The University of Newcastle's School of Liberal Arts and Wollotuka School of Aboriginal Studies are pleased to announce the launch of a new website, AWABA, an electronic database and guide to the history, culture and language of the Aboriginal peoples of the Newcastle and Lake Macquarie region of NSW.

From this site you can access 100s of digitised documents and materials about the Awabakal people and language. It also provides a thematic guide to these materials, with contributions on Awabakal culture, history, language, people and places, prepared by various locally-based scholars, writers and community leaders. Among its many features is a first-ever publication of "The Gospel of St. Mark in Awabakal" from a manuscript prepared by the Lake Macquarie missionary, L.E. Threlkeld, in 1837.

Edited by Dr. David Andrew Roberts, Assoc. Prof. Hilary M. Carey, and Vicki Grieves, AWABA was undertaken in partnership with representatives of the Awabakal Aboriginal community. The site is open to contributions from anyone with a particular or specialist knowledge of Awabakal culture and history. Submissions, comments and enquiries can be addressed the AWABA editors vis email.

D.A. Roberts, H.M. Carey and V. Grieves, Awaba: A Database of Historical Materials Relating to the Aborigines of the Newcastle-Lake Macquarie Region, University of Newcastle, 2002.