Just Tassie Books

Patrick Howard's history of the harvesting of the King William Pine — Athrotaxis selaginoides — one of Tasmania's most distinctive and ancient native conifers, endemic to the island's cool temperate rainforests and alpine areas, and historically one of its most prized timbers. King Billy pine grows slowly over centuries in some of Tasmania's most remote country — the west coast, the Tarkine, the highland lakes area and the south-west.

Little more than 70 years after the British settled Van Diemen's Land (later Tasmania) in 1803, the indigenous community had been virtually wiped out.

When he died in 1938, Captain William McKillop was recognised as probably the last surviving master mariner who had served on board an Australasian sail whaler. This book publishes Captain McKillop's memoirs for the first time, bringing to life the last decades of whaling and seagoing trading voyages under sail in Australasia.