In "Lake Illawarra: an ongoing history", Joseph Davis provides a wide-ranging environmental and historical biography of the lake and its foreshores. The book also contains many images and photographs depicting the lake. Davis edited "John Brown of Brownsville: his manuscripts, letterbook and the records of Dapto Show Society 1857-1904" that deals with the man who did most to protect the vegetation of the lake islands, and he authored "Gooseberry & Hooka: the island reserves of Lake Illawarra 1829-1947", the latter examining the records of John Brown and others and deals with the history of these two islands and how they survived to become nature refuges rather than recreation reserves.