The Geo's Pick: Tales True & Tall UNSW 1973-1976
Australian History Memoir Adventure Illustrated Non-Fiction Nature & Environment Earth Sciences Engineering Geology Higher Education History
The Geo’s Pick: Tales True & Tall UNSW 1973-1976 is the hard-to-find hardcover that captures Australia’s 1970s mining boom through the eyes of a young engineering geologist. In 226 illustrated pages, Max de Vietri recounts his UNSW field-school expeditions to outback opal towns, rain-soaked rainforests and remote Pacific islands where students mapped uncharted terrain, dodged landslides and occasionally struck payable colour. Readers looking for real-life adventure, Australian natural-history nostalgia or first-hand insight into early environmental-impact surveying will discover a fast-paced memoir that reads like a Boy’s Own annual written by a professional geo.
What makes this copy special is its pristine collector-grade condition: a tight, square 2020 hardcover with no inscriptions, ex-libris stamps or personalisation—just light thumb marks on the opening pages and a micro-scuff on the fore-edge that keeps it priced well below true first-edition premiums. The book is already gaining cult status among geologists, bushwalkers and vintage-Australia enthusiasts because it pairs rare archival photographs with de Vietri’s uncensored student diaries, delivering both technical detail and larrikin humour in equal measure.
For gift buyers, curriculum builders or home-library curators, The Geo’s Pick slots neatly alongside titles like In the Heart of the Desert or The Eight-Dollar Champagne Club, yet stands alone as the only recent publication that documents UNSW’s pioneering field geology camp before OH&S ruled the outback. Keywords that surface this edition include “UNSW geology history,” “Australian mining memoir,” “1970s field-school adventures,” and “illustrated earth-science gift.” Secure it now while the hardcover is still attainable in very-good condition.
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