Dictionary of Australian Biography

The Dictionary of Australian Biography, published in 1949, is a reference work by Percival Serle containing information on notable people associated with Australian history. With approximately a thousand entries, the book took more than twenty years to complete. Published by Angus and Robertson, the dictionary was compiled as two volumes, Volume 1: A–K; and Volume 2: L–Z.

The book contains 1,030 biographies of Australians, or people who were closely connected with Australia, who died before the end of 1942. According to Serle in his preface:

The average length of the biographies is about 640 words. Serle classified them roughly into the following twelve groups:

Of the above profiles, the number of women included was 42 or 4 percent of the biographies. Forty-seven percent of those included in the book were born in England, 27 percent in Australia, 12 percent Scotland, 8 percent Ireland, 1 percent Wales and remaining 5 percent were from the rest of the world which included twelve from the United States, nine from Germany, and six from New Zealand.

• Percival Serle (1949). Dictionary of Australian Biography. Project Gutenberg Australia. LCCN 49006289. OCLC 1956219. OL 7423467W. Wikidata Q5273962.

Prior to its publication similar Australian reference works included:

• Heaton, John Henniker (1897). Australian Dictionary of Dates and Men of the Time.
• Blair, David (1881). Blair's Cyclopaedia of Australasia.
• Mennell, Philip (1892). The Dictionary of Australasian Biography from the Inauguration of Responsible Government.
• Johns, Fred (1906). Johns's Notable Australians. Later editions were published as Who's Who in Australia.
• Johns, Fred (1934). An Australian Biographical Dictionary.
• The Australian Encyclopaedia. 1926.

Subsequently, other Australian biographical dictionaries have been released including the Australian Dictionary of Biography from 1966 and Who's Who in Australia.

• Official website