This Supplement 1580-1980 is an adjunct to the first sixteen volumes of the Australian Dictionary of Biography, and includes people who played a part in Australia's history from the beginning of European contact with the continent, ranging in time from the Dutch navigator Dirk Hartog, born in 1580, to the soldier John McKeddie, who died in 1980.

More than five hundred life stories unfold here, subjects including the familiar, such as the castaway Eliza Fraser and the apple-grower Maria (Granny) Smith; the notorious, such as the New Guardsman Francis De Groot and the bushranger Dan Morgan; and the unfamiliar-the surgeon Tharp Mountain Girdlestone. Their names are sometimes little known, but all individuals made a significant contribution to Australia, such as Pat Sullivan, creator of Felix the Cat, and Charles Packham, creator of the pear that bears his name. Teresa and her brother Reginald Cahill may not be household names, but their Cahills' restaurants were as familiar as the harbour bridge for several generations of Sydneysiders.

These life histories may be consulted with pleasure. All entries are based on primary research, much of it entirely new. This lively and often intriguing collection allows us to appreciate the ever-extending scope of individual aspiration and achievement in Australia's history.

The volume also includes a useful and complete name index to all sixteen volumes of the Australian Dictionary of Biography and this Supplement.