Discoveries in Australia is a two volume account of the voyages of H. M. S. Beagle by the coasts of Australia, written by Admiral Stokes, an officer in the Royal Navy who served on the Beagle for close to eighteen years. The work covers the expedition by command of the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty which took place from 1837 to 1843 and provides accounts of exploring and surveying coasts and rivers of the continent. Travel reports are supplemented with records of new spices of fish, reptiles and insects. The book also contains a narrative of Captain Owen Stanley and his visits to the islands in the Arafura Sea.

John Lort Stokes (1811-1885) was an officer in the Royal Navy who travelled on HMS Beagle for close to eighteen years. From 1831 to 1836 Stokes served under FitzRoy as assistant surveyor for the second voyage of Beagle, and shared his cabin with Charles Darwin who was on board in a private capacity as a self-funded naturalist.