20 Best Australian Audiobooks

20 Best Australian Audiobooks

Australia has all the ingredients for a good story: a rich history, a multitude of unique characters, and a vast setting unlike anywhere else on Earth. This may be why some of the world's best storytellers call Australia home. We’ve collected 20 of the best audio novels, memoirs, and non-fiction pieces from the top Australian writers and narrators. Each item on our list explores a different corner of our country. From the wild, endless red deserts of the Northern Territory to the bustling streets of the capital cities. to the complex cultural fabric that makes Australia the unique country it is.
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  • The White Girl cover art

    • The White Girl

    • By: Tony Birch
    • Narrated by: Shareena Clanton
    • Length: 7 hrs and 38 mins
    • Release date: 04-06-2019
    • Language: English
    • 4.5 out of 5 stars 614 ratings
    • The first listen on our list takes a hard look into one of Australia’s darkest chapters — The Stolen Generations. In the 1960s, the government’s child removal policy forcibly took thousands of mixed-race Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their family homes. Odette Brown, who lives in a fictitious rural town called Deane, is raising her granddaughter, Sissy, during these oppressive times. Threatened by the arrival of a new police officer in town, Odette sets out after her missing daughter, desperate to protect Sissy. Throughout the story, Odette encounters characters who portray the varied and often disturbing attitudes of some Australians toward Aboriginals. Written by Tony Birch, a leading Aboriginal storyteller, and narrated by the soft, chilling voice of Shareena Clanton, this is a listen that shines a light on a disturbing part of our country’s history.

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  • Boy Swallows Universe cover art

    • Boy Swallows Universe

    • By: Trent Dalton
    • Narrated by: Stig Wemyss
    • Length: 16 hrs and 42 mins
    • Release date: 20-06-2018
    • Language: English
    • 4.5 out of 5 stars 6,320 ratings
    • Journalist Trent Dalton’s premier novel, Boy Swallows Universe, took the world by storm when it arrived on the scene in 2018. Nominated by the Australian Book Industry Awards as the Book of the Year and the Audiobook of the Year in 2019, this novel introduces us to young Eli, a boy living in the underbelly of Brisbane in the early 1980s. Eli has to navigate a world of crime lords, drug dealers, and neglectful parents — not to mention his first romance, and a prison break. And that’s only part of the story. Celebrated narrator Stig Wemyss lends his voice to this performance, bringing a new level of reality to the slice-of-life portrait Dalton paints in this novel.

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  • Your Own Kind of Girl cover art

    • Your Own Kind of Girl

    • A Memoir
    • By: Clare Bowditch
    • Narrated by: Clare Bowditch
    • Length: 11 hrs and 28 mins
    • Release date: 28-10-2019
    • Language: English
    • 4.5 out of 5 stars 3,046 ratings
    • You have probably heard Clare Bowditch’s voice before. The singer/songwriter won the title of Best Female Artist at the 2006 ARIA Awards and was nominated for a Logie following her work on the TV series Offspring. In Your Own Kind of Girl, Clare Bowditch uses her signature voice to narrate her own story — a chronicle of her struggle with grief, her battle against her own demons, and how she overcame it all to achieve success. This personal memoir from one of Australia’s most prominent female artists is the perfect listen for anyone looking to find true happiness and empowerment through self-discovery.

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  • The Resilience Project cover art

    • The Resilience Project

    • Finding Happiness Through Gratitude, Empathy and Mindfulness
    • By: Hugh van Cuylenburg
    • Narrated by: Hugh van Cuylenburg
    • Length: 4 hrs and 56 mins
    • Release date: 19-11-2019
    • Language: English
    • 5 out of 5 stars 8,426 ratings
    • Hugh van Cuylenburg stumbled upon a remarkable discovery while working as a volunteer teacher in northern India. Despite his students’ struggle with poverty, they appeared to be generally happier than the young people van Cuylenburg knew back home in Australia. This insight led the writer on a journey that eventually led to the founding of The Resilience Project, a mission to show Australian students, parents, and educators how to achieve happiness through empathy and mindfulness. In his title of the same name, narrated by van Cuylenberg himself, he shares his most life-changing insights in his deep, comforting voice and humourous style.

