The two shipboard journals recorded by Lewis Harding, Bede Poldings fellow passenger in 1835 and 1846, and here published for the first time, present endearing glimpses of Australia were via the Cape of Good Hope. In addition, he sailed several times to ports within his Province to Newcastle, Hobart, Melbourne, Adelaide, Brisbane, Albany and Perth. When in Europe he regularly crisscrossed the Irish Sea and the English Channel. In his old age, in October 1869, he undertook a voyage intending to reach Europe in time for the opening of the Vatican Council at Rome in December. The steamer sailed via Melbourne and Albany into the Indian Ocean, thence into the Red Sea, heading to the Suez Canal, which was due to open in November. However, the Archbishop, sick and exhausted, turned back after reaching Aden, arriving in Sydney on Christmas Eve 1869.

This volume focuses on Catholic Church history in Australia by lookimg at certain figures (Archdeacon John McEencroe, Lwesi Harding, Bishop Chalres Henry Davis, Cardonal Gilroy) as well as themes: Catholc Social Justice and parliamentary politics, humanae vitae and Tridentine clericalism, and the emergence of Catholic education offices.

Biography of Australia's first Catholic bishop ; includes references to his attitudes towards and concern about Aboriginal people and their living conditions and education ; establishment of the Passionist mission on Stradbroke Island.

others.In addition to the hundreds of new signed articles on a wide variety of topics, this new edition also features biographies of contemporary religious figures; thousands of photographs, maps and illustrations; and updated bibliographical citations. The 15th volume is a cumulative index to the entire encyclopedia.

The editors have in effect provided an oblique personal history of the nation. Fittingly, this absorbing anthology ends with an exchange of e-mail messages. If the form of the letter is changing, these new modes of conversation offer a generation unused to letter-writing many of the delights and consolations so memorably found in The Oxford Book of Australian Letters.