Reviewed by Wendy Lipke
The Big Book of Australian Yarns is compiled by Jim Haynes, recipient of an OAM in 2016 for services to the performing arts as an entertainer, author, broadcaster and historian. He has published other works as the result of decades of research into popular culture and history from around Australia. The author refers to this latest work as a history book, hopefully devoid of any political or philosophical agenda (X11). Although some of the stories in this publication readers may have come across before in his previous work, he assures the reader that many are new.
There are few people who know more about our Aussie heritage, humour, history, art and verse than Jim Haynes, who specialises in all things Australian.
The Big Book of Australian Yarns and Amazing True Stories is a collection of factual and fascinating stories and humour. The yarns fall under eight different themes including colourful characters, courageous women, fascinating factuals, Aussie history, railway tales as well as alcoholic history. All of the categories have a uniquely Australian flavour and contain from nine to twenty stories. They are each introduced by black and white pictures or sketches relevant to the theme followed by an introduction to the topic by the author.
The book is normal novel format and contains over 500 pages so is quite thick.
This is a book which should be left lying about and read one story at a time over a long period otherwise the stories could blend one into the other. There are many Australian individuals revealed here, both men and women. Haynes admits to trying to redress the unfairness of the past when women were poorly represented in Australian history.
The characters come from all walks of life, from prominent Australians we have all heard about to convicts, dare devils, non-conformists, some villains and true eccentrics. There is a man who went overboard and another who could not be hanged. The author tells the reader that all of the characters are real and that the yarns are true.
One section looks at the mysterious and spooky, to haunted buildings, strange lights, ships containing the same name that have all succumb to disaster and of course the yowie, bunyips and big cats.
When addressing Australian humour, Jim Haynes highlights the humour of Aboriginal people – payback humour. He also says that Aussie humour is under threat by technology and the homogenisation of western culture. Old fashioned Aussie humour was all about mocking pretensions and laughing at our own quirks and characteristics, examples of which in this book include Dad and Dave, graveyard humour and sporting clangers.
When looking at Australia’s alcoholic history, the oldest pubs, pub names and booze and sport stories predominate. Poor old Henry Lawson’s drinking problems also find a place.
It was interesting to read that the first guns fired after World War 1 was declared were actually in Australia not Europe and that Victoria has the honour of having fired the first shots in both world wars (8). Very few Australians know that four months before Gallipoli there was an act of International Islamic terrorism perpetrated at Broken Hill (44).
Most of the stories in this book are about the odd coincidences and human tales rather than military and political events. Who would have believed that an Irishman living in New Zealand would have almost single-mindedly been responsible for Western Australia’s public infrastructure. The stories finish with Shiploads of Migrants.
This is a book that keeps on giving. It is easy to read and can be used to fill in a few spare minutes throughout the day. It is also a book that readers will return to time and again to reread some of the antics our ancestors are remembered for. This book explains our Australianness which apparently is under threat of disappearing under our globalisation and technology.
The Big Book of Australian Yarns
(2024)
by Jim Haynes
Allen&Unwin
ISBN:978-1-76147-186-5
$34.99; 544pp