Voidly · Verboten · Australia
Banned and restricted books in Australia
40 titles have been banned or restricted in Australia, recorded across 42 dated, source-cited events, most often for sexual content.
Titles
40
Ban events
42
Top reason
Sexual content
Decades active
12
Most-restricted titles
| Title | Author | Year | Events |
|---|---|---|---|
| Forever Amber | Kathleen Winsor | 1944 | 2 |
| The 120 Days of Sodom | Marquis de Sade | 1904 | 2 |
| American Psycho | Bret Easton Ellis | 1991 | 1 |
| Portnoy's Complaint | Philip Roth | 1969 | 1 |
| Myra Breckinridge | Gore Vidal | 1968 | 1 |
| The Anarchist Cookbook | William Powell | 1971 | 1 |
| Spycatcher | Peter Wright | 1987 | 1 |
| The Lord of the Flies | William Golding | 1954 | 1 |
| Sons and Lovers | D.H. Lawrence | 1913 | 1 |
| The Story of O | Pauline Réage | 1954 | 1 |
| Peyton Place | Grace Metalious | 1956 | 1 |
| Steal This Book | Abbie Hoffman | 1971 | 1 |
| Explicit Material | Clive Hamilton | 2020 | 1 |
| Marquis de Sade: A Biography | Donald Thomas | 1976 | 1 |
| Show Me | Helga Fleischhauer-Hardt, Will McBride | 1974 | 1 |
| High Times Encyclopedia of Recreational Drugs | High Times Magazine (eds.) | 1978 | 1 |
| Hubert Selby Jr.: Last Exit to Brooklyn | Hubert Selby Jr. | 1964 | 1 |
| Hit Man: A Technical Manual for Independent Contractors | Rex Feral | 1983 | 1 |
| Frisk | Dennis Cooper | 1991 | 1 |
| Les 120 Journées de Sodome | Marquis de Sade | 1904 | 1 |
| The Clergyman's Daughter | George Orwell | 1935 | 1 |
| Milo Manara: The Harem | Milo Manara | 1984 | 1 |
| From Hell | Alan Moore, Eddie Campbell | 1991 | 1 |
| Lady Chatterley's Lover | D.H. Lawrence | 1928 | 1 |
| Lolita | Vladimir Nabokov | 1955 | 1 |
| Tropic of Cancer | Henry Miller | 1934 | 1 |
| Tropic of Capricorn | Henry Miller | 1939 | 1 |
| Brave New World | Aldous Huxley | 1932 | 1 |
| The Peaceful Pill Handbook | Philip Nitschke | 2006 | 1 |
| Borstal Boy | Brendan Behan | 1958 | 1 |
Stated reasons
- Sexual content
- 24
- Obscenity
- 17
- Violence
- 9
- Political content
- 7
- Immorality
- 3
- Drugs / substance use
- 2
- Race / colonialism
- 1
By decade
1910s1
1920s1
1930s8
1940s2
1950s6
1960s8
1970s4
1980s4
1990s4
2000s2
2010s1
2020s1
Documented bans
All 42 recorded events, most severe and most recent first.
Explicit Material2020
No Game No Life (Volumes 1, 2, 9)2012
The Peaceful Pill Handbook2007
From Hell2002
Frisk1992
American Psycho1991
Hit Man: A Technical Manual for Independent Contractors1990
Milo Manara: The Harem1990
Spycatcher1987
The Anarchist Cookbook1985
How to make disposable silencers1984
The Lord of the Flies1980
High Times Encyclopedia of Recreational Drugs1978
Marquis de Sade: A Biography1976
Show Me1975
Steal This Book1971
Portnoy's Complaint1969
The Stud1969
Myra Breckinridge1968
The World Is Full of Married Men1968
Hubert Selby Jr.: Last Exit to Brooklyn1966
Ecstasy and Me1966
Another Country1963
The Story of O1960
Borstal Boy1958
Peyton Place1957
Les 120 Journées de Sodome1957
The 120 Days of Sodom1957
The 120 Days of Sodom1957
Lolita1955
Forever Amber1945
Forever Amber1944
Tropic of Capricorn1939
The Clergyman's Daughter1936
Tropic of Cancer1934
Brave New World1932
The Cautious Amorist1932
Rowena Goes Too Far1931
Sons and Lovers1930
Lady Chatterley's Lover1930
The Decameron1927
The Straits Impregnable1916
Source: Verboten, built on the banned-books.org Open Censorship Core (CC BY 4.0). Verboten compilation CC BY 4.0.