Source: QLD Newsletter, Volume 2 No. 1, January 1986, page 3. Author: John S. Lake, Nelson, Melbourne, 1978, 160pp. Reviewer: Chris Marshall. View original scan (PDF)

This was the first comprehensive work on Australian freshwater fish. Intended as an easy to use field guide, it isn’t technical, and is quite brief.

Where the information was available, notes under the headings of distribution (by use of drainage divisions), breeding, food/feeding, and general comments (eg. good eating or angling, potential as aquarium display) are given. However, due to the lack of much information, some notes are missing for many species (breeding in particular).

Further taxonomic work on our freshwater fish, resulting in changes in nomenclature, since the book’s publishing, and the discovery of many new species, make the book largely obsolete.

All species discussed are illustrated (most in colour photographs), and full cross-referencing is provided. A list of marine species which commonly enter freshwater, along with some freshwater species known from only a few specimens, is given. One annoying feature of the publication is that the photographs of fish described in the book appear elsewhere in the book — separated from the text.

Being superseded by more recent publications, the book is of little use as a means of identification, but some of the comments on life history and behaviour make interesting reading.