Showing results by author "Ryan Butta" in All Categories

After his interest was piqued by a 19th-century photo of a camel train in a country town, Ryan Butta found himself on the trail of Australia’s earliest Afghan camel-drivers. Separating the bulldust from the bush poetry, he reveals the breadth and depth of white Australian protectionism and prejudice. Told with flair and authority, this gritty alternative history defies the standard horse-powered folklore to reveal the untold debt this country owes to humble dromedaries, their drivers and those who brought them here.

The many lives and tragic death of Harry Freame, the Anzac hero betrayed by his nation. Harry Freame was the first Australian to win the Distinguished Conduct Medal at Gallipoli. Raised as a samurai, he risked his life again and again to scout the beaches and hills of the battlefield, reporting...

An important reckoning with Australia’s unspoken history of slavery. From the author of the bestselling books The Ballad of Abdul Wade and The Bravest Scout at Gallipoli As Australia becomes more willing to confront the violence and trauma of its colonial past, one chapter has remained largely...