The first attempt at producing a census of the minerals of Australia and New Zealand was undertaken by the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science and published in 1890. It was only a partial census as it did not include a census of Victorian or Tasmanian minerals, and there was no mention at all of Western Australia. The committee was comprised of nine eminent members, and drew on works from a number of other authors. It was hoped that the Census would be a useful basis for future works.

Anderson (1916) produced the Bibliography of Australian Mineralogy, a form of census, in which both a mineral and a locality index is provided. This work took him about ten years to complete, and was undertaken whenever he could spare time from official duties. The information was compiled from other publications up to about the end of 1915.

The Australian Amateur Mineralogist advertised in the first issue (1955) that a new census of Australian minerals was to be undertaken by staff of Specimen Minerals (Australia) Limited, the publishers of the magazine. It was considered a "mammoth task", and there is no indication in subsequent issues that it was successful.

The advent of the Internet provided an opportunity to compile a census in a way that is relatively easy to update and can be published and made available to millions of people worldwide. This census is available here and contains in the region of 26,000 entries. Input to the census has come from available databases and publications, and a significant effort by John Carroll of Melbourne in particular.

Follow the links below to access the current census which is being compiled with the assistance of other members of the eMinerals email group, and members of the Mineralogical Societies of Australia and New Zealand.

There are two options available, selecting by mineral, and searching for a location.