The Australian Dictionary of Biography is Australia's pre-eminent dictionary of national biography. It provides concise, informative and fascinating descriptions of the lives of over 13,500 significant and representative persons in Australian history.

Managed and edited by staff at the National Centre of Biography, the ADB is the largest co-operative project in the humanities and social sciences ever undertaken in Australia. Over 4,500 authors, as well as an Editorial Board of eminent historians, and State, Commonwealth, Armed Services and Indigenous Working Parties have given their services, without payment, since the project started in 1959.

The ADB is available both as a print publication and online. So far 20 volumes (including a supplementary volume of ‘missing persons’) of the ADB have been published, with entries ranging from Dutch explorer, Dirk Hartog (1580-1621), through to people who died in 1995. Entries are currently being prepared for those who died in 1996-2000.

Volume 19 of the ADB, consisting of 680 concise biographies of individuals who died between 1991 and 1995 was published by ANU Press in March 2021. Click here to purchase a copy.