Try free for 30 days
-
Castaway
- Narrated by: Michael Carman
- Length: 9 hrs and 13 mins
Failed to add items
Add to basket failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from Wish List failed.
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Buy Now for $27.99
No valid payment method on file.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also picked
-
Island of the Lost
- Shipwrecked at the Edge of the World
- By: Joan Druett
- Narrated by: David Colacci
- Length: 8 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Auckland Island is a godforsaken place in the middle of the Southern Ocean, 285 miles south of New Zealand. With year-round freezing rain and howling winds, it is one of the most forbidding places in the world. To be shipwrecked there means almost certain death. In 1864, Captain Thomas Musgrave and his crew of four aboard the schooner Grafton wreck on the southern end of the island. Utterly alone in a dense coastal forest, plagued by stinging blowflies and relentless rain, Captain Musgrave inspires his men to take action.
-
-
excellent!
- By Nicola Carson on 21-01-2019
-
Great South Land
- By: Rob Mundle
- Narrated by: Paul English
- Length: 9 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For many, the colonial story of Australia starts with Captain Cook's discovery of the east coast in 1770, but it was some 164 years before his historic voyage that European mariners began their romance with the immensity of the Australian continent. Between 1606 and 1688, while the British had their hands full with the Gunpowder Plot and the English Civil War, it was highly skilled Dutch seafarers who discovered and mapped the majority of the vast, unknown waters and land masses in the Indian and Southern Oceans.
-
-
great read/liston
- By Anonymous User on 10-06-2019
-
Banks
- By: Grantlee Kieza
- Narrated by: Patrick Harvey
- Length: 14 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Explorer, naturalist and president of Britain's Royal Society, Sir Joseph Banks was a larger-than-life character best known for his promotion of science. In 1768 Banks joined Captain James Cook's expedition to the South Pacific. The 30,000 specimens he brought back generated enormous interest, as did the sometimes racy written account of the journey, which chronicled his frequent amorous exploits.
-
-
Splendid biography of a great man
- By Rodney Wetherell on 09-02-2021
-
Batavia
- By: Peter FitzSimons
- Narrated by: Richard Aspel
- Length: 17 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The story begins in 1629, when the pride of the Dutch East India Company, the Batavia, is on its maiden voyage en route from Amsterdam to the Dutch East Indies, laden down with the greatest treasure to leave Holland. The magnificent ship is already boiling over with a mutinous plot that is just about to break into the open when, just off the coast of Western Australia, it strikes an unseen reef in the middle of the night. While Commandeur Francisco Pelsaert decides to take the longboat across 2,000 miles of open sea for help, his second-in-command Jeronimus Cornelisz takes over....
-
-
Batavia - the worst voice ever
- By Karen on 25-02-2016
-
Mutiny on the Bounty
- By: Peter FitzSimons
- Narrated by: Michael Carman
- Length: 22 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The mutiny on HMS Bounty, in the South Pacific on 28 April 1789, is one of history's truly great stories - a tale of human drama, intrigue and adventure of the highest order - and in the hands of Peter FitzSimons it comes to life as never before. Commissioned by the Royal Navy to collect breadfruit plants from Tahiti and take them to the West Indies, the Bounty's crew found themselves in a tropical paradise. Five months later, they did not want to leave.
-
-
Just as yesterday
- By luke.oconnor on 05-02-2020
-
The Catalpa Rescue
- The Gripping Story of the Most Dramatic and Successful Prison Break in Australian History
- By: Peter FitzSimons
- Narrated by: Michael Carman
- Length: 16 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The incredible true story of one of the most extraordinary and inspirational prison breaks in history. Boston, 1869. Members of the Clan na Gael - agitators for an Irish republic - hatch a daring plan to free six Irish political prisoners from the most remote gaol on earth, Fremantle Prison in Western Australia. Under the guise of a whale hunt, Captain Anthony sets sail on the Catalpa, risking his life to rescue the men from the prison, known among the inmates as 'a living tomb'.
-
-
How did I not k ow this story?
- By Rob Aughey on 20-08-2019
-
Island of the Lost
- Shipwrecked at the Edge of the World
- By: Joan Druett
- Narrated by: David Colacci
- Length: 8 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Auckland Island is a godforsaken place in the middle of the Southern Ocean, 285 miles south of New Zealand. With year-round freezing rain and howling winds, it is one of the most forbidding places in the world. To be shipwrecked there means almost certain death. In 1864, Captain Thomas Musgrave and his crew of four aboard the schooner Grafton wreck on the southern end of the island. Utterly alone in a dense coastal forest, plagued by stinging blowflies and relentless rain, Captain Musgrave inspires his men to take action.
-
-
excellent!
