About Us

The Business    

We are the leading natural history specialist bookshop in Australia. Established in 1981, we hold a world class inventory in new, secondhand and rare antiquarian books and wildlife art. Rare natural history books are our specialty and we ship books to anywhere in the world. Our books are sourced from publishers and suppliers worldwide. We have large stocks of books on birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, fish, invertebrates, botany, ecology, palaeontology, insects, marine, biology, aviculture, fossils, entomology and conservation. Our natural history stock covers books for Australia, Antarctica, America, Britain, Africa, Europe and Asia. Our wildlife art gallery regularly offers original paintings by Neville Cayley (junior and senior), Sarah Stone, William T. Cooper, Raymond Ching and Peter Schouten.

We hold substantial amounts of stock in our shop in Prahran. This means that most of the books you see listed on our website are able to be shipped out immediately.

We are primarily a mail order business and ship worldwide. Our packing is of the highest quality and we employ a near full-time packer. However, we are committed booksellers and offer a full shop service. Our shop is located in Prahran, Melbourne. For more information, including Shop hours follow the link. Our knowledgeable staff have backgrounds in zoology, photography, design, and the book trade. We pride ourselves in offering professional and prompt service to all our customers.

We issue hardcopy catalogues and email lists regularly, as well as offer our customers an efficient backordering service. To receive our email lists and catalogues Join Our Mailing List today.

We Buy Books. We are always keen to buy books in our field, from single copies to gigantic libraries. Please contact us by phone if you have anything you think may interest or complete the We Buy Books email form. If the books are of sufficient value we are prepared to travel.

We are members of ANZAAB (Australian and New Zealand Association of Antiquarian booksellers) and ILAB (International League of Antiquarian Booksellers).

The Owners

Andrew Isles

Andrew has a Bachelor of Science from Monash University in Melbourne majoring in zoology. This led to employment as a Research Officer with Fisheries and Wildlife (now the Department of Environment and Sustainability) followed by some work as a consultant zoologist. Book collecting was a major interest in his life before the business and it seemed logical to combine his interest in zoology, particularly ornithology, with his great interest in books. He started the business in 1981.

Belinda Isles

Belinda is also a zoologist with a Bachelor of Arts majoring in zoology. Belinda worked at the Museum of Victoria in the Department of Ornithology assisting the then Curator of Birds, Allan McEvey. She ran the department for two years after Allan's retirement and then left the Museum in 1990 and came into our business full time. Belinda is very much involved with ensuring that the new book side of the business runs smoothly (a difficult task).

The Staff

Maggie

Maggie joined Andrew Isles Natural History Books in November 2010. She has a Bachelor of Arts (majoring in Archaeology) from La Trobe University and has experience working in the booktrade and as a library technician. Maggie knows the day to day workings of the business very well, and is responsible for processing customer orders and requests.

Bridget Schwerdt

Bridget joined Andrew Isles Natural History Books in December 2022. She has a Bachelor of Arts from The University of Melbourne and is currently undertaking  a Master of Creative Writing, Publishing and Editing at The University of Melbourne.  Bridget performs a variety of tasks for the business, including photography, editing images, and data entry.