The best books to make you think about perilous voyages halfway around the world

This is a heavy tome, but it is really compelling reading for a history buff like me. Hughes tells the story of the British colonisation of the continent we now know as Australia by focusing on details, details, details—and people! This is not a dry academic book taking the reader through a timeline. Instead, I like its focus on the people at the basis of this brutal period in the history of Australia, associated with huge human costs—both for the convicts forcibly transported half a world away and for the Indigenous population.

Hughes is a storyteller, and he does engage in some speculation, but overall, his facts hold up, and so this book is a must-read for anyone with even a passing interest in how modern Australia developed over the past 250 years. 

In early times, during the European colonisation of the East Indies (the Spice Islands), the various East India companies would closely follow the African shoreline on their way north and east from the Cape of Good Hope. This turned out to be slow going, and so when the Dutch discovered the ‘Brouwer route,’ following the roaring forties before turning north some distance before hitting the Australian coast, their passage could be shortened by at least a month. The main problem of those early navigators was to decide when to turn north before running into the Western Australian coast. Many ships, and many Dutch ships in particular, misjudged their longitude and so ran into coastal shallows and shipwrecked.

The waters just off the Western Australian coast cover numerous early shipwrecks, with Dutch shipwrecks being particularly well represented. As an avid maritime history enthusiast with Dutch roots, this book is right up my alley! The shipwrecks are really well-researched and richly illustrated in this authoritative book. The book is beautifully produced. It will serve as an important guide to the Shipwreck Coast for anyone with an interest in the 16th–18th century spice trade. I will definitely aim to spend some time in that remote part of the world!

In early Australian colonial times, the colony in New South Wales was short of hard currency. Rations of pretty much everything were tight, and life was tough. To provide some measure of relief, rum rations were issued to the local population, even to convicts, which soon led to a vibrant underground trade in rum as an alternate currency. The illegal rum trade was monopolised by the colony's military officers to the extent that none of the early governors could even make any dent in curbing the practice.

I love this book, as Matt Murphy vividly describes many of the outrageous incidents associated with the illegal rum trade, the substance abuse, and the wide-ranging consequences. A colourful character himself, he focuses on the people who bring his stories alive—many of them colourful and irreverent. I find history told through the stories of people most compelling. The book goes beyond the historical importance of the rum trade by reflecting on Australia's present-day drinking culture as well.

This book is the story of an unlikely character who eventually found his rightful place in history following many detours and earlier failed attempts. I loved it for its detailed focus on the “underdog”. Laurence Hynes Halloran developed into Australia's educational leader in convict times (18th century), despite his minimal preparation for the role.

I found Jan Worthington’s biography very well-researched and richly illustrated. It paints Halloran as a victim of his times. His career didn’t start off well. In his native England, he was jailed for knifing a fellow sailor in the British navy; he was forced to flee South Africa after altercations with the authorities there; he was put on a convict transport to the Australian colony for possession of counterfeit print blocks; and he was a womaniser of sorts—eventually fathering 22 children on four continents.

This is a story of a man who ultimately had his heart in the right place but who frequently made poor life choices. It is a rich illustration of a world we don’t hear much about, but it becomes really fascinating when peeling back the surface layers.

Matthew Flinders is an Australian hero but less well-known elsewhere. He was, ultimately, the person who gave Australia its name when the continent was more generally known as New Holland. He is most famous for his circumnavigation of the continent in H.M.S. Investigator in 1801–1803. Together with his younger brother, Samuel Ward Flinders, they undertook a monumental effort to map the Australian coastline and obtain careful latitude and longitude determinations. I am particularly intrigued by these significant feats in the face of serious adversity.

I, therefore, loved that Miriam Estensen goes deep into Matthew Flinders' persona in this thoroughly researched biography. She paints him not just as an important historical figure but as a man with all his flaws and vulnerabilities. This is perhaps the most extensive and most easily accessible biography of a figure who was larger than life in his own time and who continues to inspire generations of scholars, historians, and anyone with an interest in the history of maritime navigation and exploration. It has inspired me to dig further into this fascinating period in our history.