Maltese-Australian HistoriographyAuthor: Dr. Barry York, Europe-Australia Institute, garocon@pcug.org.au During the course of my research, a book titled 'The Maltese in Australia' was published in 1986. It was the first book on the history of Maltese settlement in Australia to provide a broad outline beginning with Maltese convicts around 1810 and concluding with the achievements of prominent young Maltese-Australians such as musician Joe Camilleri, jockey Darren Gauci and boxer Jeff Fenech. Next, in 1990, came a more substantial work based on my doctoral thesis: 'Empire and Race: the Maltese in Australia 1881-1949'. In the meantime, between 1986 and 1990, a few other notable books and booklets were published in Australia sharing the fruits of much research labour into aspects of the Maltese-Australian experience. These works included Michael Dugan's The Maltese Connection (which drew heavily on my book The Maltese in Australia), Frank Zammit's Il-ballata tal-Maltin ta' New Caledonia and George Griffiths' Ritratt: Maltese migration in focus. Undoubtedly, the fact that Australia was celebrating two hundred years of European settlement in 1988 played a part in prompting the Maltese and other communities to look into their own part in Australian history and society. Multiculturalism was by now not just official but also respectable. Apart from Charles Price's 1954 book, it should be mentioned that important speeches and articles had been published during the 1950s by such significant figures to the Maltese as Eligio Castaldi, who had settled in Australia prior to the first world war, Frank Corder, who had acted as Malta's representative in Australia for a while during the 1930s, and Captain Henry Curmi, Malta's first Commissioner to Australia. Their works were never published in book form but they provided interesting perspectives and many leads for the later generation of researchers. Also, it would be amiss of me to neglect the pioneering work of a researcher in Malta itself. Pre-eminent among those in the migration history field is Fr Lawrence Attard, of the Malta Emigrants Commission. In 1983 Fr Lawrence's booklet, Early Maltese Emigration 1900-1914, was published at Valetta. It was followed in 1989 by The Great Exodus and the third book appeared more recently. Distribution of Fr. Lawrence's works was very limited in Australia but their impact was felt among those with an active research interest in the subject matter. Fr. Lawrence's books covered the field of migration to all principal destinations, not just Australia.
    
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