- By Nicola Carson on 21-01-2019
-
Great South Land
- By: Rob Mundle
- Narrated by: Paul English
- Length: 9 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For many, the colonial story of Australia starts with Captain Cook's discovery of the east coast in 1770, but it was some 164 years before his historic voyage that European mariners began their romance with the immensity of the Australian continent. Between 1606 and 1688, while the British had their hands full with the Gunpowder Plot and the English Civil War, it was highly skilled Dutch seafarers who discovered and mapped the majority of the vast, unknown waters and land masses in the Indian and Southern Oceans.
-
-
great read/liston
- By Anonymous User on 10-06-2019
-
Banks
- By: Grantlee Kieza
- Narrated by: Patrick Harvey
- Length: 14 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Explorer, naturalist and president of Britain's Royal Society, Sir Joseph Banks was a larger-than-life character best known for his promotion of science. In 1768 Banks joined Captain James Cook's expedition to the South Pacific. The 30,000 specimens he brought back generated enormous interest, as did the sometimes racy written account of the journey, which chronicled his frequent amorous exploits.
-
-
Splendid biography of a great man
- By Rodney Wetherell on 09-02-2021
-
Batavia
- By: Peter FitzSimons
- Narrated by: Richard Aspel
- Length: 17 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The story begins in 1629, when the pride of the Dutch East India Company, the Batavia, is on its maiden voyage en route from Amsterdam to the Dutch East Indies, laden down with the greatest treasure to leave Holland. The magnificent ship is already boiling over with a mutinous plot that is just about to break into the open when, just off the coast of Western Australia, it strikes an unseen reef in the middle of the night. While Commandeur Francisco Pelsaert decides to take the longboat across 2,000 miles of open sea for help, his second-in-command Jeronimus Cornelisz takes over....
-
-
Batavia - the worst voice ever
- By Karen on 25-02-2016
-
Mutiny on the Bounty
- By: Peter FitzSimons
- Narrated by: Michael Carman
- Length: 22 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The mutiny on HMS Bounty, in the South Pacific on 28 April 1789, is one of history's truly great stories - a tale of human drama, intrigue and adventure of the highest order - and in the hands of Peter FitzSimons it comes to life as never before. Commissioned by the Royal Navy to collect breadfruit plants from Tahiti and take them to the West Indies, the Bounty's crew found themselves in a tropical paradise. Five months later, they did not want to leave.
-
-
Just as yesterday
- By luke.oconnor on 05-02-2020
-
The Catalpa Rescue
- The Gripping Story of the Most Dramatic and Successful Prison Break in Australian History
- By: Peter FitzSimons
- Narrated by: Michael Carman
- Length: 16 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The incredible true story of one of the most extraordinary and inspirational prison breaks in history. Boston, 1869. Members of the Clan na Gael - agitators for an Irish republic - hatch a daring plan to free six Irish political prisoners from the most remote gaol on earth, Fremantle Prison in Western Australia. Under the guise of a whale hunt, Captain Anthony sets sail on the Catalpa, risking his life to rescue the men from the prison, known among the inmates as 'a living tomb'.
-
-
How did I not k ow this story?
- By Rob Aughey on 20-08-2019
-
A Land So Strange
- The Epic Journey of Cabeza de Vaca
- By: Andres Resendez
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 7 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1528, a mission set out from Spain to colonize Florida. But the expedition went horribly wrong: Delayed by a hurricane, knocked off course by a colossal error of navigation, and ultimately doomed by a disastrous decision to separate the men from their ships, the mission quickly became a desperate journey of survival. Of the 300 men who had embarked on the journey, only four survived - three Spaniards and an African slave.
-
-
Soo good I enjoy listening multiple times
- By Momo on 23-08-2023
-
Convict Colony
- The Remarkable Story of the Fledgling Settlement That Survived Against the Odds
- By: David Hill
- Narrated by: Conrad Coleby
- Length: 9 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The New World of the 18th century was dotted with failed colonies, and New South Wales nearly joined them. The motley crew of unruly marines and bedraggled convicts who arrived at Botany Bay in 1788 in leaky boats nearly starved to death. They could easily have been murdered by hostile locals, been overwhelmed by an attack from French or Spanish expeditions or been brought undone by the Castle Hill uprising of 1804. Yet through fortunate decisions, a few remarkably good leaders and, most of all, good luck, Sydney survived and thrived.
-
-
Fantastic
- By Bruce Hill on 02-09-2021
-
Convict-Era Port Arthur
- Misery of the Deepest Dye
- By: David W. Cameron
- Narrated by: Ant Neate
- Length: 12 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Detailing the development of the prison and its outlying stations, including its dreaded coal mines and providing an account of the changing views to convict rehabilitation, Convict-era Port Arthur focuses in on a number of individuals, telling the story through their eyes. Charles O'Hara Booth, a significant commandant of Port Arthur; Mark Jeffrey, a convict who became the grave digger on the Island of the Dead and William Thompson, who arrived just as the new probation system started and who was forced to work in the treacherous coal mines.
