Recreating the Country
By Stephen Murphy

​A practical guide to landscape restoration, Recreating the Country (2009) sets out the design principles for adding habitat and creating more ‘wildlife-friendly’ properties, while at the same time integrating with traditional agricultural enterprises. 

Commissioned by Ballarat Region Treegrowers, the guide was written by Landcare nurseryman and ecologist, Stephen Murphy.  Well-known author and botanist Leon Costermans described it as “interesting and very informative.” Edited and produced by em PRESS Publishing for Australian Forest Growers.

Since  2010, Ballarat Region Treegrowers (BRT) have planted  a 15 ha model 'biorich plantation' project on a mining buffer site near Lal Lal Falls based on the principles in the book – visit the biorich plantation website.  

​Stephen now has a blog called Recreating the Country 
​
​It's planned to bring out a 2nd edition of the book in 2024.

The People of Budj Bim,  Second Edition  OUT NOW

The People of Budj Bim – the updated and revised Gunditjmara history of their World Heritage listed cultural landscape

​Written in collaboration with the Gunditjmara of south-west Victoria, this history brings to life the amazing story about their traditional 6,600 year old eel aquaculture systems and stone house settlements, along with the long Eumeralla War they fought to prevent dispossession.

Two new chapters in the Second Edition look at the 17 year lead up to the World Heritage listing of the Budj Bim cultural landscape in 2019 and the extraordinary efforts the Gunditjmara are making in stepping up to meet  the challenges they face.

The First Edition of The People of Budj Bim  received glowing reviews. Fiona Capp in The Age cited the book as "clearly written, enlightening... an excellent teaching tool (and ) a must-read for anyone who wants the full picture on the history of the Western District." 

The Second Edition is on sale now – still $25 (plus p&h) via the Shop Online menu or Contact Us for bulk orders of 10 or more for a 20% discount. For more info visit Reviews.

Daughter of Two Worlds                REPRINTED
By Dawn A. Lees

​Another  small digital print run with improved quality of the many images in this extraordinary family history, has now been reprinted.
​
​Written by Gunditjmara descendant Dawn Lee, Daughter of Two Worlds tells the remarkable story of her family from first contact to her great grandfather's association with John Batman, the founder of Melbourne, and his children's incarceration in the Lake Condah Mission. The book was the product of 15 years research. See the ​review for more details.

​“Sometimes hauntingly vivid, [the book] provides a rare perspective on the triumphs and tragedies of a family torn between two different cultures. Of particular interest are the delightful photographs, many of which are from Lee's private collection.”
– Pick of the Week, The Age review by Cameron Woodhead.
Gunditjmara elder Denise Lovett with Gib Wettenhall at the awards ceremony in Queens Hall, Parliament House on 20 October.

OVERALL WINNER 2011
at the Victorian Community History Awards for The People of Budj Bim

Presented by the Royal Historical Society & the Public Record Office of Victoria, the judges' citation for the award reads: 

"This wonderful exposition about the Gunditjmara people and their country... is well-researched, clearly presented and shows a profound knowledge and understanding of the natural cultural and historical elements that made the landscape and its people in their many manifestations through to present times.

"This publication is a superb community history."

The People of Gariwerd

The People of Gariwerd – reprinted in association with the traditional owners.

With over 200 rock art sites, the Grampians/Gariwerd National Park contains the most culturally significant Aboriginal sites in Victoria, and is one of the state’s premier tourist destinations.  A precursor to The People of Budj Bim and similar in style, The People of Gariwerd gives the Aboriginal side of the story for these ranges.

The booklet is lavishly illustrated and aimed at visitors to the Grampians. Suitable for​ schools. In its 3rd print run, The People of Gariwerd tells for the first time how Aboriginal people have maintained an intense and unbroken relationship with the peaks and plains of the Gariwerd for tens of thousands of years. 

REPRINTED in January 2019

Wombat Forest six season calendar and nature journal
By Tanya Loos

The first Australians understood that this continent has more than four seasons.