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  • The Dry cover art

    • The Dry

    • By: Jane Harper
    • Narrated by: Steve Shanahan
    • Series: Aaron Falk, Book 1
    • Length: 9 hrs and 37 mins
    • Release date: 07-07-2016
    • Language: English
    • 4.5 out of 5 stars 8,395 ratings
    • Federal agent Aaron Falk has never faced a crime like this before. In his rural hometown, a man has been accused of murdering his wife and son before turning the gun on himself. That man happens to be Falk’s best friend, Luke. In this spellbinding performance, the first in the Aaron Falk series, listeners follow along as Falk unspools the thread of the crime while confronting his own troubled past. The backdrop of rural Australia during a record-breaking drought will be familiar to anyone who has lived through our country’s intense heat waves and the madness they can bring. Jane Harper has established herself as one of Australia’s leading crime novelists, having won the Gold ABIA for Book of the Year and the Gold Dagger award for best crime novel of the year for The Dry.

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  • See What You Made Me Do cover art

    • See What You Made Me Do

    • Power, Control and Domestic Abuse
    • By: Jess Hill
    • Narrated by: Jess Hill
    • Length: 16 hrs and 42 mins
    • Release date: 24-06-2019
    • Language: English
    • 5 out of 5 stars 871 ratings
    • In See What You Made Me Do, investigative journalist Jess Hill uncovers troubling trends in the way the Australian justice system — and society at large — grapple with the issue of domestic violence. Using her critical eye and mountains of in-depth research, Hill makes a compelling case about the harm of victim blaming that often follows women who suffer from abuse, and the ways abusers exert control over their partners. Hill also provides hope — she believes that with the right actions, domestic violence can be reduced significantly. See What You Made Me Do won the 2020 Stella Prize, and is narrated by the writer herself. As Hill lays out the data and makes her case, this title will be impossible to pause.

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  • Dark Emu cover art

    • Dark Emu

    • Black Seeds: Agriculture or Accident?
    • By: Bruce Pascoe
    • Narrated by: Bruce Pascoe
    • Length: 5 hrs and 36 mins
    • Release date: 10-01-2017
    • Language: English
    • 4.5 out of 5 stars 2,699 ratings
    • Take a look back at the dawn of Australia in Bruce Pascoe’s Dark Emu. This non-fiction title made waves when it was first released in 2014 for its captivating take on Australia’s first peoples. Using diaries recorded by some of Australia’s first white settlers, Pascoe shows us that Aboriginal culture was advanced in everything from engineering to agriculture, and architecture to art. Narrated by the writer himself, this title challenges many of the common myths that designated Aboriginal culture as primitive or sophisticated — mythos often designed to justify the crimes committed against Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people following the arrival of the first ships. Dark Emu has since been adapted into a dance performance and a children’s book, cementing it as one of the most important investigations of Australia’s past.

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  • The Book Thief cover art

    • The Book Thief

    • By: Markus Zusak
    • Narrated by: Dennis Olsen
    • Length: 14 hrs and 17 mins
    • Release date: 15-06-2012
    • Language: English
    • 4.5 out of 5 stars 1,207 ratings
    • Markus Zusak is one of the most celebrated Australian writers of today’s time, and his novel The Book Thief is widely considered to be his crowning work. The story is set in Germany, 1939, where a young woman named Liesel discovers a curious book left at her brother’s graveside. As Liesal navigates the troubled waters of adolescence, she is exposed to the true horrors of the Nazi regime — amplified when her family decides to offer their home as a hiding place for a Jewish fist-fighter, Max Vandenburg. The two form an unlikely bond over their love of language, as the world around them collapses into war and tragedy. Though this story does not take place in Australia, Zusak has established himself as one of the most prominent writers in the country. Need more reason to add this title or your collection? The Book Thief has sold 16 million copies, was named the Best Children’s Book of the Year by Publisher’s Weekly, and was adapted into a 2013 feature film.

