A quick check of the OzLit website main page will show you that something over 1.5 million visitors have viewed it. By anyone's estimates that's a pretty good number for an Australian literary site. Which is why it's sad that the site seems have to gone into a period of long-term silence, if not permanent ceasation. The best I can work out is that updates ceased in early 2000. That said, the amount of work that went into this site is simply staggering, and, so long as you keep the cut-off date of 2000 in mind, still very relevant and useful.
Peter and Mareya set out in August 1995 to make OzLit the definitive Australian literary website - listings of writers and their works; links to all literary references in the printed media; and a place where both readers and writers of Australian literature would feel welcome. A huge undertaking. And one that may have spelt the end of the project. As a labour of love it was just too big for two people to handle - ambition overwhelmed capacity. Sometime late in the 1990s Peter emailed me pointing out that we seemed to be covering similar ground: him with OzLit and me with my Literature pages. I replied that while that might be the case superficially, my aim was to delve deeper into fewer areas, while he was trying to cover everything. I thought the two sites complemented each other, rather than competed. I'm sorry that this website isn't being maintained, and over the past year or so I've started to find that some links don't work - so it's starting to fray around the edges. It doesn't matter. I still use it as one of my major Australian literature resources.
