presents the first detailed theoretical calculation of the absorption spectrum of sr out of the 5s/sup 2/ /sup 1/s/sub 0/ ground state. the autoionisation region below the 5p/sub 3/2/ threshold is investigated, photoionisation cross sections being calculated by combining the multichannel quantum defect theory (mqdt) with the eigenchannel r-matrix method. small-scale variational r-matrix calculations enable one to evaluate ls-coupled short-range reaction matrices. a jj-coupled reaction matrix is then deduced using a geometrical frame transformation. diagonalisation of this matrix gives the energy-dependent mqdt parameters required for the description of the 13 relevant interacting channels. the 13-channel mqdt model built with theoretical r-matrix parameters provides an accurate description of the positions and the shapes of the 4d/sub 3/2,5/2/np, nf and 5p/sub 1/2,3/2/ns, nd j=1 autoionising lines. particular attention is paid to high lying resonances observed near the spin-orbit split 4d/sub 3/2,5/2/ and 5p/sub 1/2,3/2/ thresholds