-
-
Well Researched, Average Narration.
- By Liss and Pen on 28-06-2022
-
Captain Cook’s Epic Voyage
- By: Geoffrey Blainey
- Narrated by: John Gregg
- Length: 12 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1768 Captain James Cook and his crew set out on a small British naval vessel in search of a missing continent. 2020 marks the 250th anniversary of that voyage, and Cook's 'discovery' of Australia. Captain Cook's Epic Voyage reveals the hardships and adventure of this remarkable quest, and the euphoria of discovering new lands.
-
-
Captivating!
- By James on 13-01-2021
-
The Exiles
- The Australians 1
- By: Vivian Stuart
- Narrated by: Simon Slater
- Length: 9 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
VOYAGE TO THE LAST FRONTIER... The first book in the dramatic and intriguing story about the colonisation of Australia: a country built on blood, passion, and dreams. They were transported from 1780s' England, packed like cattle in cargo compartments: scammers and prostitutes, thieves and murderers — doomed to build His Majesty's new colony in Captain Cook's anchorage in Botany Bay. It was a cruel fate even for the toughest of individuals but especially for 15-year-old Jenny Taggart, who was sentenced to lifelong exile for a crime she did not commit.
-
The Last Charge of the Australian Light Horse
- From the Australian bush to the Battle of Beersheba - an Epic Story of Courage, Resilience and Derring-Do
- By: Peter FitzSimons
- Narrated by: Richard Bligh
- Length: 16 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On 31st October 1917, as the day's light faded, the Australian Light Horse charged against their enemy. Eight hundred men and horses galloped four miles across open country, towards the artillery, rifles and machine guns of the Turks occupying the seemingly unassailable town of Beersheba. What happened in the next hour changed the course of history. This brave battle and the extraordinary adventures that led to it are brought vividly to life by Australia's greatest storyteller, Peter FitzSimons.
-
-
A great story of a great Australian event
- By Russell on 22-02-2024
-
The Postmistress
- By: Alison Stuart
- Narrated by: Jennifer Vuletic
- Length: 12 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The year 1871. Adelaide Greaves and her young son have found sanctuary in the Australian town of Maiden's Creek, where she works as a postmistress. The rough Victorian goldmining settlement is a hard place for a woman - especially as the other women in town don't know what to make of her - but through force of will and sheer necessity, Adelaide carves out a role. But her past is coming to find her, and the embittered and scarred Confederate soldier Caleb Hunt, in town in search of gold and not without a dark past of his own, might be the only one who can help.
-
-
A fascinating story
- By Peter M McKelvie on 27-02-2023
-
Canoeing The Congo
- First Source to Sea Descent of the Congo River
- By: Phil Harwood
- Narrated by: Gareth Armstrong
- Length: 7 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Canoeing the Congo narrates the journey of Phil Harwood, who undertook an epic five-month solo attempt to canoe the Congo River in war-torn Central Africa. It was a historic 'first descent' from the true source in the highlands of Zambia. Just short of 3,000 miles long, the Congo River is the eighth longest in the world and the deepest river in the world, with a flow rate second only to the Amazon. Along the way, Phil encountered numerous waterfalls, huge rapids, man-eating crocodiles, hippos, aggressive snakes...
-
-
Picks up speed the further downriver you go
- By Katie on 09-12-2015
-
Eucalyptus
- By: Murray Bail
- Narrated by: Humphrey Bower
- Length: 7 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On a country property a man named Holland lives with his daughter Ellen. Over the years, as she grows into a beautiful young woman, he plants hundreds of different gum trees on his land. When Ellen is nineteen her father announces his decision: she will marry the man who can name all the species of eucalypt, down to the last tree. Suitors emerge from all corners, including the formidable, straight-backed Mr Cave, world expert on the varieties of eucalypt.
-
-
Absolutely my favourite
- By Terri on 28-01-2022
-
A Town Like Alice
- By: Nevil Shute
- Narrated by: Robin Bailey
- Length: 10 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Jean Paget is just twenty years old and working in Malaya when the Japanese invasion begins. When she is captured she joins a group of other European women and children whom the Japanese force to march for miles through the jungle. While on the march, the group run into some Australian prisoners, one of whom, Joe Harman, helps them steal some food, and is horrifically punished by the Japanese as a result.
