Attempts have been made to prepare alumina fibre from the colloidal sol and polymerized alkoxides. The aluminium chloride or aluminium nitrate systems were found to be potential methods for producing continuous alumina fibre; the aluminium nitrate system had a better sintering behaviour than the aluminium chloride system. The aluminium isopropoxide system, however, was unsuitable for preparing alumina fibre but was suitable for the preparation of monoliths, membranes, powders, and multicomponent ceramics. The thermal changes of these precursors were studied by transmission electron microscopy, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction. The results demonstrated the different routes of phase transformation as the temperature increases. The aluminium chloride system exhibits two routes for phase transformation : (a) boehmite --> gamma --> delta --> theta --> alpha-Al2O3, and (b) gibbsite --> chi --> kappa --> alpha-Al2O3.