Acutely observed, the Daylesford Nature Diary reintroduces the six seasons for Victoria’s southern foothill forests in all their splendour. It includes a full colour, beautifully illustrated wheel calendar of wall poster size as a reference and guide.

A Daylesford naturalist and magazine columnist, author Tanya Loos lovingly illuminates the world within and around a Wombat Forest bush block – from that mysterious bonking at the bottom of the garden to why there are suddenly so many green parrots in late summer. Part What Bird Is That?, part Rudyard Kipling’s Just So Stories, the 36 tales of nature contained in the Daylesford Nature Diary are insightful in the knowledge they impart, while whimsical in tone. 

Starting with early spring and heading round to winter, Tanya provides a series of sketches of the birds, plants and animals putting in an appearance each season. Not simply the rare and endangered, but those you might commonly expect to catch sight of from the back door. 

“The remarkable Tanya Loos has identified key indicator species for seasonal changes and described them in delightful prose and engaging photographs. Who can resist the appeal of the puggle, an early spring baby echidna indicator?”           
Alan Reid, OAM, environmental educator and author of Banksias & Bilbies.

Purchase via SHOP ONLINE at 30% discount from retail price.

Gariwerd: Reflecting on the Grampians
with superb landscape photography by Alison Pouliot

Gariwerd: Reflecting on the Grampians is a high quality, large format book of 95 lyrical photographic images and five challenging essays that pays homage to this landscape like no other on this most unique of continents. With a Foreword by former Governor of Victoria and Olympic runner, John Landy.
 
The photographs form a unique record of the Grampians ranges as they were taken just prior to the first big bushfire that took out half the Grampians ranges in the summer of 2007. There is still no other high quality landscape photography book of the Grampians that compares. 

Reduced by 40% in price to $49.99  for the standard edition; and, for the first time, reduced by 40% to  $69.99  for the deluxe limited slip case edition, which is printed on A1 paper and has spot varnish further accentuating the images. Only 500 copies were printed of the Limited edition. Visit Shop Online.  Check out more about this book in Reviews

My Father's Son
​By Ric Throssel

My Father's Son was runner-up in the National Book Council Banjo Awards for Australian Literature. It tells the story of Ric Throssell's long battle to break through the suspicion and prejudice that stifled his Foreign Affairs career as the result of being the son of a famous communist, Katherine Susannah Pritchard.

​ In 1997, em PRESS published a revised edition, which includes a new final chapter that uncovers the information in top secret files held by ASIO on Throssell, which he claimed cleared him of charges of being a spy.

Praise for My Father's Son in the Sunday Observer included: "A moving, romantic and often exciting account of a life scarred with grief and controversy, and healed with joy, love and

Central Victorian Highlands Walk and Ride Circuits
By Bill Casey, Ken Dowling and Ed Butler

Most people heading out into the bush for a walk or a mountain bike ride don’t have all day. In 2021, the the Great Dividing Trail Association (GDTA) produced this sturdy guide to short half day walks or mountain bike rides within a 25km radius of Daylesford's fabulously valid terrain. The 20 walk and 10 bike ride circuits loop out from the Goldfields and Lerderderg tracks at the junction of the 300km long Great Dividing Trail Network. There's no need for car shuttles.

​Each of the  circuits is supported by full colour, large scale contour maps alongside detailed accompanying track notes. It’s  wiro bound and well-designed – features that replicate the style of  the award-winning Goldfields Track Walk or Ride Guide, also published by em PRESS and project managed by Gib Wettenhall for the GDTA.  A team of five GDTA members with vast collective experience specifically devised the walk and ride circuits. A word of caution: while they open up new territory, the circuits lack waymarking where they deviate from the signed GDTN trails. Some navigational skills are essential before setting forth on one of the circuits.

​Funding support from the Community Bank Daylesford District has made this guide possible at a reasonable price $24.99 – visit the em PRESS online SHOP here or the GDTA's online SHOP to purchase your copy.

Goldfields Track : Walk or Ride Guide
By Gib Wettenhall

A revised 2nd edition of the guidebook for both walkers and bike riders was published by em PRESS for the Great Dividing Trail Association in December 2017

For online orders of the new guidebook, visit the website of the  Great Dividing Trail Association.   For further information, go to Reviews.

