Australians in Action in New Guinea. Photographs by Signaller H. Ellis, with introduction by Lieut.-Col. Paton.
Sydney: W.C. Penfold and the Australasian News Co., 1915. Octavo, title with list of contents verso, then paginated 9-97; with a total of 20 plates (one frontispiece and one single sided plate, and 18 double sided photo plates). The book is compositionally complex, as the first eight pages are actually counted within the first suite of plates (and not letterpress at all). Nonetheless, collated and complete based on intrinsic printer's codes. Small perforation in the preliminary leaves, bound in later black cloth. Scarce account of the Australian naval and military deployment to New Guinea, containing an excellent suite of photographs of Rabaul, native ceremonies, camp life, German civilians in New Guinea, and so forth. Of historical and biographical interest is a complete listing of members of the expeditionary force (pages 80-97), which includes a specific sub-listing of the naval gunners who landed at Herbertshohe in September 1914.
This book is scarce in the market, despite the Penfolds imprint, with around a dozen copies scattered throughout Australian institutional collections. Trigellis-Smith 338; Dornbusch 375. Item #5168
Price (AUD): $400.00