The 2008 Prime Minister's Prize for Australian History
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Sixty two nominations were received of works published in 1 January 2007 and 31 December 2007. 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. |
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The joint winning publications. |
Two writers were jointly awarded the Prime Minister’s Prize for Australian History 2008. Tom Griffiths was awarded joint first place for Slicing the Silence: Voyaging to Antarctica, along with Robert Kenny for The Lamb Enters the Dreaming: Nathanael Pepper and the Ruptured World. The Prize comprised an embossed gold medallion and a tax free grant of $100,000.
The joint winners (far right: Dr Robert Kenny and Professor Tom Griffiths) with members of the Advisory Committee (from left-right: Mr Bill Burmester, Dr John Hirst and Adjunct Professor Margo Neale).
In addition to the joint winners, a further three nominations were shortlisted:
- John Fitzgerald for Big White Lie: Chinese Australians in White Australia
- Philip Jones for Ochre and Rust: Artefacts and Encounters on Australian Frontiers, and
- Paul Rudd, Stephen Amezdroz, Tony Wright, Wain Fimeri and Matthew Thomason for Captain Cook: Obsession and Discovery.
Further information about the announcement of winners and judging comments on the shortlisted works is available at Prime Minister's Prize for Australian History 2008 media release.
Advisory Committee
The 2008 Prime Minister’s Prize for Australian History Advisory Committee were:
- 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.