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.

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.