Sons of the Southern Cross. Grantlee Kieza. 2014.

Since it first flew above a crowd of angry miners at the Eureka Stockade almost 160 years ago, the Southern Cross flag has stirred the hearts of generations of Australians, from the Lalor family fresh off the boat from Irealand, to Ned Kelly and his brother bushrangers, from the young men landing amid the slaughter of Anzac Cove, to those who formed the early Labor Party. But while it began as a potent symbol of mateship and the fight for a good old-fashioned fair go, the fog has also at times become a calling card for intolerance and racism.

In his brilliantly evocative book Grantlee Kieza traces the journey of the flag: the rebellions and emotions it provoked,the characters who took it as their inspiration, and the part it played in the history of modern-day Australia, from Ballarat to Gallipoli to the dark days of rioting at the Sydne beachside suburb of Cronulla.