A useful list of independent Australian children's pubishers

With the help of the Productivity Commission I've come up with this list of independent Australian publishers as I wanted a picture of this particular slice of our industry.

Black dog (of course) and now in no particular order:

Working Title Press (Jane Covnerton) - gorgeous picture books

Little Hare - broad list but stronger at the picture book end - 50 books a year and six staff.

Wilkins Farago (Andrew Wilkins) - focused on translated picture books as a foundation but Andrew's added a rich diversity on top of that. (1 1/2 staff)

New Frontier - strong focus on picture books and best known for Zen tales series  (two short-listings in the Crichton Award this year)

Brolly Books (Emma Borghesi and Andrew Adam) - strong focus creating books for international markets.

Koala Books  - the core of the list is rights purchasing from overseas.

Era (Rod Martin) - strongly education but also some superb picture books.

Ford Street (Paul Collins) - newer than most with an interesting focus on YA.

And then  a few that are harder to categorize:

Omnibus (Dyan Blacklock) - part of a larger group, but independent in spirit.

Walker Books - a magnificently global independent. 26 staff, and $11 million in turnover, and published 28 Australian created books in 2008. (Sebastian Walker's bio is definitely worth a read.)

Allen & Unwin - too big to be classified as an independent?

Hardie Grant Egmont - part of a larger group, and with a relationship to Egmont UK. Quite focussed publishing, with Go Girls and Zac Power.

Fremantle Arts Centre Press - ngo but independent in spirit.

Magabala Press - ngo and unique.

UQP - ngo, and I'm not sure where they're placing their emphasis in terms of the their children's publishing

Woolshed (Leonie Tyle) - owned by a multinational, but with an independent spirit.

Text - YA focus, part-owned offshore, and with a strong emphasis on rights buying.

I'm less familiar with New Zealand but Longacre and Gecko spring to mind.

I'm sure I've forgotten someone - so apologies, but let me know and I can expand the list.  It struck me what a short but rich list it is.