Dictionary of Australian Biography

{{Short description|Biographical encyclopedia of Australians deceased before 1943}}

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{{Single source |date=May 2024}}

{{distinguish|Australian Dictionary of Biography}}

{{Use Australian English|date=March 2016}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2016}}

{{Infobox book

| italic title = Dictionary of Australian Biography

| name = Dictionary of Australian Biography

| image = File:Dictionary_of_Australian_Biography.png

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| author = Percival Serle (1871–1951)

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| country = Australia

| language = English

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| subject = Biographies of notable Australians who died before 1942

| genre = Encyclopedia

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| publisher = Angus and Robertson

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| pub_date = 1949

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| dewey = 920.094

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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:{{cite Q |Q5273962 |chapter=Preface |chapter-url=http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks15/1500721h.html#preface |access-date=2024-05-19 |mode=cs1}} {{blockquote|This date closed the first one hundred and fifty years of Australia's history, for although the first fleet arrived in January 1788, the first emigrant ship, the Bellona, did not come until January 1793. Until then Australia had been merely a dumping ground for convicts, but the arrival of free emigrants foreshadowed the founding of a nation.|Percival Serle, 1949}}