According to the About page, Early Experiences in Australasia: Primary Sources and Personal Narratives 1788-1901 provides a “personal view of events in the region from the arrival of the first settlers through to Australian Federation at the close of the nineteenth century”. A number of these perspectives are “first-person accounts, including letters and diaries, narratives, and other primary source materials”. The material covers the time periods from early settlers, convicts, and the Gold Rush.
Included material encompasses cartoon and comic strips, photographs, letters and poetry, along with pamphlets and government documents such as An Ordinance to Regulate the Sale of Bread in South Australia. Most of the material – over 90 percent – is unpublished. Records indicate whether the item is published or previously unpublished.
Several access points to discover the items exist. First, the user can browse the site by All Items/Documents, or browse general categories including Collections (library archive collections), Subjects, and Places. Second, the user can browse by document type as varied as Biography, Front/Back Matter, or Sheet Music. Third, once in a browsing section, the user can refine further by subject or year written, among others. Browsing the Subject section alone returns a comprehensive alphabetical index touching on topics as varied as chickens, disguises, riots, and wedding receptions. Next to each subject is a hyperlinked number showing the results and which takes the user to the relevant material. The Subject browse also has tabs further categorising material: Organization, Historical Events, People, and Places. Interestingly, Places is not restricted to simply Australia, New Zealand, and so on, but covers Belgium, Monaco, and St Lucia among others.
As well as the quick search (basic search) box, an advanced search box is available and is comprehensive. For items such as poetry, sheet music, and maps – items that are occasionally represented such as poetry which currently returns four records – a simple selection of the document type and search will return all records. A Select Terms link beside most of the advanced search boxes which show the index terms the database uses.
Users of Early Experiences in Australasia are required to read the material online, although a Print Screen button exists for the occasional print out. This is understandable, given the nature of the material. However, especially for books, this means that the user does a lot of clicking, not just to focus on each page, but also sometimes to provide the document (such a photograph or a poem) in a readable format. That said, Early Experiences in Australasia provides several icons that allow the user to increase or decrease fonts or to rotate the material for easier reading.
The large playlist symbol next to the title is a minor annoyance, as apart from size it looks exactly like the additional details expand/collapse button. Since the playlist button comes first and remains next to the title a natural instinct is to select it. The playlist is a themed collection made from clips in the database. The playlist can be compared to a reading or resource list. Users can make their own, though the publisher currently provides a series of playlists under topics such as Gold, Indigenous Experiences, and Shipboard Experiences. Users need to sign up to create their own playlists hence the minor confusion where a big button beckons but is available for customised reasons more than immediate access to the resource, especially if the user simply wishes to navigate around the resource and has no interest in creating a playlist.
Early Experiences in Australasia is a database with remarkable material available that is comprehensively indexed to make the resources easy to discover. The number of personal and first-person narratives provides immediacy and different perspectives of Australasian history that are useful across multiple disciplines and levels. For example, high school and late primary school students could very well appreciate the Life on the Goldfields playlist produced by the publisher, particularly the prints and sketches, since the Goldfields and the Gold Rush are consistently taught at these levels. Scholars are able to delve in-depth to the material, some of which is hand-written.
