Graham Seal

Spine-Tingling Tales of Disappearances, Secrets, Unsolved Crimes and Lost Treasure

Great Australian Mysteries

Australia's master storyteller Graham Seal brings to life the enigmas and puzzles behind famous unsolved crimes, long-held secrets, buried loot and strange phenomena from the bush and the city. Australia has always been a land of mysteries. Some are ancient, some are historical, and many continue to perplex us today - and will probably continue to do so tomorrow. More often than most of us would like to think, things simply vanish, and people disappear without explanation, leaving a trail of heartbreak across generations. Australia also has its fair share of buried loot and fabulous riches gone missing - somewhere. Master storyteller Graham Seal has gathered mysteries from around Australia. There are riddles of lost explorers, unexplained phenomena, and yarns of fish, frogs or pebbles falling from the sky. There are unsolved crimes and long-held secrets; hidden tunnels and wartime enigmas; and hair-raising tales from the bush and from the city. 'Graham Seal brings to life stories of missing treasures, shipwrecks, First Nation legends, mysterious happenings and the occasional murder... I had often wondered what happened to Cook's vessel the Endeavour, Ned Kelly's skull and The Pyjama Girl's murderer. Graham's book answers most of these queries but, as with any good mystery, raises further questions and makes you think.' - Rob Willis OAM, National Library of Australia Oral History and Folklore Collections

Spine-tingling tales of disappearances, secrets, unsolved crimes and lost treasure

A powerful account of how coerced migration built the British Empire In the early seventeenth century, Britain took ruthless steps to deal with its unwanted citizens, forcibly removing men, women, and children from their homelands and sending them to far-flung corners of the empire to be sold off to colonial masters. This oppressive regime grew into a brutal system of human bondage which would continue into the twentieth century. Drawing on firsthand accounts, letters, and official documents, Graham Seal uncovers the traumatic struggles of those shipped around the empire. He shows how the earliest large-scale kidnapping and transportation of children to the American colonies were quickly bolstered with shipments of the poor, criminal, and rebellious to different continents, including Australia. From Asia to Africa, this global trade in forced labor allowed Britain to build its colonies while turning a considerable profit. Incisive and moving, this account brings to light the true extent of a cruel strand in the history of the British Empire.

The Transported Men, Women and Children Who Built Britain's Empire

Condemned

Traditional Humour from the Bush and the Outback

Australia's Funniest Yarns

'Graham Seal writes ripper, fair dinkum, true-blue Aussie yarns.' - The Weekly Times Australians traditionally like their humour irreverent, crude and with very sharp teeth. Perhaps you've heard of the vicious drop bears that fall on unsuspecting tourists as they walk through the bush? Or the hoop snakes that put their tails in their mouths as they roll down the hill towards you? Or how about the Citizenship Test for Aspiring Australians which begins with this question about an essential life skill: 'How many slabs can you fit in the back of a Falcon ute while also allowing room for your cattle dog?' The bush is the source of traditional Aussie humour. Pioneering, settlement and battling fire, flood and drought have produced yarns of tough cocky farmers, shearers, bush workers, swaggies and dreadful cooks. Much of this humour relates to the resilience and fortitude necessary to endure the realities of rural life. Australians took this sensibility with them to war and to work in the cities, and the tradition continues today. Whatever the circumstances, Australians have always found something to laugh about, laugh at or laugh off. 'Graham Seal has the knack of the storyteller.' - Warren Fahey AM

Traditional humour from the bush and the outback

'Aussies know how to spin a good yarn, and Graham Seal knows how to tell them.' - Weekly Times Graham Seal is one of Australia's master storytellers. This bumper collection of yarns from the bush gathers some of our best stories since colonial times, retold in Graham's warm style. It takes a certain character to make a living in the Australian bush. In the most difficult situations, laughter often comes to the rescue. Here are pioneers and battlers, convicts and settler's children, and a land that tests them with fire, flood and drought, in stories resonant with Australia's distinctive wry humour. Originally published as two bestselling collections: Great Australian Stories and Larrikins, Bush Tales and Other Great Australian Stories. 'Graham Seal has the knack of the storyteller.' - Warren Fahey AM

