AustLit Specialist Research Subsets are filtered sets of AustLit records that reflect the specialist research interests of some AustLit Contributors or the identified information needs of AustLit users. All records contained within subsets are now enhanced by data collected by all contributors.

AustLit subscribers can search for information across the whole AustLit database, or limit their searches to specialist subsets, using the Quick Search box which appears on every page, the Guided Search or the Advanced Search.

The Australian Children's Literature subset provides information about Australian writing for children and young adults, and about those who write for them.

The Australian Drama subset provides information about published and unpublished Australian drama, articles, reviews and performance reviews about Australian drama and Australian playwrights.

The Australian Literary Responses to 'Asia' subset provides information on Australian creative writing about or referring to Asia, and some Australian critical responses to the literature of Asian countries.

The Australian Magazines subset was produced by a special research project to map the history, span, editorship and content of 100 twentieth century Australian periodicals and newspapers. The subset traces the activities and achievements, the highs and lows, the relationships and fallings-out of some of Australia's most interesting agents for change in the growth and recognition of Australia's literary and artistic culture as manifested in the magazines.

The The Bibliography of Australian Literature is a multi-volume print bibliography covering all book-lenth creative writing by Australia-identified writers from the 1780s to 2000. The content for the Bibliography is compiled by AustLit team members from our partner universities with assistance from the National Library of Australia and the State Libraries around the country.

The Australian Multicultural Writers subset provides information about Australian writers who identify themselves with particular cultural heritages, and about their works.

The Australian Popular Theatre subset focuses on variety theatre of the 19th and early 20th century. It is designed to provide information on a large number of Australian-based stage artists and writers, and the scripts, designers, entrepreneurs, and others in this rich area of popular culture history which to date has received little analysis, but which is increasingly being recognised as a key site for the expression of ideas about Australian people, identities, and behaviour.

The Black Words subset provides information about Australian writers who have identified an indigenous heritage, and their works. This subset is undergoing a transformation – click here to read more.

The Literature of Tasmania subset provides bibliographical information about all aspects of writing about Van Diemen's Land and Tasmania. The subset contains information about authors who were born in, visited or have written about Tasmania. It also includes information about newspapers and journals from the early colonial period (1803-1850), continuing Aboriginal writing in Tasmania, popular fiction set in Tasmania, Tasmania as a distinctive region in the literary imagination, and other aspects of literary production in Tasmania. The subset is being developed from January 2006 to the end of 2008.

The South Australian Women Writers subset provides information about the lives and work of women writers associated with South Australia.

The Western Australian Literature subset provides information about writers associated with Western Australia, and the literature they produce.

The Writers of the Tropical North subset contains information by and about authors who were born in, lived in, visited or wrote about areas of Australia north of the Tropic of Capricorn. It also includes information about journalists, columnists, editors, newspapers, periodicals and associated companies and individuals important to the cultural life of the region. Begun in 2004 as Writers of Tropical Queensland, the subset widened its scope from 2008 to become Writers of the Tropical North. The team of researchers based at James Cook University in Townsville are opening up the comparatively unexplored literature associated with the Northern Territory and northern Western Australia as areas of specific AustLit research focus. They expect to discover many features that in general distinguish the literature of the Australian Tropics from works produced in more temperate southern zones.

The Banned in Australia subset describes publications that were prohibited imports in twentieth-century Australia, from 1900 to 1975. The subset is being developed from September 2005 to the end of 2007.