Edward Augustus Petherick,, was a prominent Australian bookseller, book collector and archivist, whose collection became the basis of the Australiana section of the then Commonwealth National Library. Petherick was born in England and moved with his family to Australia when he was five years old. He was employed by the bookseller George Robertson from 1862, travelling to London in 1870 as a buyer. In addition to his work for Robertson, Petherick was privately engaged in compiling a bibliography of Australian and Pacific material. With his contacts in the book trade Petherick soon began collecting. By 1886 Petherick was living in Brixton Hill and working on the catalogue of the York Gate Library, which was published that year as Catalogue of the York Gate Library formed by Mr S. William Silver: An Index to the Literature of Geography, Maritime and Inland Discovery, Commerce and Colonisation. In 1887, Petherick set up the Colonial Booksellers' Agency in London but by 1894 he was bankrupt. Assistance from family and friends, however, enabled Petherick to preserve his extensive private collection. The Australian historian George William Rusden was a frequent visitor to Petherick and his library at Petherick's home "Yarra Yarra" on Brixton Hill, even staying for weeks when Rusden was working on his book History of Australia. During the next 17 years Petherick tried to interest the Commonwealth of Australia in buying his collection. While never in doubt about the significance of the Petherick Collection, the Commonwealth found itself in a difficult position. Petherick had made it a condition that the Commonwealth Parliamentary Library employ him to continue his monumental bibliography. Aged in his early sixties, Petherick was considered too old to be employed by the Australian Public Service. Finally, in 1911 the Commonwealth Government passed the Petherick Act, enabling the Commonwealth Parliamentary Library to employ Petherick as Archivist for an annuity of £500.