The Big Book of Great Australian Bush Yarns

Graham Seal has the knack of the storyteller' Warren Fahey AM Graham Seal takes us back to Australia's ignominious beginnings, when a hungry child could be transported to the other side of the globe for the theft of a handkerchief. It was a time when men were flogged till they bled for a minor misdemeanour, or forced to walk the treadmill for hours. Teams in iron chains carved roads through sandstone cliffs with hand picks, and men could select wives from a line up at the Female Factory. From the notorious prison regimes at Norfolk Island, Port Arthur and Macquarie Harbour came chilling accounts of cruelty, murder and even cannibalism. Despite the often harsh conditions, many convicts served their prison terms and built successful lives for themselves and their families. With a cast of colourful characters from around the country--the real Artful Dodger, intrepid bushrangers like Martin Cash and Moondyne Joe, and the legendary nurse Margaret Catchpole--Great Convict Stories offers a fascinating insight into life in Australia's first decades.

Dramatic and moving tales from Australia's brutal early years

Great Convict Stories

Ned Kelly did not say Tell 'em I died! But well he might have -- and many people believe he did. Graham Seal's classic study of the Ned Kelly legend shows that, in a sense, facts are unimportant. Many generations of Australians have needed to believe in Ned Kelly, and have tailored his legend to fit their needs. The recent upsurge in Ned Kelly is the latest phase in a tradition that has taken Ned from bush Robin Hood and folk hero to media obsession and national icon, projected to the world as part of the 2000 Sydney Olympics celebrations. Regardless of the facts, the bushranger who murdered policemen and robbed banks remains Australia's best-loved villain -- or hero?

The Legend of Ned Kelly

Tell 'em I Died Game

'Graham Seal has the knack of the storyteller' - Warren Fahey AM The tradition of yarns from the bush goes back to the earliest days in Australia. Colourful rural characters and dramatic incidents parade through our history and folklore, entertaining and appalling us in equal measure. Graham Seal has gathered classic and little-known stories from when most Australians lived outside the cities, and communication was by dirt track or boat. There's the time when farmers used their Ferguson tractors to save a town from floodwaters; when soldiers took on mobs of emus devastating the wheat crop; the Lady Bushranger who lived rough in a cave; Bob the railway dog who hitched rides on trains for years; and the many dubious strategies devised against the pesky bush fly over the years. True or more than a little exaggerated, these stories reflect the distinctive way of life of rural and outback folk which continues to this day.

Colourful yarns and true tales from life on the land

Great Bush Stories

Highwaymen, badmen and bushrangers, both mythical and historical, have been part of folklore for centuries. Remembered and recreated through song, stories and film, this cultural tradition has been remarkably resilient across time and place. Graham Seal shows that these famous "social bandits" share many characteristics, particularly as anti-authority figures, and are best understood within class, ethnic and national struggles. From Robin Hood to outlaws in cyberspace, this book is an important study for folklorists.

A Cultural Tradition in Britain, America and Australia

The Outlaw Legend

Timothy Doyle

Indian Ocean studies, which once lagged behind studies of the Atlantic and the Pacific, is an important emerging academic field which has come into its own. In the next fifty years, the Indian Ocean Region will become very significant as a result of enormous demographic changes. What was the Ocean of the South is rapidly becoming the Ocean of the Centre, the Ocean of the Future. Curtin University, Western Australia, has a long and distinguished history of engagement with the Indian Ocean region and with Indian Ocean Studies, and its Australia-Asia-Pacific Institute of Curtin University continues to maintain a focus on the Indian Ocean -past, present and future. This book examines a number of themes emerging from its 2014 Conference entitled "Indian Ocean Futures", which attracted some of the best Indian Ocean region scholars. The conference connected humanities, social sciences and scientific disciplines; this book collects some of the preeminent works focused on geo-strategic, cultural, environmental security and human security themes. The book is also an important contribution to the building of academic diplomacy in the region – that is to say, it contributes to region-building by creating epistemic communities and networks between government, the private sector, and academia throughout the region. Through the pursuit of academic diplomacy, academics are capable of pursuing research goals which enhance governmental, business, and civil society objectives of the day. This book was previously published as a special issue of the Journal of the Indian Ocean Region.

New Partnerships, New Alliances, and Academic Diplomacy

Indian Ocean Futures

Originial edition has subtitle: extraordinary stories of survival and tragedy from the early voyages of discovery to Australia.

