BCL Books - Local Books - Sydney, NSW, Canberra, ACT

Local Books - Sydney, New South Wales, Canberra and the ACT

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 Sydney, New South Wales, and Canberra including Autobiographies / Biographies, books for Children and Young Adults, Historical books (books set in or written pre-1940s) and Contemporary books.
 

Autobiography / Biography

• Callaghan's Diary - by Thomas Callaghan & J. M. Bennett - Real-life diary of a young Irish lawyer, Thomas Callaghan, who arrived in Sydney in the 1840s.
   
• Childhood at dabella - by Miles Franklin - Autobiography of the famous Australian author who grew up in the Brindabella hills just outside of Canberra and who later moved to the Gouldburn region. Published after her death in 1954.
   

Children / Young Adult

• Looking for Alibrandi - by Melina Marchetta - This novel for young adults focuses on a girl in her last year of high school in the 1990s who is trying to negotiate school, her love life, her friends, and her family.
   
• Puberty Blues - by Kathy Lette and Gabrielle Carey - Semi-autobiographical novel written by the authors when they were teenagers about two young teenage girls from the Sutherland Shire and their relationship with Sydney's surfing culture in the 1970s.
   
• Straggles of Tidbinbilla: The Story of an Emu Growing Up - by Eleanor Stodart - Children's book set on Mount Tidbinbilla near Canberra about an emu called Straggles.
   
• The Day I Was History - by Jackie French - Children's novel that tells the story of a boy on school holidays who is caught up in the Canberra bushfires. Aimed at mid-primary school students.
   
• The Rum Rebellion - by Libby Gleeson - Children's historical fiction set in 1808, it tells the story of a boy and his friends who are on the streets of Sydney Town when the Rum Rebellion occurs. Mid-primary school students and older.
   

Historical Fiction & Non-Fiction

• Beneath the Southern Cross - by Judy Nunn - This historical novel tells the story of a convict sent to Sydney Town in the 1700s and the lives of the successive generations of his family.
   
• Dance Hall and Picture Palace - by Jill Julius Matthews - Historical account of Sydney between the 1890s and 1930s, focusing on the movie and music culture of Sydney at the time.
   
• Demons at Dusk - by Peter Stewart - Novel set in the 1830s on a cattle station in New South Wales, focusing on a convict hut keeper, his convict stockmen, and the trials they face.
   
• Leviathan: The Unauthorised Biography of Sydney - by John Birmingham - This non-fiction book looks at the darker side of Sydney's history.
   
• My Brilliant Career - by Miles Franklin - Set in rural New South Wales and published in 1901, Miles Franklin's debut novel tells the story of a girl who refuses to marry a wealthy man and instead becomes a housekeeper and governess to pay off her father's debts.
   
• Oscar and Lucinda - by Peter Carey - A love story about an English clergyman who meets a woman from New South Wales over a shared interest in gambling. This fictional story takes place in the nineteenth century in Sydney, Bellingen, and England. Winner of the Booker Prize and Miles Franklin Award.
   
• Scapegallows - by Carol Birch - This novel is based on the real life events of a woman who was twice a scapegallow (someone who escaped being hanged). It follows her transportation to New South Wales and her new life.
   
• Seven Little Australians - by Ethel Turner - Set in Sydney in the 1880s and published in 1894, it tells the story of a family with seven mischievous children.
   
• Sydney Then and Now - by Caroline Mackaness & Caroline Butler-Bowdon - Non-fiction book of photography comparing historical Sydney to the Sydney of the 2000s.
   
• The Captive Wife - by Fiona Kidman - Based on real events, this novel set in the early 1800s tells the story of a woman and her children who are kidnapped and whose return to Sydney is met with suspicion.
   
• Triangles of Life and Other Stories - by Henry Lawson - Collection of short stories by the acclaimed Australian author who was born in the Grenfell goldfields in 1867.
   

Contemporary Fiction & Non-Fiction

• Monkey's Mask - by Dorothy Porter - Crime thriller written in verse, this novel tells the story of a lesbian private detective who develops a relationship with a suspect. Winner of the National Book Council Banjo Award.
   
• Riders in the Chariot - by Patrick White - This 1961 Miles Franklin Award Winner tells the story of four characters living in suburban Sydney in the 1950s. The suburb in the novel is fictional but is said to be based on Castle Hill. 
   
• The White Tower - by Dorothy Johnston - Crime novel published in 2004 about a man found dead at the bottom of the Telstra Tower in Canberra and his mother's search to find out the truth about his death.
   
• Wrack - by James Bradley - Novel about a man trying to uncover whether a Portuguese ship was wrecked off the NSW coast in the 1400s. Along the way he finds the body of someone who was murdered 50 years ago.
   

More Local Books

• Adelaide and South Australia
• Brisbane and Queensland
• Darwin and the Northern Territory
• Hobart and Tasmania
• Melbourne and Victoria
• Perth and Western Australia