The Prime Minister's Prize for Australian History

2008 Prime Minister’s Prize for Australian History Advisory Committee

The 2008 Prime Minister’s Prize for Australian History Advisory Committee members are:

Chair - Emeritus Professor Deryck Schreuder, Chair of the Board, Australian Universities Quality Agency, a scholar of modern international history with a special interest in colonial and post-colonial societies
Dr Michelle Arrow, Lecturer, Department of Modern History, Macquarie University, an historian of popular culture, who presented the ABC TV series Rewind
Mr Bill Burmester, Deputy Secretary, Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations
Dr John Hirst, Emeritus Scholar, La Trobe University, a scholar of Australian social and political history with particular interests in convict society, federation and the history of Australian democracy
Adjunct Professor Margo Neale, Senior Research Fellow, Senior Curator and Principal Advisor to the Director on Indigenous matters at the National Museum of Australia; and Adjunct Professor, Australian Centre for Indigenous History, Australian National University.

The Advisory Committee will recommend a shortlist of nominated works to the Prime Minister.

Closing of Nominations

Nominations for the 2008 Prime Minister’s Prize for Australian History closed on 20 January 2008.

2008 Prime Minister’s Prize for Australian History

The 2008 Prime Minister's Prize for Australian History will be awarded to an individual or a group, for an outstanding publication or body of work that contributes significantly to an understanding of Australian history. The Prize comprises an embossed gold medallion and a tax free grant of $100,000.

The subject of works submitted could include, but is not limited to:

historical events;
historical figures (including biographies); and
work covering a particular subject.

Eligible nominations can include a published book, a documentary film, a documentary for radio or television, CD-ROM, DVD, other form of multimedia or a series of these works. Nominations for the 2008 Prize must have been first published, produced or broadcast between 1 January 2007 and 31 December 2007.

Nominations for the 2008 round of the Prime Minister's Prize for Australian History closed at 5:00 pm on 20 January 2008.

Further information is available below:

2008 Prime Minister’s Prize for Australian History Nomination Guidelines PDF Document (198.8 KB)
2008 Prime Minister’s Prize for Australian History Nomination Guidelines RTF (69.8 KB)

2008 Prime Minister’s Prize for Australian History Application Form PDF Document (187.2 KB)
2008 Prime Minister’s Prize for Australian History Application Form RTF (37.3 KB)

For further information contact the Secretariat at pmhistoryprize@deewr.gov.au

Inaugural Prime Minister's Prize for Australian History

The recipients of the inaugural Prime Minister’s Prize for Australian History were announced at a luncheon event at Parliament House on 20 June 2007:

Les Carlyon for “The Great War”; and
Peter Cochrane for “Colonial Ambition: Foundations of Australian Democracy”.

The winners have each received an embossed gold medallion and share a grant of $100,000. Two other works were short-listed for consideration:

David Branagan for “TW Edgeworth David: A Life”;
Josephine Flood for “The Original Australians: Story of the Aboriginal People”.

In addition, there was special mention of the contribution of two further works to our understanding of Australia’s artistic and political history. These commendations were for Geoffrey Bardon and James Bardon for their work “Papunya: A Place Made After the Story” and to various authors for a group of works nominated as part of the “Sesquicentenary of Responsible Government in New South Wales 1856-2006”.

One hundred and thirty nominations were received for 151 different works (four of the nominations were for series of works) for the inaugural Prize round. Nominations included biographical works, histories of institutions and groups of people, chronicles of events, thematic explorations and much more. Nominations were presented in a wide range of media including books, DVDs, CD-ROMS, websites and other multimedia works.

The overall standard of nominations was very high and indicates the breadth and excellence of contemporary research in Australian history.

Further information on the four short-listed finalists is also available
four short-listed finalists PDF Document (448.4 KB)
four short-listed finalists RTF (31.3 KB)

Further information is available below.

The former Prime Minister’s presentation speech – 20 June 2007 You are now leaving the DEST website