Patricia Shaw – författare

Decades of hard work have made Austin Broderick a rich man. His sheep station, Springfield, is one of the largest in Australia and the good relations between the native Aborigines and the Brodericks have made it one of the most peaceful. But with the arrival of the pious Reverend Billings all that looks set to change. Under the guise of friendship he enters the Aborigines' camp and leaves with three six-year-old boys - eager for adventure but destined for misery.Meanwhile, Austin is facing the threat of the Selection Act - a bill which, if passed, will mean the loss of a large proportion of his land. His only hope is his son Harry and his influence as a Brisbane politician. But as the months go by it soon becomes clear that the family's problems run far deeper than any of them had imagined and the answers lie in the last place they would think to look...

Exploring the personal and cultural experiences that have shaped the creative output of one of Australia's foremost composers, this fascinating study begins in a Russian enclave in northern China, progresses through student days in Sydney and San Francisco, and culminates with Sitsky's present position as Professor of Composition at The Australian National University in Canberra. The many influences on his work, including important professional and personal relationships with such eminent persons as the poet Gwen Harwood and the violinist Jan Sedivka, are discussed in detail as are the sources of much of the inspiration for Sitsky's compositions, now numbering close to 200. Of interest to scholars, students, and anyone interested in 20th-century music.In addition to presenting Sitsky's fascinating life story and expounding on the central position he has occupied for the past 40 years in Australia's musical culture, this important work provides for the first time comprehensive bibliographic references to all of Sitsky's compositions, his writing, his recordings, and his appearances as a pianist and lecturer on music. The book is a most valuable addition to any collection, for it is both a work of reference and a compelling story of the development of one of the most eclectic, visionary, and confronting artists of his generation.

Drawing on the theoretical foundations laid out in earlier volumes of this series, this book describes an approach to organizational change and development that is informed by a complexity perspective. It clarifies the experience of being in the midst of change. Unlike many books that presume clarity of foresight or hindsight, the author focuses on the essential uncertainty of participating in evolving events as they happen and considers the creative possibilities of such participation.Most methodologies for organizational change are firmly rooted in systems thinking, as are many approaches to process consultation and facilitation. This book questions the suggestion that we can choose and design new futures for our organizations in the way we often hope. Avoiding the widely favoured use of two by two matrices, idealized schemas and simplified typologies that characterize much of the management literature on change, this book encourages the reader to live in the immediate paradoxes and complexities of organizational life, where we must act with intention into the unknowable. The author uses detailed reflective narrative to evoke and elaborate on the experience of participating in the conversational processes of human organizing. It asserts that possibilities are perpetually sustained and changed by the conversational life of organizations.This book will be valuable to consultants, managers and leaders, indeed all those who are dissatisfied with idealized models of change and are searching for ways to develop an effective change practice.

Drawing on the theoretical foundations laid out in earlier volumes of this series, this book describes an approach to organizational change and development that is informed by a complexity perspective. It clarifies the experience of being in the midst of change. Unlike many books that presume clarity of foresight or hindsight, the author focuses on the essential uncertainty of participating in evolving events as they happen and considers the creative possibilities of such participation.Most methodologies for organizational change are firmly rooted in systems thinking, as are many approaches to process consultation and facilitation. This book questions the suggestion that we can choose and design new futures for our organizations in the way we often hope. Avoiding the widely favoured use of two by two matrices, idealized schemas and simplified typologies that characterize much of the management literature on change, this book encourages the reader to live in the immediate paradoxes and complexities of organizational life, where we must act with intention into the unknowable. The author uses detailed reflective narrative to evoke and elaborate on the experience of participating in the conversational processes of human organizing. It asserts that possibilities are perpetually sustained and changed by the conversational life of organizations.This book will be valuable to consultants, managers and leaders, indeed all those who are dissatisfied with idealized models of change and are searching for ways to develop an effective change practice.

The perspective of complex responsive processes draws on analogies from the complexity sciences, bringing in the essential characteristics of human agents, understood to emerge in social processes of communicative interaction and power relating. The result is a way of thinking about life in organizations that focuses attention on how organizational members cope with the unknown as they perpetually create organizational futures together.This book introduces and explores the possible meanings of the idea of ‘working live’. It makes sense of the sense-making experience itself, drawing attention to the way ideas and concepts emerge ‘live’ in all conversations in organizations. An appreciation of the open-ended, improvisational nature of ongoing human communication becomes key to such an understanding. This book will be of great value to readers looking for reflective accounts of real life experiences in organizations, rather than further prescriptions of what life in organizations ought to be.

The perspective of complex responsive processes draws on analogies from the complexity sciences, bringing in the essential characteristics of human agents, understood to emerge in social processes of communicative interaction and power relating. The result is a way of thinking about life in organizations that focuses attention on how organizational members cope with the unknown as they perpetually create organizational futures together.This book introduces and explores the possible meanings of the idea of ‘working live’. It makes sense of the sense-making experience itself, drawing attention to the way ideas and concepts emerge ‘live’ in all conversations in organizations. An appreciation of the open-ended, improvisational nature of ongoing human communication becomes key to such an understanding. This book will be of great value to readers looking for reflective accounts of real life experiences in organizations, rather than further prescriptions of what life in organizations ought to be.

1898. Battling deprivation in Ireland, Trella Court has no choice but to turn her husband's brother Brodie out of the house. What else could she do with a family to feed? A bitter Brodie travels to Dublin, where he's offered a passage to Australia - a land, it's rumoured, of untold riches. Arriving in Brisbane, Brodie is soon recruited by the owner of Fairlea cattle station. But the sight of a dazzling opal necklace in a jeweller's window leaves him with a dream. He vows one day to find the mesmerising stones and make his fortune. Brodie adjusts well to life at the station, but when his passionate affair with the spoilt mistress causes trouble, he decides to leave and join the hunt for opals. Yet back in Ireland, a destitute Trella and her son are boarding a ship bound for Australia. Can Brodie's obsession with opals save them from ruin, or will it spell tragedy for them all?

As the luxurious ocean liner China Belle enters Australian waters, its passengers have little idea of the tragedy that awaits them, particularly not Mal Willoughby, who is returning to his native land to start a new life with his Chinese wife Jun Lien. The crew, led by First Officer Jake Tussup, mutinies off the coast of Australia, taking the passengers hostage. By the time the horrific ordeal is over and the crew have escaped to the goldfields of the Palmer River, Mal's beautiful wife is dead and the lives of all the survivors have been altered for ever. In the months that follow, a close bond develops between the passengers as they try to put the traumatic experience behind them. For Mal the only way to do this is to track down his wife's killers - but will he ever be able to break free from the past?

Portsmouth, 1832. Once the pride of the British East India fleet, the Veritas has fallen on hard times. She is now a transport ship, her cargo prisoners of the Crown, her destination the penal settlement of Van Diemen's Land, now known as Tasmania, the southernmost State of Australia. Pastor Bob Cookson tries to offer solace to the convicts on board, but is shocked to discover that most of them have committed only trivial offences. He suspects a conspiracy to empty British prisons, but finds a more sinister motive at work...