From the 2000 Awards, the categories of Historical and Critical Studies and Special Award were combined into a Non-fiction category with two awards presented in this category. To see past winners link to Historical and Critical Studies and Special Award.

2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 | 2001

2006

Rob Riley: an Aboriginal Leader’s Quest for Justice - Quentin Beresford
Aboriginal Studies Press
This is much more than the biography of one of the Nyoongah people’s best-known modern day leaders. It is a passionate analysis of a lifetime of political activism, a powerful and compelling story revealing how Riley’s childhood experiences had a profound effect on his adult life. As an activist he struggled not only against the intransigence and ignorance of federal and state governments, but also his critics within the Nyoongah community. They resented his public profile attained through his fearless advocacy of justice for his people – whether he was opposing police violence and intimidation, the intolerance of a rapacious mining community, or resistance to the concept of native title. Riley lost more battles than he won; however, as Quentin Beresford explains in this magisterial study, he gained enormous respect in the Western Australian and national communities for his tireless advocacy on behalf of indigenous Australians.

Arthur Tange: Last of the Mandarins - Peter Edwards
Allen & Unwin
Sir Arthur Tange was one of Australia’s most powerful and influential public servants, working with a succession of Prime Ministers from Chifley to Fraser. A man of great intellectual capacity, who was always willing to give ‘frank and fearless advice’ to ministers on both sides of politics, in this life story Peter Edwards explores Tange’s private life and public career, including his role in reforming two major Departments of State. He headed the first, External Affairs, from 1953 to 1965, then after a five-year interlude as High Commissioner to India was in charge of Defence from 1970 to 1979. Today the organization of both departments still bears his imprint. In this elegantly written study Edwards convincingly argues that Tange was one of the most influential of those mandarins, Dr H C Coombs among them, who guided Australia’s development in the mid-twentieth century.

2005

Mussolini’s Italy: Life Under the Dictatorship 1915-1945 - Richard Bosworth
(Allen Lane/Penguin)
One of the best known scholars of Italy’s modern history, Richard Bosworth has written a carefully constructed analysis of the forging and ultimate destruction of Italy’s interwar fascist society. He skilfully combines national, regional and local perspectives, while also introducing ordinary Italians’ experiences of life during Mussolini’s dictatorship. Hence Bosworth never allows the oppressiveness of this totalitarian state to stifle the voices of the people, many of whom mocked and ridiculed their leader’s regime, while they adapted to, and exploited, it.

Soul of the Desert - Philippa Nikulinsky and Stephen D Hopper
(Fremantle Arts Centre Press)
Between them, botanical artist Nikulinsky and scientist Hopper explore some of the state’s least-known regions. While Hopper explains the history of the land, its geology, wildlife and people, Nikulinsky brings it to life through her exquisite paintings of the flora and fauna. Together they dispel the myth of deserts as barren lands devoid of life, showing the extraordinary diversity of plants and animals which survive in a seemingly hostile environment. Their passion for their work is evident in this important and beautiful book.

2004

Conversations with the Constitution - Greg Craven
University of New South Wales Press
Judges' Comments
The job of making the Australian Constitution a lively and interesting topic was a tall order, as Craven admits. Nevertheless, he tackles it with gusto, producing an entertaining and sometimes irreverent look at the issues, from federalism to executive powers, and the main players, from politicians to the judiciary. He concludes that, though it may not be universally loved, the Constitution has served us well and will continue to do so.

Redbill: From Pearls to Peace - The Life and Times of a Remarkable Lugger - Kate Lance
Fremantle Arts Centre Press
Judges' Comments
Built in 1903 for the Broome pearling industry, Redbill went on to an eventful life that spanned nearly a century and some major historical events. It was requisitioned by the navy during World War II, took part in Greenpeace protests in the Pacific, and was used to raise funds for the East Timorese. At various times it was crewed by troubled teenagers, crocodile farmers, ecologists and others who all fell under its spell. One of those captivated was Lance, who chronicles with warmth and affection its remarkable adventures.

2003

Old Fremantle - John Dowson
University of Western Australia Press
Judges' Comments
In his Preface John Dowson says that, "Western Australia is poorly represented in the major histories of Australian photography," and he insists that his book "is not a comprehensive history of Fremantle." But Old Fremantle is much more than an enthusiast's portfolio of pictures dating from the time of the introduction of photography to Western Australia. John Dowson guides the reader through the 1850-1950 development of the port city with exquisite and engaging photographs accompanied by precise and accessible text. The book uses images from the past to brilliantly illuminate the social history of old Fremantle.

Shadow Lines - Stephen Kinnane
Fremantle Arts Centre Press
Judges' Comments
The shadow lines of the title are, Stephen Kinnane says, "wide lines of negotiation that we all use to make sense of our differences, and our interconnections." The author tells the story of his maternal grandmother, a Miriwoong woman from the Kimberley, and his grandfather, an Englishman. In tracing their unconventional union, Stephen Kinnane begins to explore his own identity, an exploration bisected on various axes - racial (black/white), cultural (British/Australian) and geographical (Miriwoong/Noongar country). This is a moving account by an accomplished writer of disrupted lives under pressure, and of the triumph of the spirit of individuals over paternalistic official repression.

