The Australian Encyclopedia is an encyclopedia focused on Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

. In addition to biographies of notable Australians the coverage includes the geology

Geology

Geology is the science comprising the study of solid Earth, the rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which it evolves. Geology gives insight into the history of the Earth, as it provides the primary evidence for plate tectonics, the evolutionary history of life, and past climates...

, flora

Flora

Flora is the plant life occurring in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring or indigenous—native plant life. The corresponding term for animals is fauna.-Etymology:...

, fauna

Fauna

Fauna or faunæ is all of the animal life of any particular region or time. The corresponding term for plants is flora.Zoologists and paleontologists use fauna to refer to a typical collection of animals found in a specific time or place, e.g. the "Sonoran Desert fauna" or the "Burgess shale fauna"...

 as well as the history of the continent. It was first published by Angus and Robertson in two volumes, one each in 1925 and 1926. The current edition, the sixth, is of eight volumes published in 1996.

History

The encyclopedia was initiated in 1912 as a historical and biographical record under the directorship of Charles H. Bertie, municipal librarian of Sydney

Sydney

Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...

. The outbreak of World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

 in 1914 temporarily halted its progress.

In 1917, work resumed and it was decided that the book should also include scientific subjects. Herbert J. Carter, later to be president of the Linnean Society of New South Wales

Linnean Society of New South Wales

The Linnean Society of New South Wales promotes the Cultivation and Study of the Science of Natural History in all its Branches and was founded in Sydney, New South Wales in 1874 and incorporated in 1884. It succeeded the Entomological Society of New South Wales, founded in 1862 and folded in...

 (1925-1926) recruited other Australian scientists to work on the encyclopedia. Their contributions were, in many instances, the first summaries of scientific knowledge published in a general reference work in Australia. In 1920 Captain Arthur Jose was released from the Australian Navy and became the general editor. He found that, since significant time had elapsed since the project started and newer sources of information were available, it had become necessary to re-write much of the historical and biographical information.

Richard Appleton

Richard Appleton

Richard Appleton was an Australian poet, raconteur and editor who became editor-in-chief of the Australian Encyclopaedia and, in 1987, was co-editor with Alex Galloway of the posthumous Lex Banning poetry collection There Was a Crooked Man...

 became editor-in-chief in 1977 and oversaw the fourth and fifth editions.

Editions

• 1st Edition, 1925-26, two volumes
• 2nd Edition, 1958, ten volumes (several reprintings)
• 3rd Edition, 1977, six volumes
• 4th Edition, 1983, twelve volumes
• 5th Edition, 1988, nine volumes
• 6th Edition, 1996, eight volumes

The 3rd and 4th editions were published by the Grolier Society of Australia.
The 5th and 6th editions were published by the Australian Geographic Society