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SMITH, John H

Dec 22, 2025 | *, *Featured books, *listed, Australian, Biography, Family History

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ISBN 978-1-923443-02-0
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ISBN 978-1-923443-45-7
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A Most Chequered Career

 

Samuel Francis Smith 1811-1899

The story of a man whose forgotten legacy and “chequered career” reveal a complex and intriguing life in early Australian history.

Because of ignorance or shame, Samuel Francis Smith’s name and infuence in the family he pioneered in Australia was not mentioned in the present generation. Thanks to his obituarist, who quipped he had “a most chequered career” the search to discover the what that meant brought to light a complex and intriguing life. This book tells Samuel’s story.

“A Most Chequered Career: Samuel Francis Smith 1811-1889 is an unusually moving and highly readable work of Australian history. It’s both a detective story and a triumph of compassion for a flawed individual, off ering profound insights into the lives of Australian colonists in the mid-nineteenth century. With a steady, compassionate gaze, John Smith breathes life into his errant great-great grandfather, reminding us that even our most flawed ancestors deserve to be honored.”
DR KAI JENSEN

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About the Author

 

John H Smith, MA, PhD, ThM, is a writer and retired Uniting Church Minister who served in Western Australia (1974– 2000) and Mark the Evangelist, North Melbourne, Victoria 2000-2013.

He has published on WA Church History, the Church’s involvement in War, Monastic history, spirituality and theology, and contributed regularly to the North and West Melbourne News.

MARAN, S. Keshan

Dec 19, 2025 | *, *Featured books, *listed, Australian, Biography, Memoir

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ISBN 978-1-923589-58-2
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Conversations We Didn’t Finish

 

A Father’s Reflections on Love, Letting go, and Growing up Together

A Father’s Memoir of Love, Distance, and the Words Left Unsaid

Some conversations don’t end. They simply go quiet. A hug that lingered. A question never asked. A phrase remembered years later with a whisper: “Plus one.”

Conversations We Didn’t Finish is a reflective memoir about love without control, presence without proximity, and fatherhood that continues even as roles change. Written with restraint and emotional honesty, it’s for fathers, men, and readers navigating distance, identity, and quiet reinvention.

For those who believe that meaning lives not in what’s said loudly, but in what’s held gently. This isn’t a story about fixing relationships. It’s about holding space for them.

About the Author

 

S. Keshan Maran is a father, mentor, and strategist whose work has spanned leadership development, business growth, and community-building across several countries. His approach has always centred on presence, curiosity, and the belief that love, especially the imperfect kind, can be a powerful teacher.

He wrote this memoir during a period of profound transition, reflection, and healing. It is not a record of events, but a record of becoming. of learning how to love, let go, and continue growing.

He currently lives between Aotearoa New Zealand and Southeast Asia, and continues to work quietly with individuals and organisations on purposedriven transformation.

SCRIMGEOUR, Gavin

Dec 18, 2025 | *, *Featured books, *listed, Australian, Design, History, History showcase, Military, South Australia
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ISBN 978-1-922527-50-9
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From Here They Marched

THE MITCHAM AIF CAMP, LOCATED IN WHAT IS NOW THE ADELAIDE SUBURB OF COLONEL LIGHT GARDENS, WAS THE TRAINING GROUND FOR THOUSANDS OF SOUTH AUSTRALIAN VOLUNTEERS WHO ENLISTED TO FIGHT FOR THE AIF IN THE FIRST WORLD WAR.

The camp, opened in bare paddocks in early 1915 after earlier camps had proved inadequate, overcame significant early difficulties to become what was proudly claimed to be ‘the model camp for the Commonwealth’.

From Here They Marched tells the story of the camp and how men from all walks of civilian life were brought together and prepared for the discipline of military life and for war.

It shows how the military authorities approached the task of also meeting the physical and social needs of as many as 4400 men at a time, all newly away from their home and families, and facing an uncertain future.

The surviving memories of those who passed through the camp, newspaper reports, the few remaining documents from the camp, and contemporary photographs are used to bring this vibrant, ever changing community of men to life.

The part played by other military training camps in and near Adelaide which were used for short periods during the war is also described. This includes the Morphettville and Ascot Park/Oaklands camps where the men of the earliest contingents did their training before taking part in the landings at Gallipoli.

Mitcham camp is an important part of the historic landscape of Adelaide, and the final chapter presents a case for the preservation of the memory of the camp in Colonel Light Gardens.

SCHJOTTELVIG, Jan

Dec 18, 2025 | *, *Featured books, *listed, Australian, Business

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ISBN 978-1-923589-23-0
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Transparent Transformations

 

Leadership for High Performance

CLARITY IN CHAOS

This book describes a successful and proven approach for developing high performing organisations and teams. The book provides evidence and insight for what the leaders of the most consistently high performing organisations did and why they will continue to outperform their rivals in future. If you want your organisation, or team, to perform at the highest level, or if you just want stability and security in an ever more complicated World, this book provides the Clarity in the Chaos. This book is a must read for all Leaders, Directors, Executives, Managers, Investors, Entrepreneurs, Project Managers, and Program Directors.

