This book consists of a series of short stories from Australia and the Pacific Islands set in the Colonial era. Whilst the principal characters and their stories are fictional, locations and their historical settings are real, in the hope that the yarns may provide the reader with a glimpse into a period of time when life could be hard and sometimes dangerous, but where on occasions the impact of differing cultures could give rise to events of good humour. The reader is urged to pardon the author's occasional lapse into terminology or expressions rarely experienced in today's vocabulary, but considered worthy of preservation.