Australia Biography

A biography is a history of a person’s life. In a biography you may find an individual’s birth, marriage, and death information. You may also find the names of the individual’s parents, children, or other family members. Use this information sparingly, because it may sometimes be inaccurate.

Some brief biographies have been gathered and published in collective biographies, sometimes called biographical encyclopedias or biographical dictionaries. Often these collective biographies only include biographies of prominent citizens of Australia. Others feature biographies of specific groups of people, such as Aborigines.

The following are significant biographical encyclopedias:

Who’s Who in Australia. Melbourne, Victoria, Australia: Herald and Weekly Times, 1906, 1912, 1922, 1927, 1935, 1955, 1997. (Family History Library Call Number 994 D3aL 1997.)

The Bicentennial Dictionary of Western Australians. Eight Volumes. Nedlands, W.A., Australia: University of Western Australia, 1988–1994. (Family History Library Call Number 994.1 D36bd. This work includes three volumes on Aborigines.

The Family History Library does not generally collect individual biographies, but they do have many collective biographies that are listed in the Place Search of the Family History Library Catalog under:

AUSTRALIA - BIOGRAPHY

Additional Biographies may be located by adding State and or Town to a Place Search.

AUSTRALIA, [STATE] - BIOGRAPHY

AUSTRALIA, [STATE], [TOWN] - BIOGRAPHY

You can also find some biographical information in Australian encyclopedias. For more information see the "Encyclopedias and Dictionaries" section of this outline.