Australasian workshop on combinatorial algorithms (editorial)

The nine papers collected in this special issue are a distillation of 30 papers, including eight invited ones, presented at the 17th Australasian Workshop on Combinatorial Algorithms, held 13-19 July 2006 at Ayres Rock (Uluru), a world heritage site in Australia's Northern Territory. The workshop attracted about 35 participants from universities in more than a dozen different countries. AWOCA has been held every year but one since 1989, mostly in Australia, but also in Korea (once) and Indonesia (three times).