Work on the Australian National Dictionary Project was undertaken from the late 1970s by W.S. (Bill) Ramson (1933–2011) at the Australian National University. Ramson was motivated by a lack of lexicographic work on Australian English on historical principles, in the tradition of the "Oxford English Dictionary". The project gained funding from Oxford University Press and the first edition of the "Australian National Dictionary" was published by Oxford in 1988, coinciding with the bicentenary of Australia's settlement. It was the first comprehensive, historically based record of the words and phrases that make up the Australian contribution to the English language. It records the historical development of Australian words, phrases and meanings from their earliest use to the present day, providing evidence of this history in dated and referenced quotations drawn from over 9,000 Australian sources. The trials and tribulations of this process are outlined in Ramson's book "Lexical Images" (OUP, 2005). The first edition of the dictionary is available online.