Marie Steiner's SERVANTS DEPOTS IN COLONIAL SOUTH AUSTRALIA is a fascinating account of a little-known period in South Australian history. In 1855 the colony of South Australia experienced 'excessive female immigration', with large numbers of single females arriving from the British Isles to work as servants. When an economic downturn led to a shortage of domestic help positions, the Colonial Government was moved to establish servants' depots around South Australia to house them. The book details the day-to-day running of these depots, and reveals much about the attitudes towards women in colonial South Australia.

Hamer has written a broad, comparative overview of the evolution of British-derived urban traditions in four former colonies: the US, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.

From small beginnings, trade unions developed leading to the birth of the United Trades and Labor Council in 1884, and to political action with the formation of the United Labor Party in 1891. This is a record of peaceful movements for reform, for the Chartist program and a wider democracy.

Various local history documents used by A.M. Dolling in her research.