1852 George Robertson of Melbourne establishes a bookshop, publishing 600 titles over the next 40 years.
1859 William Charles Rigby establishes a bookselling (and occasional publishing) business in Adelaide which becomes a major publisher 100 years later, before disappearing inside the Reed empire in the 1980s.
1870–72 Marcus Clarke’s For the Term of His Natural Life serialized in the Australian Journal.
1880 Rosa Praed’s An Australian Heroine published in London.
1882–83 Rolf Boldrewood’s Robbery Under Arms serialized in the Sydney Mail.
1886 Angus & Robertson (A&R) bookshop established in Sydney.
1887 Berne Convention on international copyright ratified.
1888 John Inglis Lothian begins bookselling (and later publishing) in Melbourne. This venerable family firm was finally sold to Time Warner in 2006.
1890 Catherine Martin’s An Australian Girl published in London.
1896 A&R publish Henry Lawson’s While the Billy Boils (after Banjo Paterson’s bestseller The Man from Snowy River in 1895).
1899 AG Stephens at Bulletin publishes Steele Rudd’s bestseller On Our Selection.
1901 Miles Franklin’s My Brilliant Career published in Edinburgh.
1903 AG Stephens at Bulletin publishes Joseph Furphy’s Such is Life.
1904 AC Rowlandson establishes the NSW Bookstall paperback series, selling five million copies over the next two decades.
1905 English Copyright Act adopted as the Australian Copyright Act.
1908 Henry Handel Richardson’s Maurice Guest published by Heinemann in London, followed in 1910 by The Getting of Wisdom.
1914 George Allen & Unwin established in London.
1915 Katharine Susannah Prichard’s The Pioneers published in London, winning first Australian prize in the ‘All-British’ novel competition.
1922 Melbourne University Press established.
1925 Geoffrey Faber, a British academic and poet, establishes Faber & Gwyer in London, with TS Eliot as literary adviser. The firm becomes Faber & Faber in 1929, the second ‘Faber’ being fabricated.
1928 Fellowship of Australian Writers established.
1932 Eleanor Dark’s Slow Dawning published in London.
Endeavour Press, with Bulletin Co. backing, established in Sydney by PR Stephensen and Norman Lindsay.
1934 Christina Stead’s The Salzburg Tales and Seven Poor Men of Sydney published in London.
1935 First Penguin paperbacks published by the Bodley Head in London, with Penguin Books Ltd established the following year by Allen, Richard and John Lane.
1938 Xavier Herbert’s Capricornia, published by PR Stephensen, wins the Sesqui- centenary novel competition.
1939 Patrick White’s first novel, Happy Valley, published in London and later suppressed by the author.
Faber publish TS Eliot’s Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats, later adapted as the musical Cats, greatly boosting the company’s fortunes.
1939–45 Wartime paper shortage and reduced book imports lead to a local publishing boom in Australia.
1943 Peter Carey born in Bacchus Marsh, Victoria.
1944 Pan paperbacks established in London.
1946 Penguin establish a Melbourne office and warehouse, publishing their first Australian titles in 1963.
1948 Heinemann establish a Melbourne office (with warehouse in 1952).
Australian Book Publishers Association (ABPA) established.
University of Queensland Press (UQP) established, but without full-time publishing staff until 1961.
1949–56 George Ferguson (A&R publisher) is ABPA president.
1954 Bookseller Brian Clouston establishes Jacaranda Press in Brisbane.
1955 Australian publishers attend Frankfurt Book Fair for the first time.
1957 Ure Smith in Sydney publish Nino Culotta’s bestseller They’re a Weird Mob.
Patrick White wins the inaugural Miles Franklin Award for Voss.
1960 UK censorship case to challenge the 30-year ban on Lady Chatterley’s Lover.
Lloyd O’Neil, formerly of Jacaranda Press, establishes Lansdowne Press.
Australian government removes duty on book imports from US.
1961 Over 40% of UK book output exported, Australia taking a quarter of these.
Frank Thompson appointed UQP manager and begins publishing plays.
Ann Lahey appointed UQP’s first editor.
1963 Sydney University Press established (sold to Oxford University Press in 1989).
Australian Society of Authors established.
1964 Thomas Nelson (UK) establish an Australian publishing office.
1965 Macmillan (UK) establish an Australian publishing office.
Sun Books established by Brian Stonier with Geoff Dutton and Max Harris.
1966 ANU Press established in Canberra (later sold to Pergamon).
1968 UQP publish first volume of original verse, Citizens of Mist by Roger McDonald (UQP poetry editor from 1969).
UQP begin republishing Steele Rudd’s works.
1970 UQP launch the dollar-a-copy Paperback Poets series.
Australian entrepreneur Gordon Barton buys A&R.
1971–72 Frank Thompson (UQP) is ABPA president.
1972 UQP publish first books of original fiction and launch the Asian and Pacific Writing series under Michael Wilding’s general editorship.
Society of Editors established in Victoria.
Sonny Mehta launches UK paperback imprint Picador.
1973 Outback Press established in Melbourne by Fred Milgrom and Morry Schwartz who was to launch Black Inc and Schwartz Publishing in the late 1990s.
Literature Board of the Australia Council established.
Patrick White wins Australia’s only Nobel Prize for Literature.
1974 Wild & Woolley established in Sydney by Michael Wilding and Pat Woolley.
Peter Carey’s first book, the story collection The Fat Man in History, published by UQP to considerable acclaim, becoming a cult classic.
