Melbourne: CSIRO Publishing, 2012. Octavo, colour illustrations, photographs and illustrations, fine copy in laminated boards.

An outstanding book. Tracing the discovery of Australia's fishes from the earliest days of taxonomy to the first part of the 20th century, this book provides a unique insight into the diverse pathways by which Australia's fish were discovered and outlines the history of early maritime explorations in Australia that collected natural history specimens. The book covers the life and work of each of the most important discoverers, and assesses their accomplishments and the limitations of their work. Discovery of Australia's Fishes is distinctive in that a biographic approach is integrated with chronological descriptions of the discovery of the Australian fish fauna. Many of northern Australia's fishes are found in parts of the Indian and western Pacific oceans. The book covers the work of collectors who travelled outside Australia, together with that of the British and European zoologists who received and described their collections. The account ceases at 1930, the year of completion of publication of the first modern checklist of Australian fishes.

Brian Saunders is a retired Adelaide eye surgeon with a lifelong interest in marine biology and a longstanding interest in the history of ichthyology. In 2009 he self-published a book on marine life.