Extraordinary Stories of Survival and Tragedy from the Early Voyages of Discovery

The Savage Shore

'These stories show the overwhelming blood and honour, heroism and horror that was the Australian experience on our cruellest shores.' - Peter FitzSimons 'Accessible, short, often fresh tales capture the spirit and sentiment of Anzac.' - Roland Perry Over the years, the experiences of soldiers at war become the stuff of legend: tales of great bravery, battlefield wins, and also the tragic losses and poignant moments. Great Anzac Stories gathers iconic stories of Australians at war-on the front line and at home. Here we relive the horror of the first day on Gallipoli, acutely aware of what was to come. We admire the courage of the men who fought at Fromelles, the Rats of Tobruk, the Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels and the secret submariners. We remember the nurses working in impossible conditions, support efforts on the home front, and some of the most daring men this country has ever produced. With larrikin episodes, grim jokes from the front, and dramatic eyewitness accounts, Great Anzac Stories includes many stories which haven't seen the light of day since wartime. It uncovers the distinctive character of the Australian digger, and the growth of the Anzac tradition over the years.

The men and women who created the digger legend

Great Anzac Stories

Lloyd Blake

Australia’s Submariners are a group with an extremely strong sense of identity that goes well beyond occupational comradeship or the esprit de corps of military life in peace or war. Since 1914, the unique skills, attitudes, values and demands of the work they do and the environment in which they do it have forged unparalleled camaraderie. A camaraderie that extends beyond nationality, embracing submariners past and present of every other nation. No one but submariners understand the experience of diving deep beneath the waves in technology filled tubes of steel, each submariner totally dependent on the other for a safe return to the surface. The ethos of Australia’s submariners is based upon these factors and remains strong even when they leave the sea and take up other occupations. Australia’s future submarines will certainly present challenges in terms of sophistication, technology and capability however the characteristics of our submariners evolved over previous generations will remain much the same; trained and equipped to meet the challenges; just as they have been met and surmounted so many times, in silence, over a century of service.

Century of Silent Service

This book is an overview and analysis of the global tradition of the outlaw hero. The mythology and history of the outlaw hero is traced from the Roman Empire to the present, showing how both real and mythic figures have influenced social, political, economic and cultural outcomes in many times and places. The book also looks at the contemporary continuations of the outlaw hero mythology, not only in popular culture and everyday life, but also in the current outbreak of global terrorism. The book also presents a more general argument related to the importance of understanding folk and popular mythologies in historical contexts. Outlaw heroes have a strong purchase in high and popular culture, appearing in film, books, plays, music, drama, art, even ballet. To simply ignore and discard such powerful expressions without understanding their origins, persistence and especially their ongoing cultural consequences, is to refuse the opportunity to comprehend some profoundly important aspects of human behaviour. These issues are pursued through discussion of the processes through which real and mythical outlaw heroes are romanticised, sentimentalised, sanitised, commodified and mythologised. The result is a new position in the continuing controversy over the existence the ‘social bandit’ that highlights the central role of mythology in the creation and perpetuation of outlaw heroes.

Outlaw Heroes in Myth and History

This book is an overview and analysis of the global tradition of the outlaw hero. The mythology and history of the outlaw hero is traced from the Roman Empire to the present, showing how both real and mythic figures have influenced social, political, economic and cultural outcomes in many times and places. The book also looks at the contemporary continuations of the outlaw hero mythology, not only in popular culture and everyday life, but also in the current outbreak of global terrorism.

Kim Kennedy White

This comprehensive collection of folk hero tales builds on the success of the first edition by providing readers with expanded contextual information on story characters from the Americas to Zanzibar. • Supplies entries on folk tale characters worldwide that identify related heroes and heroines and provide additional contextual information • Features a geographical organization that enables readers to research a specific region's folk characters • Provides an alphabetical index as well as an index of heroic character types to facilitate cross-cultural and historical comparisons • Includes sidebars with passages from the folk tales, popular culture, and other items of interest

Folk Heroes and Heroines around the World, 2nd Edition

Entries describe the origins and deeds of folk heroes as they have existed in folktales, songs, oral tradition, and other folklore genres.

Encyclopedia of Folk Heroes

A lively linguistic analysis of our distinctive forms of speech drawn from a range of everyday experiences, including work, relaxation, gambling, drinking, family life, sport, crime, war, politics and sexual relations.

Graham Seal

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