1975 David Malouf’s first novel Johnno and Murray Bail’s collection Contemporary Portraits (later retitled The Drover’s Wife) published by UQP.
McPhee Gribble founded in Melbourne by Hilary McPhee and Diana Gribble.
1976 Elizabeth Jolley’s first book, the story collection Five Acre Virgin, published by the newly established Fremantle Arts Centre Press.
Henry Rosenbloom founds Scribe Publications in Melbourne.
US begins to dismantle the Traditional Market Agreement, thereby allowing Australian publishers to buy US rights directly rather than being locked out by the UK’s traditional Commonwealth rights monopoly.
1977 Allen & Unwin Australia established in Sydney (Australian owned from 1990).
Hale & Iremonger established in Sydney by Sylvia Hale and John Iremonger.
Helen Garner’s novel Monkey Grip published by McPhee Gribble.
1978 Barbara Hanrahan's first UQP novel, Where the Queens All Strayed, published.
Gerard Lee’s collection Pieces for a Glass Piano published by UQP.
Hugh Lunn’s bestseller Joh: The Life and Political Adventures of Johannes Bjelke-Petersen published by UQP.
1979 Peter Carey’s second collection, War Crimes, published by UQP, winning the NSW Premier’s Award for fiction.
Roger McDonald’s bestselling Gallipoli novel 1915 published by UQP.
UQP’s Contemporary Russian Writing series established.
1980 A hardback selection of stories from Peter Carey’s two UQP collections published in UK by Faber and in US by Random House under the confusing title The Fat Man in History, reissued in paperback 1981 by Picador as Exotic Pleasures.
1981 Rupert Murdoch buys A&R which becomes part of News Corporation’s HarperCollins in 1989–90.
Peter Carey’s novel Bliss published by UQP and by Faber in UK, winning the Miles Franklin and other awards. Picador publishes paperback edition.
Gerard Lee’s novel True Love and How to Get It published by UQP.
1982 Olga Masters’ first story collection The Home Girls published by UQP, winning the National Book Council Award.
1983 Elizabeth Jolley’s novel Miss Peabody’s Inheritance published by UQP.
Laurie Muller, formerly with Lansdowne Press, appointed UQP manager.
1984 Kate Grenville’s first book, the story collection Bearded Ladies, published by UQP along with Olga Masters’ first novel Loving Daughters.
Helen Garner’s novel The Children’s Bach published by McPhee Gribble/Penguin Books Australia.
Penguin Australia begin distributing UQP books.
1985 Peter Carey’s Illywhacker published by UQP and by Faber and Harper & Row, winning the Age Book of the Year and NBC as well as other awards. Shortlisted for the Booker Prize.
Olga Masters’ A Long Time Dying published by UQP.
Hugh Lunn’s first memoir Vietnam: A Reporter’s War published by UQP, winning the Age Non-fiction Book of the Year.
1986 Bliss the film released, winning for Peter Carey and Ray Lawrence the AFI Award for adapted screenplay. Bliss: The Screenplay published by UQP as the first of a series of Australian screenplays which later included Oscar and Lucinda as well as Gerard Lee and Jane Campion’s Sweetie.
Olga Masters dies on 26 September of a brain tumour.
UQP Young Adult Fiction list begins under Barbara Ker Wilson.
1987 Penguin Australia take over Lloyd O’Neil imprint.
Pan and Macmillan merge to form Pan Macmillan.
Olga Masters’ last novel Amy’s Children published by UQP.
1988 Peter Carey’s Oscar and Lucinda published by UQP and by Faber and Harper & Row, winning the Booker Prize, the Miles Franklin and other awards, and selling half a million copies worldwide.
Olga Masters’ last story collection The Rose Fancier published by UQP.
1989 Penguin Australia take over McPhee Gribble.
Random House take over Century Hutchinson.
Time and Warner merge.
Prices Surveillance Authority recommends territorial copyright be scrapped.
Peter Carey moves to New York’s Greenwich Village.
UQP establish the David Unaipon Award for Indigenous writing.
Hugh Lunn’s bestselling childhood memoir Over the Top with Jim published by UQP.
1989–90 Laurie Muller (UQP) is ABPA president.
Text Publishing established in Melbourne by Di Gribble and Eric Beecher.
1991 Copyright Amendment Act sets up a 30-day/90-day rule on book imports.
Peter Carey’s The Tax Inspector published by UQP and by Faber and Knopf.
1993 Oscar and Lucinda judged the second best novel in the history of the Booker Prize, after Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children.
1994 Peter Carey’s The Unusual Life of Tristan Smith published by UQP and by Faber and Knopf, winning the Age Book of the Year award.
Peter Carey’s Collected Stories published by UQP, and by Faber in 1995.
1997 Peter Carey’s Jack Maggs published by UQP and by Faber and Knopf, winning the Commonwealth Writers Prize and the Miles Franklin Award.
1998 Oscar and Lucinda the film released, starring Cate Blanchett and Ralph Fiennes, with screenplay by Laura Jones, daughter of novelist Jessica Anderson.
UQP: The Writer’s Press, ed Craig Munro, celebrates UQP’s 50th anniversary.
2000 Peter Carey’s True History of the Kelly Gang published by UQP and by Faber and Knopf, winning Carey a second Booker Prize as well as the Miles Franklin and other awards, making it an international literary bestseller.
Novelist Stephen King signs US$48 million three-book publishing deal.
2001 Hilary McPhee’s publishing memoir Other People’s Words published.
2002 UQP and Peter Carey announce that their 30-year publishing relationship will terminate, with UQP to revert all rights in the Carey backlist by 2004.