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Australian Field Guides and Nature BooksSee Also: The Best Survival Books, My Top Two Survival Books, and Permaculture, Self Sufficiency And Sustainable Living Books. This page only contains Australian books. The other pages listed above have books that are relevant to any country. This page suggests some books to get if you are interested in learning more about the kinds of things you see on survival.org.au. It mainly contains nature guides and other related books. I will be adding more other pages that describe other kinds of books. In many bookshops (especially online ones) you are presented with hundreds of books and not much idea which one(s) to get. So here I have described the books that I myself have used to learn from, and that are the most popular and the most recommended. (Since I have spent a ridiculous amount of time over the last several years looking into what books are available). I am trying out the Australian online bookshop The Nile, which gives me a 10% commission on anything you buy from them if you go there from this website. If you live in Australia I would recommend trying them out as their prices are very cheap and if you buy more than $65 you get free shipping to anywhere in Australia. They are also cheap if you live in New Zealand. I am also trying out Sustainable Insight ("Your Green Living Bookstore"), which has a lot of permaculture and self-sufficiency titles that The Nile does not have. Apart from supporting survival.org.au (with a 10% commission if you go to their site from any of the links on this site), they also invest 50 cents from every book sold into sustainability initiatives. If you live outside Australia, an excellent source of nature, wilderness awareness and wilderness survival material is Wilderness Awareness School (located in the USA). I have recently signed up with them as an affiliate so I will get 10% of anything you buy there if you go there from the links on my site. They are a registered charity so you will be supporting both survival.org.au and an awesome wilderness school if you buy anything that way. As I get around to it I will add links to more nature and survival books available from there. I also have links to some of the books from Amazon.com. The prices are current as of when I have last updated this page, so they may possibly change when you click on the links. Unfortunately a few of the greatest books are out of print. To find out of print books try Amazon.com Categories Found On This Australian Nature Books PageWilderness Living Wilderness LivingAustralian Bushcraft, Richard Graves. This is the new version of his "10 bushcraft books" about wilderness survival and wilderness living skills. The original version is long out of print but has been made available online here by Christopher Molloy. From his website: "The 10 Bushcraft Books are the seminal texts on bushcraft.... As far as is known, The 10 Bushcraft Books are unique. There is nothing quite like them, nor is any collection of bushcraft knowledge under one cover as comprehensive." A classic. Out of print as far as I know and expensive secondhand (I paid about AU$60 for mine, which was okay, but I have seen them for a lot more than that. See also Indigenous Studies further down on this page. Bush Tucker
Wild Herbs of Australia and New Zealand, Tim Low. The best book I have seen about edible/medicinal "weeds"—which are usually introduced plants, the kind that grow between the grass in your suburban garden and along the railway tracks. See my weeds page. It is not the best book for learning to identify the weeds, though, although it is okay. Black and white line drawings of the plants, no colour pictures. You would be better off with another book to identify the weeds, and this book to learn what to do with them. This book contains an excellent description of the different types of plant toxins. Out of print.
The Bushfood Handbook, Vic Cherikoff. This is more of a reading book than a field guide, and also has a bit about commercial bushfood industry and gourmet recipes, but still does have some very good stuff in it, and like Tim Low's Books it is not focused on the north only (there is stuff about the sydney region). A large all-colour book, possibly the best "reading" book I have seen on bush tucker. Bush Tucker: Australia's Wild Food Harvest, Tim Low. A large, hardcover book with colour pictures (actually most of these books have colour pictures). A very good "reading" book, perhaps my favourite (the other contender would be Vic Cherikoff's book above). Out of print.
A Companion Guide to Bush Food, Jennifer Isaccs. A summarised version of the book above, small and light, but I would not really call it a field guide. Pocket Bushtucker, Peter Latz. This is a nice field guide, but only focuses on the arid regions. Mostly black and white with a few colour photos. It was the first bush food book I found (and therefore bought). It would be good to take on a trip to the interior but is not so useful in the Southeast. There is a larger version of it also (like the Jennifer Isaacs books) which I do not have.
Explore Wild Australia With the Bush Tucker Man, Les Hiddins. Quite a good book, but really only focuses on the North of Australia.
