This dataset comprises catch compositions and trawl locations from 35 cruises of Russian fishery research vessels carried out in Australian waters between March 1965 and April 1978, containing some 4000 demersal trawls, mostly on the Australian continental shelf, in particular the Great Australian Bight, Australian North West Shelf, and the Gulf of Carpentaria, but also on the east and west coasts, in Bass Strait, and around Tasmania. Most records include catch composition by species (presence/absence but not weight), also some data on length frequency, maturity and diet of commercially important species. The dataset is an aggregate dataset from cruises of the vessels Berg-1, Berg-2, Seskar, Raduga, Lira, Berg-3, Korifei, Sutchan, Pr. Deruygin, Prometey, SETM 8-449, Alba, Poseidon, Equator, Shantar, Bacaevo, Kamensky, Tichookeanscy, Pulk. Meridian and Mys Tichy. The data were obtained by exchange with Soviet scientists in the mid 1990s and has had CSIRO species codes incorporated. The dataset is now in an Oracle database in Hobart, and analyses/summaries of the data are given in the accompanying report (see References). A MS Access version of the dataset has been compiled for use within the North West Shelf-JEMS study. This version is available on-line for researchers in the NWS-JEMS study (see data links). A username and password is required to access this copy of the data.