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  • The Trauma Cleaner cover art

    • The Trauma Cleaner

    • By: Sarah Krasnostein
    • Narrated by: Rachael Tidd
    • Length: 9 hrs and 17 mins
    • Release date: 29-03-2018
    • Language: English
    • 4.5 out of 5 stars 6,311 ratings
    • Sandra Pankhurst runs an unusual business. As a “trauma cleaner”, she enters the homes of people living with mental illnesses, drug addiction, and poverty, hoping to help those living there cope with their struggles. Pankhurst is no stranger to trauma herself — she was adopted into an abusive home as a child and suffered transphobic abuse living as a trans woman in Australia. In The Trauma Cleaner, writer Sarah Krasnostein paints a touching portrait of this incredible woman, whose story is so unique and unpredictable that you have to hear it to believe it. Krasnostein’s first novel has been compared to the wildly popular podcast S-Town and the award-winning memoir When Breath Becomes Air for its unabashed look into the incredible life of the trauma cleaner.

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  • Schindler's List cover art

    • Schindler's List

    • By: Thomas Keneally
    • Narrated by: Humphrey Bower
    • Length: 16 hrs and 48 mins
    • Release date: 14-05-2018
    • Language: English
    • 5 out of 5 stars 165 ratings
    • Before it was cemented as a piece of classic filmmaking, Schindler’s List was a top-selling non-fiction novel written by celebrated Australian writer Thomas Keneally. The wrenching, captivating story recounts the story of Oskar Schindler, a German industrliast who helped an estimated 1,200 Jews escape life in concentration camps during the Nazi regime, by employing them at his factories in occupied Poland. Schindler’s personal struggle as a profiteer and a member of the Nazi Party make for a compelling listen that has now become one of the most famous stories from the World War II period. Humphrey Bower, narrator of over 100 audiobooks, adds new layers to this historic novel with his artful interpretation of Keneally’s words.

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  • The Ruin cover art

    • The Ruin

    • By: Dervla McTiernan
    • Narrated by: Aoife McMahon
    • Series: The Cormac Reilly Series, Book 1
    • Length: 10 hrs and 25 mins
    • Release date: 14-03-2018
    • Language: English
    • 4.5 out of 5 stars 6,349 ratings
    • A dead body is floating in the cold waters of River Corrib, in Galway, Ireland. At first, it seems like a standard case of suidice. But upon further investigation, Detective Cormac Reilly discovers a chilling connection between this death and the cold cause that has tormented him for the last two decades. Reily soon realises he can’t trust anyone, even his own colleagues in the police department. The Ruin won the Davitt Award and Barry Award, as well as the Ned Kelly Award for Best First Fiction. Narrated in the beautiful yet eerie voice of Irish actress Aoife McMahon, this title is one of those stories that you’ll stay up late listening to, just to hear what happens next.

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  • Eggshell Skull cover art

    • Eggshell Skull

    • A memoir about standing up, speaking out and fighting back
    • By: Bri Lee
    • Narrated by: Bri Lee
    • Length: 11 hrs and 19 mins
    • Release date: 06-09-2018
    • Language: English
    • 5 out of 5 stars 1,006 ratings
    • Bri Lee was no stranger to the criminal justice system. She grew up as the daughter of a police officer, and went on to become a judge’s associate in Brisbane’s District Court of Queensland. There, Lee oversaw many cases of sexual harassment and assault, and witnessed frequent miscarriages of justice. After two years of watching perpetrators escape conviction, Lee made an incredibly difficult decision — she took her own sexual harassment case to court. Lee walks us through this excruciating process in her Davit-Award-winning memoir, Eggshell Skull. In this exclusive Audible version, you’ll hear Lee’s stories in her own words and gain a deeper understanding of Australia’s justice system and how it can failto protect our society’s most vulnerable.

