Link: Australian Dictionary of Biography

[grub]

http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/adbonline.htm

Australian Dictionary of Biography Online, Australia's pre-eminent dictionary of national biography. Here are over 10,000 scholarly biographies of significant Australians who died before 1980.

Happy hunting.
Grub
 

[trish251]

It is so nice to see that funding is still provided for other than sport in Australia. Most of my folks weren't important enough to be in the books, but I know of one and will search for some others

Trish

Just found a great uncle - how exciting!

[sunnylady2005]

Hi

It is fantastic - but I have found and reported some errors in stuff that I know of my family - and I gather from others in Australia that they too have found some errors.  In my case its an important but a wrong name....  so treat with some caution

SL

[Brisgirl]

I used to work for the Australian Dictionary of Biography at the ANU in Canberra in the early 1990s.  I'm surprised there are errors, as the research staff used to go over everything with a fine tooth comb... maybe standards have slipped since I left the editorial office?!   

Brisgirl

[sunnylady2005]

Not sure about standards slipping - I just think its the first draft and maybe some editing that went astray. 

A friend contributed to the DNB here (UK) and he is a very professional historian but even he was picked up on a piece of research by someone who had focussed for years on the subject...  and my training was that its best always to be cautious of any secondary evidence and check check and check again. 

It is still a fantastic resource