Wild Food in Australia, A. B. and J. W. Cribb. William Collins Publishers, 1974. Older style book with the colour pictures on separate colour "plates", and the text on black and white-only pages. A pretty good book though (apart from not having the pictures of the plants close to the text, which I find quite annoying). I bought mine for $12 from a second-hand shop. Bush Tucker, A Guide to, and Resources on Traditional Aboriginal Foods of the North West of S. A. and Central Australia, Cathy Winfield. Mimili Aboriginal School, North West South Australia, and Wattle Park Teachers Centre, 1982, Reprinted 1985, 1986, 1987. This is a black and white booklet that has been printed on A4 paper, rather than published as such as an actual "book". It contains a list of the most common animals and plants eaten in the traditional diet of central Australia. Each food source is described on a page with a description, black and white drawing, and its uses. See also Indigenous Studies further down on this page. Poisonous Plants and AnimalsJon Young says to learn the poisonous/dangerous plants and animals in your area (or the wilderness area that you are going to be going out in) first. Pretty But Poisonous, R.C.H. Shepherd. An excellent book covering the types of plants that you are likely to find growing in your garden, not so much the native ones that you will find in the bush. You can get it here. Some Plants are Poisonous, Sally Wilson. Until I found the book above this was about the only decent book about poisonous plants I have been able to find for australia. (Please let me know if you know of any others). This book is hard to find. (Again let me know if you find a source for it). There is a very large book by Selwyn Everist, that goes for about $300 secondhand, and is far too big and serious for casual use, its at my local library. Most of the (few) books on poisonous plants are focused on livestock poisoning. Toxic Plants and Animals, A Guide for Australia, ed. by Jeanette Covacevich, Peter Davie and John Pearn. The plants section takes up 70 of the 504 pages of this book, so it is mostly about animals. It is fairly technical, and out of print. Australia's Dangerous Creatures — Understand, Identify, Avoid, Survive, Reader's Digest. A large colour book, I found it for $6 secondhand and at that price very much well worth it. Plants
Key Guide to Australian Wildflowers, Leonard Cronin. This book is good for identifying plants that you see in the field based on their flowers. I have a few other plant field guides but none of the others are as good for finding plants (while in flower) so quickly. Field Guide to Australian Wildflowers, Denise Greig. A lovely book, with beautiful pictures of the flowers. The plants are grouped into families. A Field Guide to Australian Trees, Ivan Holliday. Small, portable book with trees grouped by their genus and colour photographs of the whole tree from a distance. Black and white line drawings are given of other identifying parts of the trees, such as leaves or fruit. Native Plants of the Blue Mountains, Margaret Baker and Robin Corringham. Small book with the plants arranged in their communities (such as open forest, heath, swamps, etc.), and in order of descending height within each community. Colour photos of the plants. A very good book if you live in the Blue Mountains. The Random House Encyclopedia of Australian Native Plants, Geoff Bryant. Large book with about 2000 plants described, and 550 colour photographs. The plants are grouped by their genus. Soul of the Desert, Philippa Nikulinsky and Stephen D Hopper. It's not a field guide, its a large, beautiful book, with lovely hand-painted pictures of plants (mostly) and some animals from the central deserts of australia, with descriptions of them. The best thing about this book is that somehow it makes you feel very connected to the subject matter, which is in contrast to many field guides (especially plant ones) that can be somewhat overwhelming or even alienating to beginners. If you live in the centre of Australia, I would say definitely get this book. Eucalypts — A Bushwalker's Guide, Gary Leonard. A small colour book with the most common Eucalypts found within 100 kilometres of Sydney and how to identify them. There are something like 700 species of Eucalypts in Australia and learning to identify them can be quite difficult. This book would be a good place to start. WeedsWeeds of Blue Mountains Bushland — Garden Plants Going Wild, Blue Mountains City Council, National Parks and Wildlife Service, and Sydney Catchment Authority. A 45 page colour pamphlet with details of the most common introduced weeds found in the Blue Mountains. It is available free by phoning the council, they will even post it out to you, although you may need to be a resident of the Blue Mountains. Weeds of the South-East — An Identification Guide for Australia, F. J. Richardson, R. G. Richardson, and R. C. H. Shepherd. An excellent book on identifying (mostly introduced) weeds. The best weeds book I have seen that is still in print. Over 2000 species and 1600 colour photos. Its expensive but its the best weeds book ever (well pretty much). You can get it here. Mammals
Key guide to Australian Mammals, Leonard Cronin and Marion Westmacott. Its pretty good I think, but it doesn't have all the mammals (most of them though).
Birds
I also have the Simpson and Day CD-ROM edition of their field guide, version 5.0. Its okay, though it really bugs me that you need to have the CD inserted in your computer for it to work, even if you copy the whole CD to your hard drive, which means its really slow. I think they must have made this version before there were CD burners, because they thought it would stop people copying it—as I can't see any other reason why they would have made it this way. There are audio tracks of the calls of almost all of the birds, which are of medium-grade quality.
Birds of the Blue Mountains, Margaret Baker and Robin Corringham. This was my first one and a good one to start with for the Blue Mountains (and probably also, to a lesser extent, the greater Sydney area). There is only a few birds in it (about 50), you can flick through it and quickly find common birds when you are starting out. What Bird Call is That? Terence Lindsey. This is probably out of print. It comes with an audio cassette with the bird calls on it. Contains the most common birds in the Southeast of Australia. Reptiles and Amphibians
Australian Frog Calls, Subtropical East, David Stewart (an audio CD). Quite good quality recordings of the calls of 74 species of frogs. FishesA Field Guide to Fish of Australia, Pocket File series, Penguin Books. A small fold-out field guide of the most common freshwater and saltwater fish. Colour photos and descriptions. It's not very large, it folds out to the size of about two A4 pages stuck together end to end. Invertebrates
Indigenous Studies
Blue Mountains Dreaming: The Aboriginal Heritage, ed. by Eugene Stockton. This has a scientific flavour to it, and has chapters about customs and lifestyles, archaeology, stone tools, food and diet. There is a list of about 75 plant foods that I have typed up and printed and am learning.
The World of the First Australians, R. M. and C. H. Berndt. 1st ed. 1964, 2nd ed. 1977. A thick hardcover book (600 pages) with comprehensive details about the traditional tribal life of Australian Aboriginal people.
Lonely Planet: Aboriginal Australia & the Torres Strait Islands — Guide to Indigenous Australia. 1st ed. July 2001. Probably still in print. Survival Books aboriginal above animals australia australian bird birds black blue book books bush click colour contains excellent field food guide guides large mammals mountains north page pages photos pictures plants poisonous print purchase species survival tucker version weeds wilderness
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