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This project is funded through an ARC Discovery Grant (DP0663997) of $156 000 spread over three years from 2006 to 2008. Major budget items include research assistance, purchase of 2006 Census statistics, equipment and office materials, three workshops, advisory committee meetings and travel within Australia. No fulltime salaries are paid and the project is not supported from other sources. Office space and communications costs are provided by the Australian National University and the principal researcher, Dr Jupp, is an honorary visiting Associate Professor within the Australian Demographic and Social Research Institute.
The main work, which is now largely completed, involves securing articles of varying length from about one hundred scholars, mainly describing the history and current state of over 125 different religious denominations existing in Australia or having had an important role in the past. These include Indigenous, Asian and other non-Christian religions as well as the major Christian organizations.
Statistics from the 2006 Commonwealth Census are being processed by the Canberra regional office of the Australian Bureau of Statistics. These give details of the ages, locations, birthplaces, ancestries, languages spoken, educational levels, occupations, dates of arrival ( for immigrants), citizenship and other relevant social data. Details cover all local government areas of Sydney and Melbourne and other major cities and regions throughout Australia.
A workshop has already been held in Canberra on Religion and Social Cohesion ( see this website) and others are planned on Religion and Politics ( jointly with Macquarie University) and Women and Religion.
The product of this project will be two-fold; an encyclopedia of Australian religions for Cambridge University Press and a detailed report for the Australian Research Council. Under ARC regulations no part of the grant will go directly to subsidise or otherwise support the encyclopedia and the contracted publisher does not require
such funding. It is expected that the encyclopedia will be available for the World Parliament of Religions to be held in Melbourne in mid-2009. It will be the only such source in print taking account of the Census data of 2006 and detailing developments within the religious communities of Australia into the current century.
The project has built up a collection of primary and secondary material and of specially commissioned illustrations of religious persons, buildings, activities and art forms, which will be contained within the final report along with statistical tables. Some of these will appear on this website, which is also funded from the ARC grant, to provide information as the project continues. The website will also be used to publish various items of information relating to religions in Australia and to provide relevant links to other sources of information in Australia and overseas.