Books, we are often told, are an endangered species. Try telling that to the many Australians who collect them with a passion verging on obsession. Next week, a sale of antiquarian books will be held in Melbourne - so many that bookseller Peter Arnold has hired Ormond Hall in Prahran to go through 850 lots over two days.

Included in the auction are books so rare the only other known copies are held by public libraries. One of these, Charles Pickering's 1870 compilation of photographs of Sydney buildings, comes with a cool $30,000 to $40,000 estimate. Several others are valued at above the $20,000 mark.

On Monday part of the library of celebrated Adelaide bookseller Harry Muir will be sold, with a theme of Australiana and Pacific voyages. On Tuesday, the collections of Dr Brian Faragher, Tony Reichardt, Ray Chapman and David Gillespie will be sold.

Each had their own special interests in literature. Faragher was a Melbourne pathologist who was also one of Australia's leading collectors of maps (some included as part of books, some separate). His wife Pamela, also a medico, shared this passion.

Reichardt's library is based on the exploration of the South Seas and the discovery of Australia. Chapman's library of Australiana includes rare works on the Aborigines. Gillespie's collection concentrates on the life of T. E. Lawrence.

This is Arnold's fifth major auction since 2002. He says there are still a lot of interested buyers, with the market for Australiana mainly limited to Australian collectors.

They are after rarities in really good condition. A book's condition can make an enormous difference to its value. "With your serious books, you really need to look at them and touch them before you buy," Arnold says.

Lot 2 (part of the Harry Muir collection) is James Atkinson's Account of the State of Agriculture and Grazing in NSW, with other Information Important to those about to Emigrate, as published in London in 1826.

A feature of this book is the coloured aquatint view of Port Jackson and Sydney, along with four other aquatint plates and a folding coloured map. The upper estimate is $25,000.

Also rare is Lot 145, two volumes of Francois Peron and Louis de Freycinet's Voyage de Decouvertes aux Terres Australies, first published in Paris in 1807.

Again, the interest is partly in the illustrations, including two large folding charts, 24 maps and plans and 40 engraved plates (23 hand-coloured). Upper estimate is $20,000.

Other important books of Australian history include A Narrative of the Expedition to Botany Bay by Captain Watkin Tench, published in 1789 and considered the first authentic account of the journey ($20,000) and Ernest Giles's Journal of Forgotten Expedition. This very rare account of Giles's third expedition in 1875 was printed privately in 1880 and is given an estimate of $30,000.

In some cases, who previously owned the book is a guide to value.

Lot 160 is Thomas Shepherd's bound copy of Lectures on the Horticulture of New South Wales, as delivered at the Mechanics' School of Arts in Sydney. Published in 1835, this is considered the first Australian gardening book but the main selling point in this case is that it comes from the personal library of explorer Charles Sturt, with his stamp at the head of the title, then of John Ridley, the inventor of the stripper harvesting machine.

Condition is described as worn, with a cracked spine, but the exceptional provenance results in an upper estimate of $12,000.

The Peter Arnold sale of antiquarian books (in conjunction with Michael Treloar) takes place at Ormond Hall, Moubray Street, Prahran on Monday and Tuesday. Viewing Saturday and Sunday. The catalogue can be found online at peterarnold.com.au.

My collection

Fellow antiquarian bookseller Michael Treloar writes a moving tribute to Adelaide collector, bookseller and publisher, Harry Muir (pictured), in the Peter Arnold catalogue.

Part of the Harry Muir collection will be sold on Monday. Treloar was 25 and just starting in the business when he was befriended by Muir, then on the verge of retiring. Thirty-five years later Treloar is still in the business. Muir died in 1992.

During a long literary life Muir was proprietor of the Beck Book Company in Adelaide from 1939 to 1978. He transformed it into one of the best-known bookshops in Australia by selling a combination of new, second-hand and antiquarian books. It was known locally as The Beckery. Later in life Muir started the boutique publishing company Wakefield Press.

Writes Treloar: "Overseeing the dispersal of Harry's collection ... gives me pause to reflect on the many ways in which the world of books can enrich our lives, and I for one will not surrender the centuries-old traditions lightly."

$ 3500

Lot 254

Frederik de Wit's hand-coloured map was printed in Amsterdam in 1680. It shows Australia according to Abel Tasman but without Tasmania.

$6000

Lot 2

Typical of the ultra-rare books for sale is James Atkinson's Account of the State of Agriculture and Grazing in New South Wales, with other Information Important to those about to Emigrate. It was published in London in 1826 and includes views of Sydney.

$25,000

Lot 706

Wild Flowers of South Australia was written and illustrated by FED (Fanny de Mole) and published in London in 1861. It is one of about 100 copies printed.