About

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 heritage. Each entry has references to their archival materials, museum objects and collections, and to bibliographic resources, including historical and current literature.

Exploring the Encyclopedia, you can discover the role people and organisations have played in transforming science into processes, objects, buildings, and products that have influenced our lives and have contributed to the development of our nation. You can find out where they worked, who they worked with, what they worked on and what they achieved. In 2025 the Encyclopedia included about 95% of the key people and organisations involved in Australian science from colonisation until the mid 20th Century.

The Encyclopedia is open-ended, it is continuously evolving as new information is added and gaps are filled, and it is published online as a revised consolidated edition on a quarterly basis. The knowledge it contains is discoverable, is shared, is passed on to Trove, and on to international bibliographies including WorldCat and ISIS, and each edition is archived. Work has commenced on extending and blending this knowledge with indigenous knowledges and practices.

Each edition also regenerates related 'exhibitions' such as "Women in Australian Science", "The Giants' Eye", and "The Study of Eucalypts in Australia", and provides links to other related but now archived websites, such as "Physics in Australia to 1945", "Technology in Australia 1788-1988", and "Guide to Australian Business Records".

Many people have contributed to the development of The Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation, as a public knowledge web resource, through its predecessors Bright Sparcs, Australian Science at Work and The Encyclopedia of Australian Science. Information about these people can be found on our acknowledgement page. The story of its development can be found on our background page.

Data research and curation began in 1985 and resulted in a series of print and web publications from 1991, including:

• Gavan McCarthy (ed), Guide to the Archives of Science in Australia: Records of Individuals [book] (Melbourne: D. W. Thorpe, 1991)
• Bright Sparcs, [web resource] (Canberra and Melbourne: Australian Science Archives Project, 1994-1999; Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre, 1999-2006; eScholarship Research Centre, the University of Melbourne 2007-2010)
• Australian Science at Work, [web resource] Canberra and Melbourne: Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre, 1999-2006; eScholarship Research Centre, the University of Melbourne (2007-2010)
• Encyclopedia of Australian Science, [web resource] Melbourne: eScholarship Research Centre, the University of Melbourne, 2010-2019)

If you have information you would like to contribute to The Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation, please email Associate Professor Gavan McCarthy, Office of the Swinburne Chief Scientist, Swinburne University of Technology: 'gavanmccarthy' @ 'swin.edu.au'

Browse exhibitions originally created to accompany Bright Sparcs and Australian Science at Work from 1996 onwards.