Ngarak Press was established in 1988, published (or republished) 31 titles and operated until 2004. The original purpose of the press was to publish titles like Our Founding Murdering Father that I could not get a publisher for. This was followed by my Gippsland place names series, the republication of Gippsland Massacres and Through Foreign Eyes, some Angove poetry booklets, and some obscure papers by Alfred Howitt. The press name itself was a mistake. It was supposed to be the Kurnai word for “black cockatoo” to give black cockatoo press. However the correct word for this is ‘nganak’ not ‘ngarak’ and I misread by handwritten notes substituting an ‘r’ for the second ‘n’. From memory I think there is a word close to ‘ngarak’ in Eastern Kulin language meaning ‘stone’. It is my intention to make all Ngarak Press titles between 1989 and 2004 either available for purchase as an ebook or as a free scanned pdf.
PDG March 2023
By P.D. Gardner
Some Notes on Victorian Alpine Aborigines. 1997 booklet now available as pdf.
European Occupation and Exploration of the Victorian Alps. 1996 booklet scanned.
Gippsland Massacres 1st edition 1984 Warragul Education Centre (1993, 2001) a few copies now held by the Gippsland and East Gippsland Aboriginal Co-operative, Bairnsdale.
Through Foreign Eyes 1st edition 1988 Centre for Gippsland Studies (1994) copies now held by the Gippsland and East Gippsland Aboriginal Co-operative, Bairnsdale.
A Gippsland Union: the Victorian Coal Miners Association 1893-1915 (2003) copies now held by Korumburra Historical Society.
Names on the Great Alpine Road between Wangaratta and Omeo, (1998) copies now held by the Omeo Historical Society.
Names of Bass Strait (1996)
Names of the Latrobe Valley and West Gippsland (1992)
Too Old to Rat: the Radical Miners of South Gippsland 1893-1904 (1994 /300)
The Scab Train and other essays on the Victorian Coal Miners Association Train (1992 /300)
Our Founding Murdering Father (1988, 1990)
The Language of the Kurnai Tribes of Gippsland (1996)
Names on the Great Alpine Road between Bairnsdale and Omeo (1997, originally Names on the Omeo Highway 1991 numerous reprints)
Names of the Victorian Alps (1991)
Names Around the Gippsland Lakes (1991)
Names of East Gippsland (1992)
Names of South Gippsland (1992)
Names on the Princes Highway between Melbourne and Sydney (2000)
By Alfred Howitt
The Geology and Gold Mines of Swifts Creek (1996 originally published as The Diorites and Granites of Swifts Creek and their contact zones, with notes on the Auriferous Deposits in Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria, 1880)
Further Notes on Australian Class Systems (1998 /200 facsimile reprint from Journal of the Anthropological Institute, London, 1898)
The Jeraeil, or the Initiation Ceremonies of the Kurnai Tribe (1998 /200 facsimile reprint from Journal of the Anthropological Institute, London, 1885)
On the Migration of the Kurnai Ancestors (1998 /200 facsimile reprint from Journal of the Anthropological Institute, London, 1896)
Australian Group Relations (1998 /200 facsimile reprint from Anthropological Association of Washington, 1885)
Notes on Australian Message Sticks and Messengers (1998 /200 facsimile reprint from Journal of the Anthropological Institute, London, 1889)
By A. Angove
Kurnai Poems (Gunnai Wark) Booklet of poems translated from English to Kurnai.(1994 )
Bungeleen and other bush songs (nd. 1989 /200)
Love Songs, the Tao and Mt Nugong (1990 /200)
Bun Jirrah Gingee Munjie (1991 /200)
Mt Nugong No 22: poems and stories (1992 /200)
The Tao of Modern Times (1995 /50)
The Tao of the Twentieth Century (2000 /50)