Koombana Days (Annie Boyd, Fremantle Press)

A century ago, there weren’t many roads in Australia, and outside the main cities and the south-eastern states, what railways there were tended to run inland from ports rather than from town to town. In Western Australia the main means of transport to and from Perth and Fremantle—for people, supplies, crops, livestock, pearls, ore and heavy goods such as railway tracks and sleepers—was by ship. In 1909 the Adelaide Steamship Company made a large, brave investment and commissioned a Glasgow shipbuilder to make the SS Koombana, a state-of-the-art steam ship expressly designed to serve the route from Fremantle to Broome, Derby and beyond. But after only three years of service, Koombana disappeared in a cyclone with the loss of 150 lives. In reconstructing the story of the Koombana Annie Boyd delves into so many topics aside from nautical history: the development of remote Australia; immigration and the White Australia policy; relations with the Indigenous communities; the Broome pearling industry and the pastoralists of the North-West; meteorology, mapping and navigation. It’s a fascinating mix that adds up to a work of social history that is engaging and readable for a wide general audience. 

Tim Coronel is a freelance editor and publishing consultant. He is the coordinator of the 2013 Independent Publishing Conference and is a former publisher and editor of Books+Publishing

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Category: Reviews