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  • The Arsonist cover art

    • The Arsonist

    • By: Chloe Hooper
    • Narrated by: Sibylla Budd
    • Length: 6 hrs and 39 mins
    • Release date: 15-10-2018
    • Language: English
    • 4.5 out of 5 stars 305 ratings
    • The February 2009 bushfires in Victoria claimed 11 lives and hundreds of homes, and is forever known as Black Saturday. At the center of the disaster is a mystery — how did the blaze begin? Investigators originally had over 30 potential suspects in the Latrobe Valley region, but as they sifted through the ashes, they changed course and began to eye a suspect previously unknown to police. The writer, Chloe Hooper, has won a multitude of awards for her work, including the Ned Kelly and Davitt awards for Best True Crime novels. Sybilla Budd guides listeners on a twisting, unpausable exploration of this notorious crime and the man at its centre. Along the way, she not only uncovers the true cause of the blaze, but the role that bushfires play in Australians’ psyche.

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  • Lion cover art

    • Lion

    • A Long Way Home
    • By: Saroo Brierley
    • Narrated by: Vikas Adam
    • Length: 7 hrs and 28 mins
    • Release date: 18-11-2016
    • Language: English
    • 4.5 out of 5 stars 669 ratings
    • You may have seen the motion picture version of Lion, which was nominated for Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor, and Best Supporting Actress at the 2016 Oscars. Now, listen to the true story of a young man’s journey to uncover his past, written by the man who lived it. Saroo Bierley became separated from his family on a train in India when he was five years old, and was later adopted by a family in Tasmania. As a young adult, he spent years searching for the truth behind his origins, and eventually went on a journey to reconnect with his first family. This release, read by multiple-Audie-Award-nominated narrator Vikas Adam, examines the true meaning of family and how we relate to our pasts, with stunning depictions of both India and 1980s Hobart.

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  • Any Ordinary Day cover art

    • Any Ordinary Day

    • Blindsides, Resilience and What Happens After the Worst Day of Your Life
    • By: Leigh Sales
    • Narrated by: Leigh Sales
    • Length: 6 hrs and 29 mins
    • Release date: 01-10-2018
    • Language: English
    • 4.5 out of 5 stars 2,882 ratings
    • How do humans cope following the most difficult day of their life? That’s the question at the core of Any Ordinary Day, a groundbreaking work from journalist Leigh Sales. The ABC host interviewed people who had experienced unspeakable trauma — people who had lost loved ones to illness, were the victims of violent crimes, and even one person who was held hostage during the Lindt Cafe siege. Through these stories, and an exploration of her personal struggles during the worst year of her own life, Sales examines the neuroscience of grief and trauma, showing how people find resilience, courage and hope in the face of their darkest day. In this performance, you’ll hear Sales’ voice as she recounts the interviews and her own heart-wrenching experiences, and explains what can be learned through grief and resiliency.

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  • Growing up Aboriginal in Australia cover art

    • Growing up Aboriginal in Australia

    • By: Anita Heiss
    • Narrated by: Gregory J Fryer, Hunter Page-Lochard, Lisa Maza, Shari Sebbens, Tamala Shelton, Tony Briggs
    • Length: 10 hrs and 21 mins
    • Release date: 20-09-2018
    • Language: English
    • 4.5 out of 5 stars 292 ratings
    • Through a collection of 52 essays from Australian writers of all ages and backgrounds, editor Anita Heiss sets out to answer one question: What is it like growing up Aboriginal in Australia? There is no single answer to this question, which is why Heiss brought together young and old Aboriginal writers, living in cities and rural towns, to share their unique perspective on life. In this performance, you’ll hear these stories recounted by multiple narrators who bring the essays to life. Each essay stands on its own, but together, they compose a larger story about the history, lives and culture of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People of Australia.

