Welcome
Walla Walla Press publishes a number of new titles on Australian sports history each year. It also sells cricket and other second hand sports books.
New Dissertation Series
Walla Walla Press, in keeping with its mission to publish original research in sports history, has introduced a series of Sports History Dissertations to make small print runs of outstanding doctoral theses available to a wider audience.
Contact Walla Walla Press
ABN: 68 003 881 132
PO Box 717
Petersham, NSW 2049
Australia
Phone/Fax: +61(2) 9560 6902
info at wallawallapress dot com
Recent Books
Benchmark Games: The Sydney 2000 Paralympic Games
Benchmark Games is unique as there has been no previous study of an individual Paralympic Games. The book documents and analyses the new benchmarks that were set at the time of the successful Sydney Paralympic Games. Benchmark Games explores many questions about the appeal of the Games to the community and disability sport and the place of the disability community in Australian life.
The Bondi Lifesaver: A History of an Australian Icon
In February 2007 the Bondi Surf Bathers' Life Saving Club (SBLSC) celebrated its centenary. The story of the foundation club of unique Australian humanitarian movement and its lifesavers is that of surf life saving. The surf reel, organised patrols, red and yellow patrol caps, bathing area flags and the form of interclub competition, which are all part of Australian beach culture, were first seen on the sands in front of this famous club.
Peter Antonie: Out of His Shell A Biography of Australian Rowing's Unsung Hero
A journalist noted that Peter Antonie is ‘truly one of the greatest sportsmen Australia has produced, yet only a few people know who he is… (but) those who know (rowing) regard him as one of the greats, up there with… Bobby Pearce and Merv Wood’. Antonie represented his country from 1977 to 1996 and is the only Australian to receive the highest honour in rowing; the Thomas Keller Medal.
Soccer Boom: The Transformation of Victorian Soccer Culture 1945-1963
John Kallinikios challenges previous interpretations of the soccer boom in post-war Australia. He argues persuasively that historians have overplayed the ethnic factor and underplayed a significant advance of the code from an amateur participant-based sport to a more commercial and professional mass-spectator sport and that the tensions that shaped the code during this period were not necessarily linked to ethnicity.
Sydney's Pony Racecourses: An Alternative Racing History
Contrary to the name of the sport, most pony races were contested by fully-grown thoroughbreds. It has been suggested that pony racing appealed to desperate, the 'needy and greedy' elements of the working class only. Sydney's Pony Racecourses demonstrates that such assertions are without basis. The sport was one of the country's biggest industries with the prize money for its cup-races matching the Cox Plate.
The Bitter-Sweet Awakening: The Legacy of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games
There has been increasing recognition of the impacts of mega sporting events and in 2001 the International Olympic Committee initiated its Olympic Games Global Impact Project. Have the long-term impacts been positive or negative? The Bitter-Sweet Awakening is the first book of its kind, a broad-ranging analysis of the impacts of one particular Olympic and Paralympic Games.
General
Dead Parrot
(Reprinted January 2005) This is a novel with a difference, it's a bird-watcher thriller. In addition to being a great read, it delves into Australia's fastest-growing pastime – bird-watching. It explores how and why some birders have transformed this ‘genteel’ pursuit into a competitive sport. Set in Sydney, Dead Parrot has some astute and humorous observations and insights into life in the emerald city.