Media: Hardcover, 525 pages
Author: J. Eedy
Year: (1886)

Wellbank's Australian Nautical Almanac and Coasters' Guide is very rare. It was published annually from 1860 to 1889. The recent 'Australian Almanacs 1806-1930: A Bibliography' by Ian Morrison surveys the holding of 30 major public, academic and specialist libraries in Australia. It lists only one other known copy of the 1886 edition. For other years there are only a few known copies at best, and in some cases none.

The full title indicates the coverage of the almanac:
'Wellbank's Australian Nautical Almanac and Coasters' Guide For the South and East Coasts and Part of the North-west and West Coasts of Australia, Also the Principal Ports and Harbours of Fiji, Compiled From the Latest and Most Authentic Sources, for the year 1886 Being the Twenty-sixth Year of Publication'.

This volume contains a variety of useful information for seamen of the era. The larger part is taken up with details of around 1000 localities around most of the Australian coast - in effect a coastal gazetteer of Australia.

SAMPLE ENTRY:

Disaster Bay. —Immediately to the southward of Green Cape, and running three or four miles westward, is a deep indent on the coast, terminating in a curved sandy beach, three miles in extent; it is four miles wide between Green Cape and the steep rocky bluff forming the south head. A small river, named the Wonboyn, accessible only to boats in fine weather, empties itself into the N.W. corner of this bay.

Anchorage in N.E. winds anywhere under its north shore (Green Cape), in from 13 to 17 fathoms, as close in as convenient; no dangers, and a bold cliffy coast. About half-a-mile within Green Cape on this shore of the Bay a fine steamer, named the City of Sydney, was run on shore and lost.

This rare resource will be useful to
 - maritime historians
 - local historians in areas whose interests touch Australia's coastline
 - family historians who had seamen ancestors in the late 19th century