Hell West and Crooked
True Adventure Australian History Biography Adventure Non-Fiction Outback Frontier Memoir Pioneer Life Northern Territory Wildlife Hunting
Hell West and Crooked is the gripping, larger-than-life autobiography of Tom Cole, a legendary Northern Territory stockman, buffalo shooter, crocodile hunter and bush pioneer whose career spanned the wild decades from the 1920s to the 1960s. Told in Cole’s own colourful voice, the book plunges readers into a vanished Australia of open ranges, treacherous rivers and frontier towns where a broken-down truck or an angry bull could end your day—and often did. From mustering cattle on the Barkly Tableland to facing down 16-foot crocs in the swamps of Arnhem Land, every chapter delivers true-adventure action that rivals any novel, yet every word is fact.
What makes this 2000 Angus & Robertson paperback so collectable is the way it pairs Cole’s unforgettable yarns with rare period photographs, detailed maps of old cattle routes and remote stations, and a level of bush detail that historians now prize. At 356 pages it is the definitive account of how European settlers, Aboriginal stockmen and Afghan cameleers together opened up the Top End, and it has become a key reference for anyone studying Australian pastoral history, wildlife conservation or Indigenous relations. Teachers and librarians routinely recommend it to young adults because the prose is accessible, the humour is infectious and the courage is inspirational.
For readers hunting a keepsake copy, this particular edition is in very good condition—clean, tight and unmarked—making it ideal for gifting, reading or display. Its ISBN 9780207189845 is frequently searched but increasingly scarce in tidy, collectible state, so enthusiasts seeking an illustrated, map-rich memoir of the real “Crocodile Dundee” era will find this listing both search-friendly and shelf-worthy.
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