Dates included in the text of biographies are intended to be as accurate as possible and are usually based on primary sources, such as birth, marriage and death certificates, and documents in archives and private hands. Secondary sources are used only as a last resort. Key events in each biographical subject's life, such as birth, marriage and death, and major developments in his or her career (e.g. enlisted in the army, admitted to the Bar, enthroned as a bishop) are normally recorded by day, month and year. Month and year, or year, are used on other occasions, when known.
For most subjects, the life span given at the beginning of each article is in the form: year of birth, hyphen, year of death. If either year has had to be estimated, it is followed by a question mark. If either year is known approximately, it is preceded by the letter c. (for circa). If nothing is known of the subject's life outside the period in which she or he featured in Australian history, the letters fl. precede the span in which he or she 'flourished'. If a subject is known to have been alive until a particular year only, his or her life span is given in the form year of birth, hyphen, year last known to be alive followed by a plus sign.
Dates in the search fields of the database have been copied from the text of biographies. In the case of occupations, if the text in not specific, the years in which an occupation are estimated to have begun or ended are followed by a question mark.
