We present the first results of a blind \ion H1 survey for galaxies in the southern Zone of Avoidance with a multibeam receiver on the Parkes telescope .
This survey is eventually expected to catalog several thousand galaxies within Galactic latitude |b| < 5 \arcdeg , mostly unrecognised before due to Galactic extinction and confusion .
We present here results of the first three detections to have been imaged with the Australia Telescope Compact Array ( ATCA ) .
The galaxies all lie near Galactic longitude 325 \arcdeg and were selected because of their large angular sizes , up to 1 \fdg 3 .
Linear sizes range from 53 to 108 kpc .
The first galaxy is a massive 5.7 \times 10 ^ { 11 } { M } _ { \sun } disk galaxy with a faint optical counterpart , SGC 1511.1–5249 .
The second is probably an interacting group of galaxies straddling the Galactic equator .
No optical identification is possible .
The third object appears to be an interacting pair of low column density galaxies , possibly belonging to an extended Circinus or Centaurus A galaxy group .
No optical counterpart has been seen despite the predicted extinction ( A _ { B } = 2.7 – 4.4 mag ) not being excessive .
We discuss the implications of the results , in particular the low \ion H1 column densities ( \sim 10 ^ { 19 } ~ { } { atoms cm } ^ { -2 } ) found for two of the three galaxies .