AustLit

Research into the literary careers of Australian multicultural writers which forms the basis of this dataset was initiated by Lolo Houbein in 1973. Houbein compiled Ethnic Writings in English from Australia : A Bibliography, which recorded literary works by first-generation migrants to Australia who published in English.

In 1986, Alexandra Karakostas-Seda extended Houbein's work to include authors writing in languages other than English, submitting the results of this research in an unpublished MA thesis 'Creative writing in languages other than English in Australia 1945-1987'. This work identified more than 300 writers of creative literature in thirty language groups.

The Bibliography of Australian Multicultural Writers brought together both Houbein's and Karakostas-Seda's work on writing in English and other languages. The coverage was expanded by Sneja Gunew and Jan Mahyuddin from the earlier first-generation migrant emphasis to include second- and third-generation writers from non-English speaking backgrounds. The inclusion of a broader range of Australian writers was intended to draw attention to the cultural backgrounds of 'well-known' writers and to encourage new critical considerations of their work.

The Bibliography of Australian Multicultural Writers became a part of the Australia's Literary Heritage Project (located at Monash University and The University of Queensland) in 1995 and was a part of the bibliographical research carried out for the Bibliography of Australian Literature.

From its inception in 1988, AUSTLIT also recorded information on writers' cultural heritages, including acknowledged English-speaking heritages.