The Guide is a product of two years' work by the Survey of Sources for American Studies in the United Kingdom, a sub-committee of the British Association for American Studies.

"A career in the Victorian penal system might not seem to be a source of excitement or even great interest, but for John Buckley Castieau it was the trigger for nearly three decades of diaries that reveal not only what went on behind prison walls but also much about the colony's early history. J.B. Castieau was the governor of both Beechworth and Melbourne gaols as well as, somewhat disastrously, the Inspector-General of Penal Establisments."--Page 4 of cover.