Land of My Birth

This is a book Frank Clune wrote around the middle of his writing career. It is a collection of short stories under the subtitle Epics of Australian Adventure, and it is an apt subtitle. It is really a collection of short stories, each a chapter long, and each about a different legend of Australian history. Some are well known (err, perhaps more well know within Australia!), some more obscure, and a couple are about Frank Clune himself. With two exceptions they are about Australia.For the well known, we are treated to chapters on O'Hara Burke (of Burke & Wills fame), Breaker Morant, Donald Mackay. However some of the lesser known legends are equally incredible. The stories include those of pearlers, drovers, gold prospectors, miners, divers, bushrangers and bushmen, explorers and criminals.Some of these books are recaps from Clune other books, such as Burke & Wills from Clunes book [b:Dig, The Burke & Wills Saga 37754105 Dig, The Burke & Wills Saga Frank Clune https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1514418570l/37754105.SX50.jpg 4665314], and Donald Mackay's story in The Last of the Explorers and there are others that I am sure feed into his many other books.Clune's writing style is easy, and on point. He doesn't pad things out. His stories had structure and energy, and each has a conclusion. My pet hate in short (non-fiction) stories is where they read as an excerpt, without a start and an end. These suffer from no such problems.As I mentioned above, one of these stories not based in Australia is set in the upper reaches of the Upper Sepik, in what was at the time, the Mandated Territory of New Guinea - recently changed from German New Guinea. This is one of Clune's own adventures - and while it doesn't really fit the subtitle of the book, it fits well enough as ‘Australian Territory' of the time. The final story is again one of Clune's adventures - his return from time overseas on a 3 masted full rigged sailing ship which left Victoria Harbour (Canada) bound for Sydney Harbour. He was taken on board as a ‘sailor', mistaken for an Able Seaman, and quickly demoted to an Ordinary Seaman!Very enjoyable. 4 stars.