European printing technology came in the 1790s to a continent where there were â and still are â age-old modes of communication developed by Indigenous Australians. The present volume, while recognising this essential prehistory, is devoted to the print civilisation imported by the newcomers.

Throughout the nineteenth century books, magazines and newspapers arrived in great quantities from elsewhere, notably the British Isles. Appropriate means of distribution â bookshops and libraries â were created in the various colonies, but, as the population grew after the gold rushes,...