Illywhacker was published in 1985 in Australia by University of Queensland Press. It has won a number of awards and was short-listed for the Booker Prize. This series includes typescript drafts for 'Pets' (Illywhacker) and Illywhacker, showing substantial revisions at every stage and the development of the novel from earliest ideas to finished form. Correspondence, notes, research material and index cards are included. Illywhacker has won the Age Book of the Year Award 1985, Fellowship of Australian Writers Victor - Barbara Ramsden Award 1985, National Book Council Award for Australian Literature - Banjo Award 1985, Vance Palmer Prize for Fiction 1986 and Ditmar Awards 1986.

Working titles for the novel Jack Maggs include 'Mags', 'The Old Dart' and 'The Somnambulist'. This subseries includes drafts (complete and incomplete), off-cuts, proofs and research material. Jack Maggs was winner the Age Book of the Year Award for Fiction 1997, Commonwealth Writers Prize 1998, and the Miles Franklin Award 1998.

Complete and incomplete drafts of Peter Carey's first children's book The big bazoohley.

The first working title for The unusual life of Tristan Smith was 'Inside the mouse' and the second was 'The Dog, The Duck and The Mouse' (also known as 'Dog, Duck, Mouse'). It was first published in 1994 in Australia by University of Queensland Press and in the United Kingdom by Faber & Faber. The book was written with two sections: Book 1 'My life in Efica' (Chapters 1-58) and Book 2 'Travels in Voorstand' (Chapters 1-56).This subseries includes drafts, complete and incomplete, with details of drafts and versions in the footers of most. Drafts are mainly computer printouts with handwritten emendations, extensive on some drafts; also included are printouts of Carey's computer directory giving details of files which indicate his work schedule. Some folders of 5th and 6th draft material have interleaved sheets of handwritten notes by Alison Summers. The unusual life of Tristan Smith was winner of the Age Book of the Year Award in 1994.

This subseries consists of revised drafts, working notes, index cards, proofs and correspondence relating to the novel Bliss. This novel had several working titles: 'Heaven's door', 'A garden at the end of the world', 'On the edges of the empire', 'A wonderful fool' and 'Waiting for the Barbarians'. Bliss was published in Australia by University of Queensland Press in 1981. This was Peter Carey's first novel and won the Miles Franklin Award 1981 and New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards 1982.

Correspondence from Bruce Beaver – 22 letters
Comprises:
[File 1]: 1975 to 1999

Correspondence from Chatto & Windus / Carmen Callil – 60 letters (1978 to 1991)
[File 1]: 1978 to 1991.
Letters from editors at Chatto & Windus.
1978 to 1982: Norah Smallwood and D J Enright (6)
1982 to 1991: Carmen Callil.
A few letters by others at Chatto & Windus, including Andrew Motion

Correspondence from Jeffrey Smart – 26 letters (undated, 1978 to 2012)
[File 1]: 1978 to 1991; 1999; 2012. In a letter of 13 Sep 1980 Smart writes: ‘Dear David, It’s midnight. I’ve come down to the studio to look again at your portrait […] it is, I feel sure, the best picture I have ever painted.’

Correspondence from Rosemary Dobson [Rosemary de Brissac Dobson – Rosemary Bolton] and Alec Bolton / Brindabella Press – 37 letters (1974 – 2012).
Comprises:
[File 1]: 1974 to 2012

Correspondence from Helen Garner – 125 letters (1982 to 2014)
Comprises:
[File 1]: 1982 to 1985 – 22 letters
[File 2]: 1986 – 29 letters (including 8-page typescript of a short story titled ‘What we say’)
[File 3]: 1987 to 2000 – 61 letters
[File 4]: 2003 to 2014 – 13 letters