This series contains drafts, notes, photographs and research material. A straight young back is narrated in the first person by David Apps, a cadet government officer who arrives in the Territory of Papua and New Guinea in 1963. Apps works for Hal Franklin, a District Commissioner. As the country moves towards self-government and independence, Apps is slowly corrupted by the power of ruling. Based on true story of the assassination in August 1971 of Jack Emanuel, District Commissioner. Emanuel was murdered deep in the the forest on a Rabaul plantation. The working titles for the novel were 'The old magic touch' and the 'Walk novel'.

6 pieces of shards of crockery and glassware found by Shearston at the site of Halls house at Sandy Creek, near Grenfell. The house was burned down by the NSW Police in 1862. Shearston believes these shards are of plates that Hall ate from and bottles he drank from. Found during one of Shearstons scouting trips for the possible film production of the screenplay 'Game' in 1995 or 1997.

This series contains drafts, notes, newspaper cuttings, research material, and correspondence. Concertinas is told from the alternating points of view of the two main characters, Chris Davage and Ian McCall. Both ex-PNG men have fond and lingering memoirs of the excitement of the expatriate experience. The novel examines the relationship between Australia, Papua New Guinea and Indonesia. This series contains drafts, notes, research material, and newspaper cuttings.

This series mostly consists of correspondence between Shearston and University of Queensland Press (UQP) during his time with them, from 1977 to 1998. Included are the memorandum of agreements for his first three works of fiction published with UQP.

This series contains drafts, notes, research material, and correspondence. Dead birds, published by ABC Books in 2007, is set in the early days of exploration around Papua New Guinea. It is based on the 1877 journal of Italian naturalist, collector and explorer Luigi d'Albertis and his crew as they travel by boat up the Fly River in the steam launch 'Neva' collecting birds of paradise, ethnographic artifacts and undiscovered specimens. A New Guinean tribesman is killed by Albertis' crew and his head preserved in a specimen bottle. The story, narrated by the head in a jar, is a story of race relations. Included in this series are notes, research material, and drafts.

This series contains drafts and notes. A straight young back had the working titles 'The old magic touch' and the 'Walk novel'.

Shearston first conceived of Game as a screenplay in the mid-1990s. He notes that “it failed to find production money. The first prose version was a novel for young adults. In subsequent drafts it became a novel for adults”. The novel, published by Allen & Unwin, tells the story of the last days in the life of bushranger Ben Hall. Hall wants to quit the game of bushranging and to get to know his son, Harry, who lives with his wife Biddy and Jack Turner, the man she left him for. The novel was longlisted for the 2014 Miles Franklin Award, shortlisted for the 2014 Christina Stead Award for Fiction 2013, shortlisted for the NSW Premier’s Awards 2014 and shortlisted for the 2013 Colin Roderick Award.

Shearston first conceived of 'Game' as a screenplay in the mid-1990s. He notes that “it failed to find production money”. This series includes typescripts, research material relating to the screenplay 'Game' (never produced). It is based on the last days of legendary bushranger Ben Hall.

Featured over two broadcasts on ABC Radio 2 in 1984 was the radio documentary written by Trevor Shearston based on the letters from New Guinea of John Green to his family in Healesville in Victoria. Working titles included: The John Green Letters; Edge of the Empire : the New Guinea letters of John Green; and The John Green letters. John Green, fifth son of John and Mary Green, went to British New Guinea in 1892. In 1897 he was speared and then clubbed to death by Binandere people. During this four years in New Guinea John Green wrote more than 3200 pages of correspondence.

This series contains drafts, agreements and correspondence with ABC regarding scripts and production, and research material for the radio documentary feature.

Photographs (b&w and colour) taken during location scouting trips for the filming of 'Game' in 1995 and 1997.