Buna
With the Australian troops crossing of the Kumusi River in mid-November, after pushing the Japanese back along the Kokoda Track, the time had come to face the entrenched Japanese at their beachheads at Gona, Sanananda, and Buna. The end of the Kokoda Campaign in mid-November 1942 marked a turning point for the Australians, but the fighting was far from over....Paperback$3500Elsewhere:$3799Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
Death on Bloody Ridge
The August Offensive or 'Anzac Breakout' at Gallipoli was an attempt to break the stalemate of the campaign. It saw some of the bloodiest fighting since the landing as Commonwealth and Turkish troops fought desperate battles at Lone Pine, German Officers’ Trench, Turkish Quinn’s, The Chessboard, The Nek, The Farm, Hill Q, Chunuk Bair, and Hill 971. The offensive was...Paperback$3200Elsewhere:$3500Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
Devil Been Walkabout Tonight
Devil Been Walkabout Tonight focuses on the last three months of Robert O’Hara Burke, William John Wills, and John King on Cooper’s Creek. The original expedition, which set out in August 1860, aimed to explore the centre and northern reaches of the Australian continent. The expedition essentially concluded with the death of Burke and Wills on Cooper’s Creek from starvation...Paperback$3200Elsewhere:$3500Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
Gona's Gone!
With the Australian troops' crossing of the Kumusi River in mid-November 1942, after pushing the Japanese back along the Kokoda Track to the north coast of Papua New Guinea, the time had come to face the entrenched Japanese at their beachheads at Gona, Sanananda, and Buna. The Japanese were determined to fight to the last man in the defence of...Paperback$3500Elsewhere:$3799Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
Sanananda: a Bastard of a Place
With the Australian troops crossing the Kumusi River in mid-November 1942, after pushing the Japanese back along the Kokoda Track to the north coast of Papua New Guinea, the time had come to face the entrenched Japanese at their beachhead at Gona, Buna, and Sanananda. The end of the Kokoda Campaign in mid-November 1942 marked a turning point for the...Paperback$3800Elsewhere:$4199Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
Saving Port Moresby
Commemorating the 80th Anniversary of the Battles in New Guinea, David W. Cameron, one of Australia's leading military historians, presents his new Kokoda Campaign series, which will take you from the Battle for Isurava to Port Moresby and finally the retaking of Kokoda. For the first time, these significant battles of Australian troops are comprehensively explored. After taking Kokoda Plateau...Paperback$3500Elsewhere:$3799Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
The Battle of Long Tan
On the afternoon of 18 August 1966, in a rubber plantation in Phuoc Tuy Province, South Vietnam, Australian troops fought one of their bloodiest, most significant battles of the Vietnam War. The Australians had arrived at Nui Dat four months earlier to open up the province. While out on patrol, Delta Company of 6RAR, originally numbering just 105 Australians and...Paperback$3000Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
Discovering Hitler's Führerbunker
The shadow of the Third Reich ended not on the streets of Berlin, but beneath them.Discovering Hitler’s Führerbunker unveils Adolf Hitler’s final refuge, the Führerbunker, deep beneath Berlin. In the labyrinthine depths, Hitler and his inner circle spent the final months of the Second World War. It was here, on 30 April 1945, that Hitler and his new bride, Eva...Paperback$3399Elsewhere:$4199Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
Let the Bastards Come
Anzac Day 2024 represents the 73rd anniversary of the critical battle of Kapyong (23 to 25 April 1951) This book for the first time tells the full story of the Australian, Canadian, New Zealand and American units involved. Fewer than 1,000 Australian and Canadian infantrymen, supported by New Zealand artillery and 15 American Sherman tanks fought off an entire Chinese...Paperback$4199Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
Give the Bastards Hell
In New Guinea’s jungles, a fierce battle turned the tide of the Pacific War—the first major land defeat for the unstoppable Japanese forces. By mid-August 1942, Imperial Japanese forces dominated the Southeast Asian and Pacific theatres, seemingly unstoppable in their advance. While the Japanese South Seas Force pushed north toward Port Moresby along the Kokoda Track, they launched an operation...Paperback$4199Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks
More from Politics & Current Affairs
View all-
New ReleaseOne Last Question, Prime Minister
From Muldoon to Luxon, untold stories from the House of Parliament Barry Soper has spent close to five decades questioning New Zealand's prime ministers.From the imposing, larger-than-life characters of Rob Muldoon and David Lange, to the golden age of Helen Clark and John Key, and the post-Covid era of Jacinda Ardern and the 'Chrises', Soper's insight and nose for a...Paperback$3199Elsewhere:$3999Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
New ReleaseRegime Change
From the two reporters who have covered him more closely than perhaps anyone else over the past decade comes this definitive portrait of Donald Trump in the White House and the first year of his second presidency. Based on hundreds of interviews and unprecedented reporting from deep within the administration’s most closely guarded rooms, Regime Change takes the reader into...Paperback$3299Elsewhere:$4299Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
