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In July 1824 the king and queen of Hawaii died of measles on a state visit to England. Published in 1826, this composite work combines a brief history of Hawaii with an account of the voyage led by George Anson Byron to return the royal bodies to their native land.

Written by one of New Zealand's first historians, this 1928 publication recounts the history of the small settlement of Akaroa in the South Island. The area was settled predominantly by the French and much of Buick's book concerns their conflict with the British over land ownership.

Written by prominent historian Thomas Lindsay Buick, this 1914 book relates the circumstances under which New Zealand's Treaty of Waitangi was created in 1840. Signed by British officials and Maori chiefs, this controversial document ceded New Zealand to the British Empire. This second, revised edition was published in 1933.

This 1864 publication analyses the New Zealand Taranaki Wars of the early 1860s, probing the causes behind the deterioration of relations between Maori and Europeans. The author, a former Civil Commissioner for the Waikato region, both criticises errors by the British administration and describes political wrangling within the Maori community.

This 1876 publication, based on a series of his earlier newspaper articles by David Kennedy Jr (1849-85), is a vivid, action-packed account of a tour of Australia, New Zealand and North America between 1872 and 1876. Kennedy provides fascinating descriptions of sights and experiences from Queensland to Quebec.

In 1835 journalist Henry Saxelby Melville (1799-1873) was jailed for contempt of court over his coverage of a trial in Van Diemen's Land, Australia. He used this time to write a critical account of the colony's history and prison system, which was smuggled to England and published in 1835.

James Fenton (1820-1901), a pioneer, wrote this history of the island in 1884. It is an important work for those interested in colonialism and the history of Australia, as it documents the building of the colony (including the involvement of convicts) and the treatment of the native aborigines.

In 1879 the young journalist John Henniker Heaton (1848-1914) published this pioneering two-part dictionary. Containing biographies of notable men and women with Australian connections, and covering topics from Aboriginal cricketers to the Zig Zag railway, it remains a valuable resource for the history of European settlement in Australia.

James Tuckey (1776-1816) was the first lieutenant on H.M.S. Calcutta when it was given orders in 1802 to sail to Port Phillip, New South Wales (today's Melbourne), establish a convict colony and conduct a survey of the area. Tuckey recalls the journey in this account, published in 1805.

A sympathetic anthropological account of the Tasmanian aborigines by non-conformist mystic James Bonwick (1817-1906), whose further work on the subject was cited by Darwin, provides important source material about this nearly extinct people and gives insights into the morally difficult subjects of nineteenth-century anthropology and colonial settlement.

Coghlan was the statistician for New South Wales from 1886, and is regarded as Australia's first 'Mandarin'. First published in 1903, and benefiting greatly from the author's extensive hard statistical data, this was one of the first comprehensive histories of Australia, charting her development from penal colony to urbanised democracy.

James Francis Hogan (1855-1924) wrote several histories of Irish colonisation in Australia. This 1891 publication presents the colourful autobiography of Jorgen Jorgenson (1780-1841), a Danish adventurer , briefly 'King of Iceland', who insinuated himself into influential social networks in Britain but was eventually transported to Tasmania as a convict.

First published in 1893, this work provided the English public with a detailed account of Australian life and culture. Adams divides his study in two parts, the first describing life in the coastal settlements, the second focusing on the eastern interior of the country.

Edward Gibbon Wakefield(1796-1862) was a controversial colonial advocate and political theorist. He formed the New Zealand Association in 1837 with the aim of creating a colony in the country. This volume, first published in 1839, contains a detailed descriptions of the Association's plans to colonize New Zealand.

Written by a convicted pickpocket and punctuated by colourful plates and vignettes, George Barrington's 1802 account of murder, theft, punishment and retribution in New South Wales continues to entertain and inform anyone with an interest in colonial, maritime or criminal history.