Justin Cahill: 26 books

Bessie Johnston, my great-grandmother, came from Crear in Argyll, not far from the Mull of Kintyre. When she came to New Zealand as a war bride, almost all contact with her family in Scotland was lost. Bessie's family cut her off and she died, tragically young, in 1922. For almost 80 years,...

This is a short, up-to-date account to the birds found along Wolli Creek, the last substantial remnant of the natural environment in Sydney's inner south-west. It is written for those new to the Valley and interested in its natural history.During my time in the Valley, I lived near the...

This essay questions whether the United Nations has the capacity for taking objective, independent action to maintain international order. Written during the 'new world order', that brief period of co-operation between the United States and the USSR, it concludes the UN’s capacity to enforce...

This is the second part of my short introduction to the natural history of the Wolli Creek Valley in Sydney, Australia. The Valley contains the last substantial remnants of the natural environment in Sydney’s inner south-west. Even though it is quite small it contains a variety of habitats, ranging...

This is an introduction to whether there is a distinctive New Zealand national identity and, if so, what prompted its development, what sustains it and whether it has changed character over time.

St Mary’s is a Catholic primary school in Gore, Southland, New Zealand. This year marks the 125th anniversary of its founding. I went there from 1979 to 1983, when my family left Gore for the bright lights of Sydney. This memoir of my St Mary's days is dedicated to my teacher Mrs E.O. Archer, who helped spark my interest in natural history and social science.

Nannygoat Hill stands in the Wolli Valley, about 10km from Sydney’s central business district. One of the few surviving remnants of the City’s natural environment, it supports a wide range of native plants and animals and is a much-loved local ‘beauty spot’. In 1967, Brambles Industrial Services...

This is a memoir of the Petersens, one of the first families to settle at Croydon Bush, a farming district near Gore in Southland. Full of tales of Sydney convicts, Māori princesses and Norwegian whalers who jumped ship, their story is typical of the many thousands of settlers who came to New Zealand. Caught...

Alexandria. Few other cities held such a thriving, exotic mix of people and faiths. For almost a century, it was by-word for culture, glamour and luxury. The Suez Crisis shattered this idyll. In 1956 Nassar expelled the Europeans, including the Caruanas and Curmis. This account tells how they found their way to Australia and brought something of old Alexandria to a new land.

This is a study of the collision of Britain's 'imperialism of free trade' with China's sovereignty over Hong Kong from the time of the Colony's occupation in 1842 to the signing of the Joint Declaration in 1984. It examines the influences at work on successive British governments...

Imperial China was one of the richest, most cultured and powerful states in history. Why it did not pass through an industrial revolution or secure itself an empire remains unresolved. This introduction to the scholarly debate on these questions concludes Imperial China's Confucian ethos may...

This is part one of an introduction to the natural history of Sydney's Wolli Creek Valley. The Valley contains the last substantial remnants of the natural environment in the city's inner south-west. Even though it is quite small it contains a variety of habitats, ranging from tidal mudflats,...