New ReleaseA Different Kind of Power
#1 New Zealand bestseller #1 Amazon bestseller #2 Audible bestseller #3 New York Times bestseller #3 Sunday Times bestseller #4 Australian bestseller From the former prime minister of New Zealand, then the world’s youngest female head of government and just the second to give birth in office, comes a deeply personal memoir chronicling her extraordinary rise and offering inspiration to...Paperback$3200Elsewhere:$4000Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
Ockham WinnerA Different Kind of Power
What if we could redefine leadership? What if kindness came first? Jacinda Ardern grew up the daughter of a police officer in small-town New Zealand, but as the 40th Prime Minister of her country, she commanded global respect for her empathetic leadership that put people first. This is the remarkable story of how a Mormon girl plagued by self-doubt made...Hardback$4799Elsewhere:$5999Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
Pre-orderSigned Copy
Go Hard or Go Home
From the front bench to rock bottom: Go Hard or Go Home is Kiri Allan's fearless memoir of ambition, disruption and survival in NZ politics and beyond. Kiri Allan's six-year political career spanned some of the most challenging times in recent history. Events a government might encounter once in a generation stacked up: a terrorist attack, a volcanic eruption, destructive and deadly...Paperback$3199Elsewhere:$4000Unit price /UnavailableOut 4 Aug 2026Pre-order -
New ReleaseSuicidal Empathy
The bestselling author of The Parasitic Mind shows why empathy in politics leads to civilizational collapse. What happens when a society elevates victimhood to a virtue and decides that punishment is cruel? You get the disease Dr. Gad Saad calls suicidal empathy. And the West may be terminally infected. In his new book, Suicidal Empathy, Saad unleashes a blistering critique...Paperback$3099Elsewhere:$3799Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
New ReleaseThe Day After: How to Wield Power in a Post-Trump World
From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Shameless, Brian Tyler Cohen explores how Republicans have abused power, how Democrats have refused to exercise power when they held it, and how progressives should wield power if they are fortunate enough to win a free and fair election in a post-Trump world. The Day After: How to Wield Power in...Paperback$3099Elsewhere:$3799Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
Careless People
Shocking and darkly funny, Careless People gives you a front-row seat to the decisions that are shaping our world and the people who make them. Welcome to Facebook. Sarah Wynn-Williams, a young diplomat from New Zealand, pitched for her dream job. She saw Facebook's potential and knew it could change the world for the better. But, when she got there...Paperback$2800Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
Discipline
Silence is complicity, but how do we confront the cost of speaking up? Sydney, May 2021. Ashraf is an academic whose career and personal life are in freefall. Hannah is a young journalist struggling to honour the voices of her community. When a Year 12 Al-Bayinnah College student is arrested for protesting a university's ties to an Israeli weapons manufacturer,...Paperback$4000Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
Shattered Lands
'A sparkling debut by an outstanding young historian' – PETER FRANKOPAN 'This book is a revelation … both original and important' – MISHAL HUSAIN A history of modern South Asia told through five partitions that reshaped it. As recently as 1928, a vast swathe of Asia – India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Burma, Nepal, Bhutan, Yemen, Oman, the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, and...Paperback$3699Elsewhere:$4500Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
The Handmaid's Tale
The bestselling dystopian classic that became a cultural phenomenon and inspired an award-winning TV series. THE SUNDAY TIMES NO. 1 BESTSELLER Go back to where it all began with the dystopian novel behind the award-winning TV series. 'As relevant today as it was when Atwood wrote it.' Guardian I believe in the resistance as I believe there can be no...Paperback$2000Elsewhere:$2400Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
Keep Calm – We Are Coming
Keep Calm — We Are Coming briefly backgrounds the New Zealand Special Air Service deployment in Afghanistan — then goes into action. While primarily training Afghan forces, in Kabul the NZSAS had to respond to a series of ‘spectacular attacks’ by heavily armed Taliban fighters wearing suicide vests and determined to inflict major casualties. In the words of those who...Paperback$4000Elsewhere:$4500Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow
Why buy from us?
Book Hero is not a chain store or big box retailer. We're an independent 100% NZ-owned business on a mission to help more Kiwis rediscover a love of books and reading!
Service & Delivery
Our warehouse in Auckland holds over 80,000 books, toys, board games and puzzles in-stock so you're not waiting for your order to arrive from overseas.
Auckland Bookstore
We're primarily an online store, but for your convenience you can pick up your order for free from our bookstore, which is right next door to our warehouse in Hobsonville.
Our Gifting Service
Books make wonderful thoughtful gifts and we're here to help with gift-wrapping and cards. We can even send your gift directly to your loved one.