About the Author

 

Jan has 35 years’ experience working with market leading organisations in many sectors, including professional services, development banking, complex major infrastructure projects, rail, oil and gas, mining, and all types of manufacturing. He has successfully supported organisations and individuals in Australia, New Zealand, Qatar, China, Austria, Norway and Germany.

Jan’s insights and methods were inspired by Rudolf Steiner’s anthroposophy, Henry Ford (Ford Motor Company), Sakichi Toyoda (Toyota Motor Corporation), Christiane Kehoe (Emotion Coaching), Marshall Rosenberg (Non-Violent Communication), and The Gottman Institute.

DANVERS, Ron

Dec 17, 2025 | *, *Featured books, *listed, Adelaide, Australian, History, History Showcase, Military, South Australia

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ISBN 978-1-923443-01-3
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1837 Colonel Light’s Vision for Adelaide

 

Postulation and Testing a Preemptive Model Plan Adapted by Light for the Capital of South Australia

Colonel William Light’s history has been the subject of several admirable publications, but none have satisfactorily addressed the method he used in designing, surveying and laying out the plan of the City of Adelaide on the topography of the site chosen on December 31, 1836. Although evidence supports there being a preemptive Model Plan produced in London before that date, the connection has generally been missed on how such a plan, following the pattern of many colonial antecedents, could have been simply cut up to fi t the topography of the chosen site.

In postulating the form a Model Plan might have taken by reverse engineering the final plan, it becomes obvious that this was the method used by Light to lay out the plan of the Capital. It was not done in a week from January 3, 1837 as Stretton suggested, but by February 7 the basic cutting up had been formulated and sketched by Light from Green Hill.

About the Author

 

Ron Danvers LFRAIA is an architect living in the City of Adelaide in South Australia. He was instrumental in introducing urban design to South Australia, becoming the founding Chair of the State Urban Design Advisory Panel. Although he has undertaken major cultural heritage projects in Malaysia and Indonesia, most of his architectural work has been in the City of Adelaide.

He was awarded the RAIA Lachlan Macquarie Award and a National Trust Australian Heritage Award in 1987 for restoration of the Mortlock Library. In 2005, his architecture practice was awarded a UNESCO Asia Pacifi c Heritage Award for Cultural Heritage Conservation for heritage adaptation of the Treasury Buildings in Victoria Square. He was President of the RAIA SA Chapter 1988-90, representing the architectural profession at that time in the South Australian State Planning Review. He was granted the adjunct title of Associate Professor by the University of Adelaide.

ISBN 978-1-923443-01-3
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1837 Colonel Light’s Vision for Adelaide

 

Postulation and Testing a Preemptive Model Plan Adapted by Light for the Capital of South Australia

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Colonel William Light’s history has been the subject of several admirable publications, but none have satisfactorily addressed the method he used in designing, surveying and laying out the plan of the City of Adelaide on the topography of the site chosen on December 31, 1836. Although evidence supports there being a preemptive Model Plan produced in London before that date, the connection has generally been missed on how such a plan, following the pattern of many colonial antecedents, could have been simply cut up to fi t the topography of the chosen site.

In postulating the form a Model Plan might have taken by reverse engineering the final plan, it becomes obvious that this was the method used by Light to lay out the plan of the Capital. It was not done in a week from January 3, 1837 as Stretton suggested, but by February 7 the basic cutting up had been formulated and sketched by Light from Green Hill.

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About the Author

 

Ron Danvers LFRAIA is an architect living in the City of Adelaide in South Australia. He was instrumental in introducing urban design to South Australia, becoming the founding Chair of the State Urban Design Advisory Panel. Although he has undertaken major cultural heritage projects in Malaysia and Indonesia, most of his architectural work has been in the City of Adelaide.

He was awarded the RAIA Lachlan Macquarie Award and a National Trust Australian Heritage Award in 1987 for restoration of the Mortlock Library. In 2005, his architecture practice was awarded a UNESCO Asia Pacifi c Heritage Award for Cultural Heritage Conservation for heritage adaptation of the Treasury Buildings in Victoria Square. He was President of the RAIA SA Chapter 1988-90, representing the architectural profession at that time in the South Australian State Planning Review. He was granted the adjunct title of Associate Professor by the University of Adelaide.

MITCHELL, Susan

Dec 15, 2025 | *, *Featured books, *listed, Australian, Fiction \ Novel, Thriller Fiction

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ISBN 978-1-923523-24-1
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History Repeats

 

A Novel

History Repeats is a confronting story about Maddie Barbeau who embarks on a promising career in the field of beauty and becomes a celebrity. She thought she had made it until her unspeakable past buried deep inside threatens to destroy her, it is provocative, filled with secrets and lies, love affairs and shocking parallels. And promises, what happened once will happen again.

About the Author

 

Susan Mitchell lives on a small property in the Adelaide Hills with two of her four grown children. She has a horse, five chooks, a resident koala, and a very intelligent kelpie. Susan is semi-retired, enjoys writing fiction in her spare time and is trying to live the dream.