BLUBBER HEAD PRESS 
Book Publishers
Founded by Dan Sprod in 1979. Current Publisher: Michael Sprod
1st floor, 81 Salamanca Place, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia 
Postal Address: PO Box 475 Sandy Bay TAS 7006 Australia  
Phone / Fax: 61 (0) 3 6223 8644  
Email: books@astrolabebooks.com.au 

BLUBBER HEAD PRESS was founded in 1979 by retired Tasmanian librarian and historian Dan Sprod, primarily to pursue his long-standing interest in the history of Australian land exploration. Between 1979 and 1992, a series of eight fine limited editions presented primary source accounts from the expeditions of Dr John Lhotsky, Hume & Hovell, George Cayley, Edmund Kennedy, Thomas Mitchell, and Ludwig Leichhardt. Concurrently, a number of other titles in various formats dealing with aspects of the history of Tasmania were produced, perhaps most notably in the field of Tasmanian Aboriginal studies. Some of these publications were also fine limited editions, and two were awarded industry prizes. Dan's son Michael joined Blubber Head in 1987, when the pair also established Astrolabe Booksellers. Twenty-five titles were produced between 1979 and 1996, although since Dan's (second) retirement Blubber Head has been less active. Nonetheless, in recent years the press has produced the titles listed below (click on the links for more details). The complete Blubber Head backlist  is also available; and if you click here you can view (and order securely) all Blubber Head titles (both in-print and out-of-print) currently in stock at Astrolabe Booksellers.

  ***NEW RELEASE - JUNE 2009***

 CAPTAIN ROBINSON.  The Reminisicences of a Tasmanian Master Mariner, James William Robinson 1824-1906. Edited by Michael Nash.


 Leichhardt's Expeditioners. In the Australian wilderness 1844-1845 , by Dan Sprod (2006):
the first publication of the journals of two members of Leichhardt's Port Essington expedition - the convict William Phillips and the young lad John Murphy.

An Imperial Disaster: the wreck of George the Third , by Michael Roe (2006):
an in-depth study of the wreck of a convict transport in 1835, with the loss of 133 lives.

William Sorell in Van Diemen's Land , by Leonie Mickleborough (2004):
a study of the colony's somewhat-neglected third Lt-Governor 1817-24

My Past - Their Future: stories from Cape Barren Island , by Molly Mallett (2001):
another contribution to Tasmanian Aboriginal history

The Usurper , by Dan Sprod (2001):
a major work on the legendary 'convict king', Jorgen Jorgenson, in Iceland and Van Diemen's Land


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