ABSTRACT
The biogeography of Australian shes has been the subject of several recent reviews, including treatments of marine shes by Wilson and Allen (1987), Paxton et al. (2006), Hoese et al. (2006) and Last et al. (2011; based largely on earlier Australian marine bioregionalisation efforts: Interim Marine and Coastal Regionalisation Technical Group 1998; Commonwealth of Australia 2006; Last et al. 2005, 2010; and Lyne et al. 2009), and of freshwater shes by Williams and Allen (1987), Unmack (2001, 2013), Merrick (2006) and Hoese et al. (2006). We conne our current treatment to Australian marine shes, with a focus on demersal (bottom-living) shoreshes. We present an overview of the history of biogeographic research on Australian marine shes, summarise current ideas and highlight topics for future research.
