The Catch

Bringing her personal passion for throwing in a line, author and historian Anna Clark celebrates the enduring pleasure of fishing.

In every coastal town in Australia, there's a bait shop and a boat ramp. Fishing rods are strung up in laundries and garages around the country, waiting for their next outing. Walk over a bridge, look across to a wharf and there will be people casting a line. Many people have a special fishing spot, and families pass on tips from generation to generation and exchange fishy tales of amazing catches and near misses.

Bringing her personal passion for throwing in a line, author and historian Anna Clark celebrates the enduring pleasure of fishing in The Catch. She charts its history, from the first known accounts of Indigenous fishing and early European encounters with Australia's waters, to the latest fishing fads; from the introduction of trout and fly-fishing, to the challenges of balancing the needs of commercial and recreational fishers.

Originally published to accompany an exhibition at the National Library of Australia, now with updated material and all new photographs.

About the Author

Anna Clark is an award winning historian, author and public commentator. She has a PhD in History from the University of Melbourne and currently holds a prestigious Australian Research Council Future Fellowship at the Australian Centre for Public History at UTS. Anna is an internationally recognised scholar in Australian history, history education and the role of history in everyday life. She has written influential books such as Making Australian History, The History Wars (with Stuart Macintyre), which won the NSW Premier's Prize and Queensland Premier's Prize for History, History's Children (about students' attitudes to Australian history), and Private Lives, Public History, as well as two history books for children (Convicted! - listed as a Children's Book Council of Australia notable book - and Explored!).