The Big Book of Australian Yarns is master storyteller Jim Haynes’s comprehensive collection of factual and fascinating tales and humour. Photo: Supplied.
Australian entertainer, bush poet, historian and songwriter Jim Haynes is prolific but discerning. He is one of a select few who know more than most about our Aussie heritage, humour, history, art and verse.
The Big Book of Australian Yarns is a collection of stories that’s actually a history book in disguise. Haynes writes about things that make history interesting, seeking truth in the narrative. He finds the best way to do that is to research until he understands the background and is able to get close to the reality, not just repeat the myths and the simplified versions.
“It is always the truth that is interesting and history begins to make sense when it becomes a story,” Haynes writes in the preface. “Discovering the truth and explaining it is always the best way to make things that happened in the past into good yarns.
“This is not a collection of jokes, fictional anecdotes, urban myths or tall stories, although quite a few of those have found their way into the ‘Aussie Humour’ part – as examples of what makes Australians laugh.
“Some of the stories belong to what I would call ‘big history’ – the Eureka Stockade, Cobb & Co, aviation milestones, building the railways, establishing hospitals …”
There are also stories about events that will leave you puzzled because they do not “make sense” or fit into any local human understanding. Then there are the things that Australians ought to know, but don’t. Like the fact that Western Australia voted to leave the Commonwealth in 1933, or that the drunken soldiers’ mutiny that terrified the citizens of Sydney in 1916 and ended in shootings and death also helped to bring about the social evil of six o’clock closing, an evil that lasted four decades.
“There are stories about my personal heroes, the forgotten people who built the railways and hospitals and struggled to improve our society in a whole manner of different ways. Charles O’Connor, Lucy Osburn, John Whitton, Louisa Lawson, Harold Clapp and many others. Then there are people like Ross Smith, Amy Johnson, Hubert Wilkins and Nancy Wake, heroes from our past who are in danger of being forgotten in spite of the awe-inspiring courage they displayed in doing things no Australian has ever done – before or since.”
The book’s full title includes the tag ‘’Amazing True Stories’’ – and they are! Divided into eight parts, this is a collection of factual and fascinating stories and wit. The new extended compilation spans more than 500 pages, about the essence of Australia – our yarns and stories, from every walk of life.
As Haynes points out, he tries to write history that’s devoid of any political or philosophical agenda.
“I try to find out what happened at the time and explain the context in which it happened. I also like to add some stories that are unusual or amusing. That is what I call ‘little history’ – true stories and anecdotes that just make me laugh out loud, fascinating but rarely told accounts of episodes from our colourful past – like the invention of the Aussie pie, the scandalous Flying Van Tassels, and how we went to war, officially, against the poor old emus.”
The yarns range from the poignant to the hilarious, from the ridiculously Australian to the unexplained and spooky. There are heroic and inspiring characters, as well as larrikins and crooks, and everyday humorous events told with a refreshing understatement that vividly evokes a vanishing Australia.
There are tall stories from the bush, yarns from our colourful colonial past and more modern times, railway stories, sporting legends and many other things you never knew about our amazing history and the people who made it – men and women whose astonishing lives and achievements created the Aussie spirit.
The result of decades of research into popular culture and history from all parts of the country, unearthing little-known facts and tales long-buried, The Big Book of Australian Yarns will have you sharing narratives, and fill you with happiness for days.
A recipient of the Medal of the Order of Australia in 2016 for service to the performing arts, Haynes has published more than 30 books, all of which focus on Australian history, Australiana and bush poetry.
Haynes assures us that many of the stories are new, written just for this collection and never previously published. Some stories readers may have come across before in his previous work, but they have been completely rewritten and updated. Hence, this “… compendium” of stories “… is also an accumulation”.
The Big Book of Australian Yarns, by Jim Haynes, Allen & Unwin, $34.99
