New South Wales

Greater Than a Tourist: Byron Bay, New South Wales, Australia by Lauren Williams offers the inside scoop on Byron Bay. Most travel books tell you how to travel like a tourist. Although there's nothing wrong with that, as a part of the Greater Than a Tourist series, this audiobook will give you tips and a bunch of ideas from someone who lives at your next travel destination. In this audiobook, you'll discover local advice that will help you throughout your stay. Greater Than a Tourist is a series of travel books written by locals.

In the summer of 1839, 26-year-old Louisa Anne Meredith, in the company of her husband, Charles Meredith, sailed from England to the British colony of New South Wales, in what was then New Holland. Four years later, she published a detailed account of the years since she had left England. A fascinating window into the past, Louisa's impressions and experiences cover the four-month ocean voyage; life within the fledgling city of Sydney; travels across the Blue Mountains to Bathurst; and eventual settlement at Homebush in Sydney's west.

As a teenage orphan in England in 1791, Mary Reibey was sentenced to death for stealing a horse. When police cornered her, she was dressed as a boy, and she maintained that disguise until she was unmasked at her trial. Due to her 'tender age', Reibey was spared the hangman's noose and sentenced to seven years' transportation to the colony of New South Wales. With the odds stacked against her, Reibey went on to become Australia's first female business tycoon and the richest woman in the colony, founding the Bank of New South Wales, now one of the nation's biggest financial institutions.

In the early twentieth century, it was often said that “Australia rides on the sheep’s back”—a reflection of the nation’s dependence on the wool trade. Accordingly, a vast itinerant army of labourers was required to shear the sheep and prepare fleeces for market. In this essay, Rolf Boldrewood provides a vivid picture of the shearing season on a large property.

When successful Sydney lawyer Miranda McIntyre searches for something old to go with her wedding dress, she remembers an antique necklace from her childhood. Her mother’s denial of its existence only deepens Miranda’s curiosity, but the discovery of a faded wedding photo and an old newspaper clipping reveal long-buried family secrets. Who is the woman in the photo? And why are these keepsakes hidden in her mother’s closet? Miranda’s quest for the truth takes her on a road trip, south to the idyllic seaside village of Pelican Point.

As a teenage orphan in England in 1791, Mary Reibey was sentenced to death for stealing a horse. When police cornered her, she was dressed as a boy, and she maintained that disguise until she was unmasked at her trial. Due to her 'tender age', Reibey was spared the hangman's noose and sentenced to seven years' transportation to the colony of New South Wales. With the odds stacked against her, Reibey went on to become Australia's first female business tycoon and the richest woman in the colony, founding the Bank of New South Wales, now one of the nation's biggest financial institutions.