His collaborators were John Calaby, Graeme Chapman, Joseph Forshaw, Harold Frith, Peter Fullagar, Gerry van Tets and Eric Lindgren.

Apart from the continent and Tasmania it covers the political dependencies Norfolk, Lord Howe, Macquarie, Heard, Christmas and Cocos-Keeling Islands.

This is commendable; for, often these outposts of the Commonwealth have been sadly neglected ornithologically and for the first time a fully illustrated guide is available, reasonably priced, covering the whole area except the New Guinea region.

Of special significance are the outlines of bills of the Procellariiformes, drawn to actual size, thus providing for a direct check with any specimen examined in the hand or found as a beach derelict.

However, because of different style in the illustrations, the gap between them of over forty years and particularly the different order of presentation of species fair comparison is difficult.

Slater’s work bears closer affinity with Macdonald’s Birds of Australia (1973), although the latter is more of a handbook than a field guide.

"[4] "My copy of this guide to Australian passerines (which has noticeably fewer pages and is more strongly bound than the non-passerine volume) will remain a valued possession and I will often wish to consult it.