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  • No Friend but the Mountains cover art

    • No Friend but the Mountains

    • Writing from Manus Prison
    • By: Behrouz Boochani, Omid Tofighian - translator
    • Narrated by: Geoffrey Robertson, Isobelle Carmody, Mathilda Imlah, Omid Tofighian, Richard Flanagan, Sarah Dale, Thomas Keneally, Yumi Stynes, Janet Galbraith, Benjamin Law
    • Length: 13 hrs and 1 min
    • Release date: 11-06-2019
    • Language: English
    • 4.5 out of 5 stars 190 ratings
    • Behrouz Boochani spent five years incarcerated on Manus Island, the notorious detention centre set up by the Australian government in 2001. He was held there after attempting to emigrate from Indonesia to Australia with a group of 59 other asylum seekers. While enduring his detention, the Kurdish-Iranian journalist used his mobile phone to capture, in his own words, what was happening to him in real-time. This performance with the same digital message gives listeners a glimpse into the brutal conditions that were often hidden from the general public. The Audible book version of No Friend but the Mountains is read by a group of 10 human-rights activists, including renowned Australian writer Richard Flanigan. They came together to give voice to Boochani’s account. The book achieved immense success, winning the National Biography Award and the NSW Premier’s Award in 2019.

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  • Breath cover art

    • Breath

    • By: Tim Winton
    • Narrated by: Troy Planet
    • Length: 5 hrs and 51 mins
    • Release date: 01-05-2018
    • Language: English
    • 4.5 out of 5 stars 414 ratings
    • Tim Winton’s compelling novel, Breath, takes place in the small Western Australian logging town of Sawyer — a place that may be familiar to you if you’ve read one of Winton’s many successful novels. In this story, we meet Bruce “Pikelet” Pike and his friend Loonie, two thrill-seekers who laugh in the face of danger as they surf the monstrous water Australia is known for. Pikelet and Loonie soon become acquainted with big-wave surfer Sando and his wife, Eva, who both have their own troubled relationship with death-defying sports. Listeners praise Breath not only for its captivating storyline, but also its examination of youthful ignorance, the dangers of machismo culture, and the foundations of childhood friendship.

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  • The Hate Race cover art

    • The Hate Race

    • By: Maxine Beneba Clarke
    • Narrated by: Zahra Newman
    • Length: 7 hrs and 18 mins
    • Release date: 09-08-2016
    • Language: English
    • 4.5 out of 5 stars 328 ratings
    • Maxine Beneba Clarke grew up in the unassuming Sydney suburb of Kellyville, where she lived a relatively traditional middle-class suburb lifestyle. There was one thing different about Clarke, however, that set her apart from the other kids on her street — she was black, and they were white. What is it like growing up as the only person of colour in suburban Australia? Clarke answers this question in her funny and heartbreaking memoir, The Hate Race. Narrated by the beautiful voice of Jamaican-born Australian actress Zahra Newman, who starred in the original Australian cast of The Book of Mormon, this listen does not shy away from the instances of racism and prejudice that underscored Clarke’s upbringing.

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  • The Barefoot Investor, Revised and Updated Edition cover art

    • The Barefoot Investor, Revised and Updated Edition

    • The Only Money Guide You'll Ever Need
    • By: Scott Pape
    • Narrated by: Scott Pape
    • Length: 7 hrs and 7 mins
    • Release date: 01-01-2017
    • Language: English
    • 5 out of 5 stars 15,565 ratings
    • There are hundreds of books out there that will give you tips and tricks you can use to maximise your income. But few of them compare to Scott Pape’s The Barefoot Investor, which has sold nearly 2 million copies in Australia. The reason for its success? Pape brings you no-nonsense strategies for everything from eliminating debt to saving for retirement, using a clear, step-by-step process that’s worked for people around the country. By the time you finish listening, you’ll know how you can manage your own finances in just a few minutes each week, and you’ll be able to set and achieve new goals for your financial future. Pape narrates this book himself, so you’ll be getting advice directly from one of the most successful personal finance experts in Australia.

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Audiobook lists are hand-picked by Audible editors; inclusion is based on a number of factors including
listener ratings, narrator performances, presence on Audible best seller lists and cultural relevance.


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