Home - Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation

Edition: 2026 August - Bibliographies

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Publisher: Swinburne University of Technology

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Resources for the History of Australian Science and Innovation

Browse Entity Indexes A-Z [2026 August edition: total 10,403 entries.]
Browse Archival Resource Indexes A-Z [2026 August edition: total 3,069 entries.]
Browse Bibliographic Indexes A-Z [2026 August edition: total 30,773 entries.]
Latest Annual Bibliography of the history of Australian Science no. 46 2024/25, published in Historical Records of Australian Science, 2026 - download the pdf for free. For a list of all annual bibliographies published since 1981 click here.

Bibliographies of history of Australian science and innovation special edition

Featured Publication

Ward, Michael, Scientific papers and essays: W.T. Ward (1928-2011) Geomorphologist (Melbourne, Victoria: Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation, 2026 [ASBS19284]. Online at https://www.eoas.info/bib-pdf/ASBS19284.pdf. Bill Ward was a prominent Australian geomorphologist, geologist, and soil scientist known for his extensive research on the coastal geomorphology, dune sands, and soil landscapes of eastern Australia. He joined the CSIRO Division of Soils, Adelaide, in 1960 before spending time in Melbourne (1962-66) and then in Brisbane (1967-91). Following his retirement from CSIRO he was an Honorary Research Fellow in the School of Environment and Science, Griffith University. Michael Ward, a son, greatly assisted in the curating his entry and provided an annotated bibliography of W.T. Ward's scientific publications which the Encyclopedia has published. It will be updated as new information becomes available.

Featured entries

History of Australian Science - Overview: Bibliographies (1880s - ): This theme-based entry brings together in the one place all the published bibliographies, which we have been able to locate, that relate to the history of Australian science broadly speaking. They take two forms: those that relate to a specific discipline in a defined time period; and those that deal with the history of Australian more generally. It also covers the landmark events in the ongoing evolution of the use of bibliography as a tool to ensure that society does not lose track of what has gone before.

The earliest discipline-based bibliography was published in 1889 by J. H. Maiden on the chemistry of native Australian plants. Most of the bibliographies of this type were published in book form and covered topics that included: engineering heritage and history - including dams; entomology; botany; mining history; medicine and history of medicine and health; Antarctic science; ornithology; First Nations; fossil corals; radiocarbon dating; plant nursery catalogues; geology; physics - including solar radio astronomy; mathematics; rock art; maritime history; archaelogy; and chemistry in 19th Century Australia. Following are some direct links that highlight the diversity of what has been published.
Brown, R. H., A bibliography of Australian plant nematology, 1890 - 1974 (Burnley, Vic.: Plant Research Institute, 1976), 53 pp. Details
Gandevia, B. H., An Annotated Bibliography of the History of Medicine in Australia (Sydney: Australasian Medical Publishing Co, 1957), 139 pp. Details
Knight, Russell W., Australian Antarctic bibliography (Hobart: University of Tasmania, Institute for Antarctic ansd Southern Ocean Studies, 1987), 460 pp. Details
Musgrave, A., Bibliography of Australian entomology, 1775-1930: with biographical notes on authors and collectors (Sydney: Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales, 1932), 380 pp. Details
Neboiss, Arturs, Checklist and bibliography of the Australian caddis-flies (Trichoptera) (Abbotsford, Vic.: National Museum of Victoria, Department of Entomology, 1977), 132 pp. Details
Pickett, John W., Fossil corals of Australia, New Zealand, New Guinea and Antarctica: bibliography and index (Canberra: Association of Australasian Palaeontologists, 2010), 189 pp. Details
Plomley, N. J. B., An annotated bibliography of the Tasmanian Aborigines (London: Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, 1969), 143 pp. Details
Teesdale-Smith, N., Bibliography of South Australian geology (Adelaide: Geological Survey of South Australia, 1959), 235 pp. Details
Wilson, Gwen, Bibliography of references to anaesthesia in Australian medical journals, 1846 - 1962 (Melbourne: Faculty of Anaesthetists, Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, 1988), 481 pp. Details
Burman, R., 'Early Australian Solar Radio Astronomy: a Bibliography of the First Three Years', Proceedings of the Astronomical Society of Australia, 4 (1) (1991), 1-9. Details
Carlson, L., 'Bibliography of the history of Australian science, no. [1]', Historical Records of Australian Science, 5 (2) (1981), 131-5, https://doi.org/10.1071/HR9810520131. Details
Kitching, R. L.; and Edwards, E. D., 'Books about Australian moths 1805-2020: an annotated bibliography', Australian entomologist, 47 (3) (2020), 119-54. Details
Marymor, Leigh, 'Australian rock art bibliography extracted for the Rock Art Studies Bibliographic Database for the years 1841 to 2018 - part 1', Rock art research, 35 (2) (2019), 188-248. Details
Mozley, Ann, 'A check list of publications on the history of Australian science', Australian Journal of Science, 25 (1962), 206-14. Details

Introduction

The Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation is a register of the people, industries, corporations, research institutions, scientific societies, awards, major events and other organisations that have contributed to Australia's scientific, technological, engineering and medical research heritage - the engine of innovation in this country. Each entry has references to their archival materials, museum objects and collections, and to bibliographic resources, including historical and current literature. Read more

Research, curation and web publication is supported by the Swinburne University of Technology, Office of the Chief Scientist. Web publication is by serial editions with at least four editions per year. Each edition contains new entries and articles as well as amendments and additions to existing entries.

The Encyclopedia acknowledges all Aboriginal and Torres Strait peoples of Australia, the traditional custodians of Country. It recognises and supports their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders and leaders past and present, and extend that respect to all First Nations people of the world. We are incrementally building a gateway to sources documenting Australian First Nations' knowledge: see Theme: Australian First Nations.

We aim to be a 'living archive' and strive to represent all knowledge in an honest and respectful manner.

On 24 November 2022 (5.45pm), the Centre for Transformative Innovation at Swinburne University of Technology hosted an event at the Hawthorn Campus to celebrate the next phase in the life of the Encyclopedia. For more information see Launch 2022

Adjunct Associate Professor Gavan McCarthy

Exhibitions - selected stories explored in more depth

All exhibitions from 1996 onwards

Other useful resources

Historical Records of Australian Science, Australian Academy of Science and CSIRO Publishing. The history of science, pure and applied, in Australia, New Zealand and the southwest Pacific.
Trove , National Library of Australia. Australia’s free online research portal. Trove is a collaboration between the NLA and hundreds of Partner organisations around Australia, including this Encyclopedia.
History of Australian science, Australian Academy of Science. An introduction to the historical resources of the Academy.
CSIROpedia, CSIRO and Swinburne University of Technology. Innovation shaping Australia and the world since 1916.
IsisCB Explore, An open access discovery service from the History of Science Society; built on 50-years of data in the Isis Bibliography of the History of Science.
Biodiversity Heritage Library improves research methodology by collaboratively making biodiversity literature openly available to the world as part of a global biodiversity community. An advanced subject search of "Australia" is good starting point.
Guide to Australian Business Records Archive Edition 2025.This guide provides links to archival and published resources relating to Australian business entities and people involved with those entities.

Networks and Data Overview

In all, there are well over 2.3 million data elements captured in 44 data tables. The data can be made available in postgresql format and json-ld courtesy of project with the Australian Research Data Commons. To find out more go to the Networks and Data Overview page.