The Handbook volumes offer the only detailed and accurate records of many Australian languages that are extinct or on the verge of extinction.

This volume provides a new introduction that discusses some of the main characteristics of Australian languages. Each grammatical sketch includes an illustrative text--demonstrating the use of the language--and a basic vocabulary listing. Also, each example is accompanied by a morpheme-by-morpheme glossary.

Volume 4 contains a general survey of Australian languages, plus sketches of Woiwurrung, the language once spoken in the Melbourne area, Panyjima, a language of the Pilbara in Western Australia, and Djabugay and Mbabaram, two languages of the Cairns area in Queensland.