Maltese-Australian HistoriographyAuthor: Dr. Barry York, Europe-Australia Institute, garocon@pcug.org.au The National Library of Australia's oral history collection has received official visits from several Maltese government officials and all the High Commissioners since the 1980s. The Library's Sound Preservation Unit, a sound archiving group of world standard, aims for the permanent preservation of all recordings. Who knows: a hundred years from now, if one wants to hear the Maltese ghana performed, it may be necessary to visit the National Library of Australia's oral history collection, where many hours of Maltese folk-singing in St. Albans and Blacktown have been recorded and preserved. And as for the conventional interviews, they are an invaluable source as they tell the migrant story from the perspective of those who experienced it - in their own words and through the actuality of their voices. Imagine what people will make of it all a century from now! It would be like us, today, having quality recordings with migrants of the nineteenth century! In finishing up, I'd like to draw attention to the two most recent works in Maltese-Australian studies in Australia, again the work of Victoria University of Technology. In 1997, a bi-lingual book was published, called 'Maltese in Australia: wanderings through the Maltese-Australian story'. Also that year, the University subsidized the production of an audio-CD and cassette package called "Maltese Voices Down Under". There are currently a number of works-in-progress. Those that promise something original include Nicholas Chircop's study of Maltese from Egypt.
   
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