Bøker av Ian Mannix

'the biggest cleared area was my vegetable patch ... I ran and lay down and made a little tent over myself. I thought it would preserve the last of the oxygen. Under the blanket I could hear explosions - the gas bottles from the houses further up, and I could just imagine all my neighbours dead up the road. the wind was roaring, the trees cracking: an awful lot of noise ... I thought I wasn't going to survive.' Peter Luke, Gaffneys Creek, Victoria 'the sky got darker again ... I started to think about the next day's newspaper headlines: "Stupid thirty-eight-weeks pregnant woman drives into fire with toddler."' Sonia Stanton, Canberra 'I looked down into where the houses were totally surrounded by a sea of flame and thought, well, that's it, she's all over. Everybody will be killed down there.' John Hyles, Namadgi Ranges GREAt AUStRALIAN BUSHFIRE StORIES is a collection of remarkable tales from all around Australia that tell of our country's fiercest natural phenomenon: the bushfire. Farmers, landowners, firefighters and city dwellers share with ABC journalist Ian Mannix their experiences of fires: preparing for them, fighting them, and the heartbreak task of mopping up when even their best efforts failed. Some stories are funny, some tragic, many courageous, but all are a testimony to the ingenuity and grit of human beings as they fight to save their homes, their towns and, in some cases, their lives.

'I tried to follow the road but the rushing waters pushed me into a deep rut where I lost my footing and was swept away downstream in the overflow of the river ... I got very frightened at the noise, and the water swept me along ... but I kept saying to myself, "Don't panic." Hampered by the big mail bag I let it go and within seconds the water swept it out of sight.' Lyn Berlowitz, Bullita Station, Nt From ABC Local Radio Manager of Emergency Broadcasting and senior journalist Ian Mannix comes a collection of 15 stories of humour, survival and courage in the face of one of our country's most powerful natural forces - flood. Across Grantham to Condamine, Kempsey to Bullita Station, flood has devastated this wide brown land, in some instances bringing much needed relief from drought, but in many others bringing tragedy, homelessness and a fight for survival. Ian Mannix charts the pattern of floods in Australia and tells amazing stories of danger and survival, from the women trapped in a house infested with snakes as the floodwaters rose ever higher, to the helicopter rescues of people whose homes were inundated without warning, to the brave townsfolk who saved their outback Queensland towns from the menace of the Warego River with all the odds stacked against them. As in Ian's previous book Great Australian Bushfire Stories, these fascinating accounts from the lips of those who have experienced disaster will give you an understanding of what it is like to face nature at its most deadly, how to prepare and how to recover from its shocking impact.