BCL Books - Local Books - Perth & WA

Local Books - Perth and Western Australia

It's always fun reading books from your local area - there's a familiarity to the people and the places that can make the books even more enjoyable. It's also interesting when travelling to read books set in or about the places you're visiting - just keep in mind most of them are fiction.

Below are local books for Perth and Western Australia including Autobiographies / Biographies, books for Children and Young Adults, Historical books (books set in or written pre-1940s) and Contemporary books.
 

Autobiography / Biography

• A Fortunate Life - by A. B. Facey - Memoir recounting his early years in Western Australia and the hardships he endured throughout his life, including his experiences in World War I. Winner of the National Book Council's Banjo Award in 1981.
   
• In the Tracks of Old Bluey - by Bobbie Buchanan - Biography of the European explorer, Nat Buchanan, whose pioneering droving extended across the Northern Territory, Queensland, and Western Australia.
   
• My Place - by Sally Morgan - Published in 1987, this book recounts Sally Morgan's life growing up in Perth and her regaining of her Aboriginal identity.
   
• The Literary Larrikin - by Michael Crouch - Biography of the Perth writer, poet, soldier, and traveller Tom Hungerford. 
   
• The Voice of the Great South - by Cameron Eoin - Autobiography of the radio announcer who grew up in Albany, worked for the ABC Perth, and had a brief foray into politics in the 1990s.
   
• To be Heirs Forever - by Mary Durack - Biography of Eliza Shaw whose family moved from England to Western Australia in 1829, settling near Perth. The book deals with the many tragedies and difficulties the family faced. 
   
• Ursula Frayne: A Biography - by Catherine Kovesi Killerby - Biography of Ursula Frayne who led a small group of the Sisters of Mercy in the late 1800s that helped underprivileged people in Perth and Melbourne.
   

Children / Young Adult

• ANZAC Cottage - by Valerie Everett - Non-fiction book discussing the cottage that was built in one day in Mount Hawthorn in 1916 to serve as a house for a wounded soldier. Aimed at upper primary and lower secondary students.
   
• Ratpackers - by Chris Blake - Children's novel about a group of rats that travel from Perth to Cape York, trying to find an elder, and the dangers they face throughout their journey. Aimed at upper primary school students.  
   
• Tess and the Star Traveller - by Jane McKay - Illustrated children's novel about a Star Traveller who gets his co-ordinates wrong and finds himself in the pencil case of a Perth schoolgirl. Aimed at middle primary school students.
   

Historical Fiction & Non-Fiction

• Follow the Rabbit Proof Fence - by Doris Pilkington - Non-fiction account of the three young Aboriginal girls who were removed from their family under government policy in the 1930s and who walked the 1,600 kilometres home. Made into the film Rabbit Proof Fence by Phillip Noyce.
   
• Kal - by Judy Nunn - Set in Kalgoorlie in the late 1800s, this novel focuses on two families who work in the goldfields region, an illicit affair, and a murder that takes place.
   
• Through Silent Country - by Carolyn Wadley Dowley - This non-fiction book tells the story of a group of Aboriginal people in Western Australia in the 1920s who were sent from their homeland to Perth by the government.
   

Contemporary Fiction & Non-Fiction

• Cloudstreet - by Tim Winton - In this novel two very different families come to live together in one house in the Perth suburbs between 1943 and 1963. Winner of the Miles Franklin Award in 1992 and the National Book Council's Banjo Award.
   
• Dirt Music - by Tim Winton - Set in a small town in Western Australia, this novel is about a wife of a successful fisherman who develops a relationship with a fish poacher. Winner of the 2002 Miles Franklin Award. Shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2001.
   
• Floodtide - by Judy Nunn - Novel set in Western Australia between the 1950s and the 1990s, focusing on four men, their families, and the state's changing identity.
   
• Messing About in Earnest - by Nick Burningham - Modern travel book looking at the history of Perth by undertaking the same journey as Governor Stirling's 1827 trip along the Swan and Canning Rivers.
   
• Out of Place - by Jo Dutton - Set in Perth, this novel is about a woman, her relationship with her Italian mother, and her relationships with her own two girls.
   
• Red Dog - by Louis De Bernieres - Novella inspired by a statue of a dog near Dampier, this book is about the life the dog might have had based on the stories from the locals.
   
• Streetkid in the City - by Delphine Jamet - Non-fiction book about a teenage streetkid in Perth, this book is a combination of diary entries and interviews.
   
• The Devil's Garden - by Debi Marshall - True crime book about the disappearance and murder of three girls from the Perth suburb of Claremont in the 1990s.
   
• The Return - by Reg Cribb - Play about five people travelling on a train from Perth to Freemantle, including two thugs and the woman they're harassing. Winner of the Patrick White Playwrights’ Award. Shortlisted for the Qld Premier’s Literary Award.
   
• The Shark Net - by Robert Drewe - Semi-autobiographical novel telling a fictionalised version of the author's life growing up in Perth and how the crimes of the real life serial killer Eric Edgar Cooke affected the city.
   

More Local Books

• Adelaide and South Australia
• Brisbane and Queensland
• Darwin and the Northern Territory
• Hobart and Tasmania
• Melbourne and Victoria
• Sydney, Canberra, and New South Wales