Carey maintained handwritten notebooks of ideas for his writings. Contained in this series are eleven of these notebooks. Some notebooks have general notes such as shopping lists, recipes, names and addresses, and lists that pertain to his personal life.

The series includes manuscript and typescript drafts, notes, research material, and some related correspondence Carey's screenplays, of which Bliss and Until the end of the world were produced.

This series comprises manuscripts and drafts of unpublished and published short stories and short story collections. It also includes Carey's biographical story about the birth of his son Sam called A letter to our son

The series includes manuscript and typescript drafts, notes, research material, publicity material, and related correspondence for Carey's published and unpublished novels.

Correspondents: Glenda Adams, Luciana Arrighi, Murray Bail, Bruce Beaver, John Bell, Bruce Beresford, Michael Berkeley, John Blight, Michael Brennan, David Brooks, Bille Brown, Felicity Bryan, Carmen Callil, Ian Callinan, Felix Calvino, Nancy Cato, Clem Christesen [writing to Judith Green, later Rodriguez], John Clanchy, Alison Clark, Dymphna Clark, Manning Clark, John Coetzee, Adele Cohen, Matthew Condon, Jim Davidson, Robyn Davidson, Bruce Dawe, Robert Dessaix, Rosemary Dobson, Espie Dods, Eve Duncan, Don Dunstan, Geoffrey Dutton, Nin Dutton, Christopher Edwards, Nick Enright, Michele Field, Helen Garner, Marea Gazzard, Clem Gorman, Lisa Gorton, Kate Grenville, Elizabeth Harrower, Kenneth J Harvey, Dennis Haskell, Ihab Hassan, Shirley Hazzard (Shirley and Francis Steegmuller), Janette Turner Hospital, Brian Howard, Barry Humphries, Ivor Indyk, Elizabeth Jolley, Gail Jones, Nicholas Jose (Nick Jose), Beate Josephi and Andrew Taylor, Nancy Keesing, Thomas Keneally, John Kinsella, Manoly Lascaris, David Leavitt, Gerard Lee, Geoffrey Lehmann, Kathy Lette, Alan Lightman, Stephen McClymont, Mark McKenna, Robert Macklin, Tony Maniaty, David Marr, Mandy Martin, Gillian Mears, Drusilla Modjeska, Frank Moorhouse, Mal Morgan, Les Murray, Philip Neilson, Cees Nooteboom, Mark O’Connor, Carlo Olivieri, Margaret Olley, Michael Ondaatje, Tony Page, Peter Porter, Pixie Pratt [Pixie O’Harris], Judith Rodriguez, David Rowbotham, Ethel Rowbotham, Lilian Roxon, John Ralston Saul, Jaya Savige, Scripsi (Michael Heyward and Peter Craven], Penelope Seidler, Tom Shapcott, Lidija Simkus-Pocius (Lidija Simkute), Ian Sinnamon, Norah Smallwood, Jeffrey Smart, Christina Stead, Lurline Stuart, John Tranter, James Tulip (Jim Tulip), UQP [Frank W Thompson, Roger McDonald, Craig Munro], Christopher Wallace-Crabbe (Chris Wallace-Crabbe), Robin Wallace-Crabbe, Jacki Weaver, Peter Weir, Gough Whitlam, Phyllis Webb, Patrick White, and many others.

Separate folders have been created for Bruce Beaver, Carmen Callil (Chatto & Windus), Manning Clark, Rosemary Dobson, Helen Garner, Peter Porter, Judith Rodriguez, Tom Shapcott, Jeffrey Smart and Patrick White.

Art work depicting David Malouf by Neil Moore. Pen and ink half-length portrait of David Malouf. Signed above the sitter’s right shoulder. Undated.

Two publications and 26 published reviews, articles, short stories, speeches and interviews.
Folder 1: The School Window, Brisbane Grammar School, no. 8, Sept 1948. Contains an illustration on page 11 and three stories by David Malouf, Form IV. A. The stories are: Dream Journey, pages 18-19; The Longest Hour, page 26, winner of the first Thomas Thatcher Memorial Prize; Et tu, Brute, page 28.

Malouf, D., & Australian Broadcasting Corporation. (1999). A spirit of play : the making of Australian consciousness, Sydney: ABC Books for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 128 pages, with many manuscript emendations.

Folder 2:
A group of 26 published reviews, articles, short stories, speeches and interviews, extracted from magazines and newspapers. Includes: What we know – A Meditation on Experience, Knowledge and Memory. An edited version of an address delivered at the Supreme Court of New South Wales Annual Conference on 13 June 1997. Extract from Judicial Officers’ Bulletin. Vol. 9, No. 11. December Pp. 81/82 and 87/88.

This series is comprised of draft typescripts and related documents for eight Opera Libretti by David Malouf (both published and unpublished): Voss : Opera in Two Acts After the Novel by Patrick White, Invocation to Earth, Remembering Babylon, 'The Aspern Papers', 'You can't think of everything', 'A Winter's Tale', The Fox and the Magpie. In addition there are two versions of 10,000 Miles Away, written by Malouf for theatre.

Ten typescript book reviews of non-fiction books, 3-4 pages each, for the Australian Broadcasting Commission’s (ABC’s) Books for comment programme, second half of 1969. Includes: two drafts with emendations; and eight final scripts with an ABC ‘With compliments’ slip attached.
Typescript titled 'The Poetry of John Bligh' on foolscap paper headed Australian Broadcasting Commission, no date. 14 pages.