2002

Mussolini - Richard Bosworth
Edward Arnold
Judges' Comments
This is a major literary accomplishment, as well as an extraordinary biography of a perplexing and paradoxical personality and an internationally significant contribution to an understanding of Mussolini's role in history. It is a massive work of substance, of historical research and analysis, and yet is readily accessible to the lay reader. The work may well enter the lore of works that become a yardstick by which other biographies are measured. Drawing upon original sources, in both English and Italian, Bosworth's book is a triumph of scholarly research, human endeavour, extraordinary commitment and passionate belief in the power of historical narratives. It is a hefty book that will nevertheless emerge as something of a bestseller among those interested in Fascism, the Second World War, and the dynamics of power. Its Western Australian author has already been acknowledged as making an immense contribution to the international debate on the meaning of Mussolini to twentieth-century politics.

Out of the Desert: Stories from the Walmajarri Exodus - by the Walmajarri storytellers, and edited by Joyce Hudson, Pat Lowe and Eirlys Richards
Magabala Books
Judges' Comments
The storytellers of the Walmajarri people of the Great Sandy Desert have preserved elements of their recent history in this splendid bi-lingual publication. They have done so in a unique way: by combining traditional-style art, photographs and written accounts in both Walmajarri and English they have produced a book marked by attention to detail and quality of production. Generations to come will have a vibrant cultural and historical record of the Walmajarri move from the desert and its effects. It is an important work which establishes a picture of a people whose practical focus is on the provision of food, water and shelter. Beyond this the storytellers take us through to their first, often unhappy, contacts with white people, and to a situation where their original culture is almost lost. The stories chronicle the slow disintegration of a traditional life-style and culture, the Walmajarri people's resignation to white dominance and finally acceptance of some of the positive features of that encounter. Although the stories will resonate with those familiar with the history of colonisation of indigenous people, there is something wonderfully unique, personal, and engaging here. For the Walmajarri people themselves, the very act of telling these stories captures and gives voice to a past that has been so often denied them.

2001

The White Divers of Broome - John Bailey
Macmillan
Judges' Comments
Bailey uses the techniques of a novelist to bring to life archival research in his examination of the ways in which White Australia went out of its way to handle what it felt was a stain on the nation: the use of Malays, Japanese and other non-whites as pearl divers in Broome. This, it was alleged, signified an undesirable crack in the sanctified conception of the White Australia Policy. The book offers a wonderful insight into a panic-ridden nation on matters of race and miscegenation even as it re-creates the narrative with immense dramatic force and immediacy. A wonderful read, this work captures and maintains the reader's interest throughout.

Blue China: Single Female Migration to Colonial Australia - by Jan Gothard
Melbourne University Press
Judges' Comments
Jan Gothard's book is an invaluable contribution to our knowledge of the migration of single women to Australia between 1850 and 1900. This is a carefully researched book that makes the transition from thesis to book remarkably well. At once readable and informative, the book also lays to rest some erstwhile myths about the reasons behind single female migration. Furthermore, the importation of women workers as commodities whose use value was directed towards maintaining bourgeois values of family and nation (by both men and middle-class establishment women) is one of many theoretical insights of this book. This is an important work that has grown out of a meticulous reading of an historical archive about a marginalised but numerically very significant group of migrants.

2000

Into the Wadi - Michèle Drouart
Fremantle Arts Centre Press
Judges' Comments
A rare and illuminating insight into the cross-cultural marriage of a Western woman and a Jordanian man. It is a work that neither uncritically celebrates nor condemns, but traces in fine detail and with great sensitivity the daily lives and cultural practices of the extended family into which the narrator has married. However, even as the narrator accommodates and understands, the relationship becomes strained. This painful awareness is recounted without acrimony and with the unusual understanding that her husband in a Western country would have had similar difficulties. A moving, metaphorical account, often rendered with a fiction writer's detached point of view, that reminds us that examination of cultural difference need not relapse into the crude stereotypes of orientalism. A brilliant antidote, moreover, to the "Western woman's escape from the barbaric Arab world" genre of popular weeklies.

The Shark Net: Memories and Murder - Robert Drewe
Viking
Judges' Comments
A superbly structured work written with the skill of a seasoned writer of fiction. Drewe brings to life the sleepy fifties and early sixties of Perth where a serial killer disturbs the serenity of people who never locked their doors. The narrator enters the scene of murder through his own boyhood recollections and produces a magnificent account of a city wracked by fear. Drewe weaves together his own story with that of the multiple murderer, Cook, who was active in the immediate environment in which he grew up. The writing is direct, the story easy to read. Yet one is aware, finally, of the great gulf between generations, as the child grows up to inhabit a world undreamed of by his parents. A work of non-fiction that is as strong as any work of fiction on the subject.