NOT ON SALE
​VIA EM PRESS
Gib Wettenhall with Historical Interps Award.

AWARD WINNER 2012 
at the Victorian Community History Awards for the 1st edition as the Goldfields Track walking guide

em PRESS won the Historical Interpretation Award for the Goldfields Track walking guide in 2012. The award citation reads:

"This is a very impressive and superbly presented walking guide to the 210km Goldfields Track that extends from Mt Buninyong to Bendigo. Heritage tourists will find it equally valuable to to identify and appreciate the towns and historic sites along the way.  A group of knowledgeable authors has combined to describe, photograph and guide users  through the series of map spreads into which the walk is divided. What lifts this book above most guides are informative sections on reading the landscape and cultural heritage along the track, and short biographies of the famous district personalities. It is a model for future guides."

Em PRESS principal, Gib Wettenhall acted as the lead writer and producer of the guide.  He is the President and publications manager for the Great Dividing Trail Association (GDTA), who acted as the original developers of the Goldfields Track.

Two early novels by Craig Horne, author of a trilogy of biographies on the Melbourne music scene

A pair of racy novels by musician and author Craig Horne,  who's now published three biographies on the Melbourne music scene, including one on Daddy Cool, the band behind the iconic Eagle Rock, and the latest on Mike Rudd, lead singer for Spectrum. Craig is himself the lead singer and songwriter for the Hornets, described in The Age as "the best blues band in Melbourne." 

Black comedies, his early novels Bureaucracy Blues and its sequel Alpha Jerk, chart the sex and drug-fuelled rise and fall of a public servant who becomes a rock star. 

Craig's band regularly features  Gary Young from Daddy Cool and Jeff Burstin of Black Sorrows fame. 

Click Review for more about these two early novels by Craig Horne.

Order via the Shop Online for $14.99 each 

Improving community forestry outcomes for a near neighbour.
Co-edited by Digby Race and Gib Wettenhall

In the 10 years to 2016, a multi-disciplinary team of over 30 Australian and Indonesian researchers led by Dr Digby Race linked reafforestation with commercial opportunities for rural communities.

A logical enough strategy, one would have thought, for reversing the worldwide loss of forests. Half of Indonesia’s smallholder farmers of 40 million people live in poverty, suffering from inadequate food and shelter. While most smallholders (i.e. with less than 4ha of land) have timber trees in their yard, these tend to be sold to the village broker on an ad hoc basis in times of great financial need. The project team concluded that the best avenue for ‘adding value’ to the farmers’ trees was by improving their silvicultural knowledge, as well as giving them a better understanding of how commercial markets work.
 
Training was based on an adapted version of the Australian Master TreeGrower program. Independent evaluation found that it resulted in a significant improvement in a farmer's knowledge of forestry as well as more active management of their trees

The well-illustrated paperback contains vital, easily accessible information for anyone engaged in community-based commercial forestry (CBCF) extension and policy-making, not only in Indonesia but throughout the developing world.

Major sponsors were the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research and the Australian National University.

Sustainably Managing Private Native Forests

A guide for Victorian landowners, Sustainably Managing Private Native Forests  was extensively revised by forester Mark Poynter and redesigned and edited via em PRESS Publishing in 2009. 

The guide was published on behalf of the Central Victorian Farm plantations Inc, now defunct. 

​Limited numbers available at $15 (inc p&h) via Shop Online

Tomorrow
By award-winning author Ric Throssell

The final novel by Ric Throssell, Tomorrow begins with the flight of a young Polish Jew, Galina, from Nazi Europe to a new life in Australia. This epic novel is Throssell's take on utopian dreams and their dark side. It traces the war against Japan and the fear and repression of Communism in the 1950s.  

In its review, the Canberra Times described Tomorrow as an important novel: "Quite apart from the quality of writing and sense of place which is evoked with considerable clarity, Tomorrow offers an insight into not only the operation of communism in Australia, but the people who were attracted to it as an idea." 

You can buy Tomorrow on the Shop Online.  Click here for a Review.