-
-
loved it
- By Paddington on 18-06-2014
-
James Cook
- The Story Behind the Man Who Mapped the World
- By: Peter FitzSimons
- Narrated by: Michael Carman
- Length: 21 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The name Captain James Cook is one of the most recognisable in Australian history - an almost mythic figure who is often discussed, celebrated, reviled and debated. But who was the real James Cook? This Yorkshire farm boy would go on to become the foremost mariner, scientist, navigator and cartographer of his era, and to personally map a third of the globe. His great voyages of discovery were incredible feats of seamanship and navigation.
-
-
I really enjoyed this one
- By Toni on 10-01-2020
-
Burke and Wills
- The Triumph and Tragedy of Australia's Most Famous Explorers
- By: Peter FitzSimons
- Narrated by: Michael Carman
- Length: 23 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The iconic Australian exploration story - brought to life by Peter FitzSimons, Australia's storyteller. 'They have left here today!' he calls to the others. When King puts his hand down above the ashes of the fire, it is to find it still hot. There is even a tiny flame flickering from the end of one log. They must have left just hours ago. Melbourne, 20 August 1860. In an ambitious quest to be the first Europeans to cross the harsh Australian continent, the Victorian Exploring Expedition sets off, with 15,000 well-wishers cheering them on.
-
-
Returned
- By Anonymon on 28-11-2017
Publisher's Summary
In 1858, 14-year-old Narcisse Pelletier sailed from Marseilles in the French trader Saint-Paul. With a cargo of Bordeaux wine, they stopped in Bombay, then Hong Kong, and from there they set sail with more than 300 Chinese prospectors bound for the goldfields of Ballarat and Bendigo.
Around the eastern tip of New Guinea, however, the ship became engulfed in fog, struck reefs and ran aground.
Scrambling aboard a longboat, the survivors undertook a perilous voyage, crossing almost 1,000 kilometres of the Coral Sea before reaching the shores of the Daintree region in far north Queensland, where, abandoned by his shipmates and left for dead, Narcisse was rescued by the local Aboriginal people. For 17 years he lived with them, growing to manhood and participating fully in their world - until in 1875 he was discovered by the crew of a pearling lugger and wrenched from his Aboriginal family.
Taken back to his 'real' life in France, he became a lighthouse keeper, married and had another family, all the while dreaming of what he had left behind....
Drawing from firsthand interviews with Narcisse after his return to France and other contemporary accounts of exploration and survival, and documenting the spread of European settlement in Queensland and the brutal frontier wars that followed, Robert Macklin weaves an unforgettable tale of a young man caught between two cultures in a time of transformation and upheaval.
More from the same
What listeners say about Castaway
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Matthew Dunstan
- 19-09-2023
Brings the vivid history of early Qld and AU settlement into sharp focus
This story takes you beyond the headlines of modern, politically correct society and fills in the detail with facts, colour and an entertaining narrative. My thanks and appreciation to the author / narrator.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Emma
- 07-08-2019
incredible true story
This book is thoroughly well researched, with an incredible insight into indigenous culture and history.
I would of given 5 stars, but it's very light on dialogue, and at times sounds like a long list of journal entries.
If you love honest Australian history then you wont mind!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
- Terry Mc
- 18-01-2020
THOUGHT PROVOKING
Thought provoking assuming accuracy of facts relating to early Queensland pioneering history and treatment of the aboriginals.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Maniatakos
- 21-02-2022
A great story
I am travelling in rural/remote Australia and I was looking for an audio-book to go with the trip, especially something that covers indigenous culture and way of life. I listened to some disappointing ones, but Castaway, although originally didn’t stand out as a title, was captivating. Not sure how much of it is fact and how much fiction but it covers a great deal. It presents two parallel streams, a history stream of white settlement and the story of Amglo amongst an aboriginal tribe.
Bittersweet finish, goes with the mood of the holiday almost coming to an end. I want to visit North Queensland now.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- T. Little
- 17-09-2019
exceptionally good
This is a superb book- an adventure, and a heart-breaking "first contact" story presented in a factual and historically measured way and also with great empathy and imagination. The author skillfully places the story in the wider arc of Queensland colonization, a woeful narrative of murder, rapine, and physical and cultural genocide. It is an important work of history that is also a riveting and thought-provoking story. What more could you want? The narrator is an exceptionally good dramatic voice, fluidly transitioning between French and a range of dramatic dialects in English-Australian.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Michael Aitken
- 25-07-2019
Wow!
As someone who has spent much time in the far north of Qld and friends with indigenous people I was deeply moved by this story. Amazing, inspiring, sad. The way ahead is to do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with the creator of this wonderful yet broken world.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Robp9921
- 12-03-2020
Well told story of obscure Aussie history
Narration by Carmen never disappoints, backed up by excellent research and writing by Macklin. Excellent
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful