The pre-eminent prize for "original published research that contributes to the history of Australia or New Zealand or to the history of colonisation in these countries." Awarded since 1943, the prize is named in honor of Ernest Scott, regarded as the first historian of Australian historiography, and was endowed by his wife, Emily Scott. The winner is announced each year at the Kathleen Fitzpatrick Lecture, awarded a prize of $13,000 and invited to give the Ernest Scott Lecture at the University of Melbourne. Applicants must be publishers and the work must have been published in the preceding two calendar years. Winners must "live in Australia or New Zealand or the respective external territories [of either country]." There are two judges.[1]
The prize is typically awarded to one historical writer, although it has been shared between two people and two books nine times. Seven people have won the Ernest Scott Prize twice, including one person who won the prize for two books in the same year (1959). One historian, Alan Atkinson, won the prize three times. The prize has been won by 35 men and 13 women historians, and three non-white historians.
Numerous winners of the prize are part of the Scott lineage, a teacher-undergraduate student chain of historians stretching back to Scott himself. Among the future prize winners Scott taught were Manning Clark, W. K. Hancock and Geoffrey Serle; Clark taught Weston Bate, Ken Inglis, Geoffrey Blainey and Graeme Davison; Blainey taught Janet McCalman and Stuart Macintyre.
| Winner | Publisher | Book | Year awarded | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shannyn Palmer[2] | Melbourne University Press | Unmaking Angas Downs: Myth and history on a Central Australian pastoral station | 2024 | |
| Alan Atkinson[3] | NewSouth | Elizabeth and John: The Macarthurs of Elizabeth Farm | 2023 (shared) | |
| Rachel Buchanan | Bridget Williams Books | Te Motunui Epa | 2023 (shared) | |
| Lucy Mackintosh | Bridget Williams Books | Shifting Grounds: Deep Histories of Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland | 2022 (shared) | |
| Janet McCalman | The Miegunyah Press | Vandemonians: The Repressed History of Colonial Victorians | 2022 (shared) | |
| Hirini Kaa | Bridget Williams Books | Te Hāhi Mihinare – The Māori Anglican Church | 2021 (shared) | |
| Grace Karskens | Allen & Unwin | People of the River | 2021 (shared) | |
| Michelle Arrow | NewSouth | The Seventies: The Personal, The Political and the Making of Modern Australia | 2020 | |
| Billy Griffiths | Black Inc. | Deep Time Dreaming: Uncovering Ancient Australia | 2019 | |
| Michael Belgrave | Auckland University Press | Dancing with the King: The Rise and Fall of the King Country, 1864-1885 | 2018 | |
| Tom Griffiths | Black Inc. | The Art of Time Travel: Historians and Their Craft | 2017 | |
| Stuart Macintyre | NewSouth | Australia's Boldest Experiment: War and Reconstruction in the 1940s | 2016 | |
| Alan Atkinson | UNSW Press | The Europeans in Australia: Volume 3: Nation | 2015 (shared) | |
| Tom Brooking | Penguin Books, Auckland | Richard Seddon, King of God's Own: The Life and Times of New Zealand's Longest- Serving Prime Minister | 2015 (shared) | |
| Angela Wanhalla | Auckland University Press | Matters of the Heart. A History of Interracial marriage in New Zealand | 2014 | |
| Melissa Bellanta | University of Queensland Press | Larrikins: A History | 2013 | |
| Damon Salesa | Oxford University Press | Racial Crossings: Race, Intermarriage, and Victorian British Empire | 2012 | |
| Jim Davidson | UNSW Press | A Three‐cornered Life: The Historian W.K. Hancock | 2011 (shared) | |
| Emma Christopher | Allen & Unwin | A Merciless Place: the lost story of Britain's convict disaster in Africa and how it led to the settlement of Australia | 2011 (shared) | |
| Bain Attwood | The Miegunyah Press | Possession: Batman's Treaty and the Matter of History | 2010 | |
| Henry Reynolds & Marilyn Lake | Melbourne University Press | Drawing the Global Colour Line: White Men's Countries and the Question of Racial Equality | 2009 (joint) | |
| John Fitzgerald | UNSW Press | Book Big White Lie: Chinese Australians in White Australia | 2008 | |
| Regina Ganter | University of Western Australia | Mixed Relations: Asian‐Aboriginal Contact in North Australia | 2007 | |
| Joy Damousi | UNSW Press | Freud in the Antipodes: A Cultural History of Psychoanalysis in Australia | 2006 | |
| Alan Atkinson | Oxford University Press | The Europeans in Australia: A History: Democracy | 2005 | |
| Judith Brett | Cambridge University Press | Australian Liberals and the Moral Middle Class: from Alfred Deakin to John Howard | 2004 | |
| Philip Temple | Auckland University Press | A Sort of Conscience: The Wakefields | 2003 | |
| Tony Hughes‐D’Aeth | Melbourne University Press | Paper Nation: The Story of the Picturesque Atlas of Australasia 1886‐1888 | 2002 (shared) | |
| James Belich | Penguin Press | Paradise Reforged: A History of the New Zealanders from the 1880s to the Year 2000 | 2002 (shared) | |
| David Walker | University of Queensland Press | Anxious Nation: Australia and the Rise of Asia 1850‐1939 | 2001 | |
| Ken Inglis | Melbourne University Press | Sacred Places. War Memorials in the Australian Landscape | 1999 | |
| Anne Salmond | University of Hawaii Press | Between Worlds. Early Exchanges between Maoris and Europeans, 1773‐1815 | 1998 | |
| Tom Griffiths | Cambridge University Press | Hunters and Collectors: the Antiquarian Imagination in Australia | 1996-97 | |
| David Goodman | Allen & Unwin | Gold Seeking Victoria and California in the 1850s | 1994-95 | |
| Judith Brett | Macmillan Australia | Robert Menzies' Forgotten People | 1992-93 | |
| Anne Salmond | University of Hawaii Press | Two Worlds: First Meetings Between Maori and European 1642‐1772 | 1990-91 | |
| Alan Atkinson | Oxford University Press | Camden: Farm and Village Life in Early New South Wales | 1988-89 | |
| Patrick O'Farrell | UNSW Press | The Irish in Australia | 1986-87 | |
| Janet McCalman | Melbourne University Press | Struggletown: Public and Private Life in Richmond 1900‐1965 | 1984-85 | |
| Ken Inglis | Melbourne University Press | This is the ABC: The Australian Broadcasting Commission 1932‐1983 | 1982-83 | |
| Henry Reynolds | James Cook University | The Other Side of the Frontier: An Interpretation of the Aboriginal Response to the Invasion and Settlement of Australia | 1980-81 | |
| Graeme Davison | Melbourne University Press | The Rise and Fall of Marvellous Melbourne | 1978-79 (shared) | |
| Weston Bate | Melbourne University Press | Lucky City: The First Generation at Ballarat 1851‐1951 | 1978-79 (shared) | |
| John Rickard | ANU Press | Class and Politics: New South Wales, Victoria and the Early Commonwealth, 1890‐1910 | 1976-77 | |
| Max Crawford | Sydney University Press | A Bit of A Rebel: The Life and Work of George Arnold Wood | 1974-75 | |
| John La Nauze | Melbourne University Press | The Making of the Australian Constitution | 1972-73 | |
| Geoffrey Serle | Melbourne University Press | The rush to be rich : a history of the colony of Victoria, 1883‐1889 | 1970-71 (shared) | |
| Paul Hasluck | Australian War Memorial | The Government and the People 1942‐45 Australian War Memorial | 1970-71 (shared) | |
| Manning Clark | Melbourne University Press | A History of Australia Vol 2: New South Wales and Van Dieman's Land 1822‐1838 | 1968-69 | |
| Douglas H Pike | Melbourne University Press | Australian Dictionary of Biography ‐ Vols. 1 & 2 | 1966-67 | |
| John La Nauze | Melbourne University Press | Alfred Deakin: A biography | 1964-65 | |
| Geoffrey Serle | Melbourne University Press | The Golden Age: A History of the Colony of Victoria 1851‐61 | 1962-63 (shared) | |
| Manning Clark | Melbourne University Press | A History of Australia, Vol. 1, from the Earliest Times to the Age of Macquarie | 1962-63 (shared) | |
| Bernard Smith | Oxford University Press | European vision and the South Pacific, 1768‐1850 : a study in the history of art and ideas | 1960-61 | |
| Keith Sinclair | Penguin & New Zealand University Press | A History of New Zealand & The Origin of the Maori Wars | 1958-59 (shared) | |
| Russel Ward | Oxford University Press | The Australian Legend | 1958-59 (shared) | |
| Geoffrey Blainey | Melbourne University Press | The Peaks of Lyell | 1955 | |
| J. S. Gregory | University of Melbourne | Thesis: Church and state in Victoria (1851‐72) : a study in the development of secular principles of government as revealed by the abolition of State aid to religion and to denominational education in Victoria | 1952 | |
| A. H. McLintock | Otago Centennial Publications | History of Otago: The Origins and Growth of a Wakefield Class Settlement | 1949 | |
| J. D. Legge | University of Melbourne/University of Oxford | Thesis: Survey of Papuan Administration | 1946 | |
| Joy E. Parnaby | University of Melbourne | Thesis: Sir Charles Gavan Duffy in Victoria | 1943 |
This biennial award has been named for A. W. Martin[4] (1926–2002) and is administered jointly by the Australian National University and the Australian Historical Association. The award is to encourage "early career historians" for work relating to Australian History.[5] Submissions for this award are those prepared for publication and can be in any form, e.g. a monograph, a series of academic articles, an exhibition or documentary film, or some mix of these. Seven women and six men have won the prize, with one non-white winner.[6]
| Winner | Book / Project | Year awarded | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rohan Howitt | Undiscovering Emerald Island: Phantom Islands and Environmental Knowledge in Australia’s Southern Ocean World, 1821–1930 | 2023 | |
| Ben Huf | The Economy Is Not A Theory: The Politics of Prosperity in Australia | 2023 | |
| Xu Daozhi | Chinese Perspectives on Indigenous People in Chinese Australian Newspapers, 1894-1937 | 2022 | |
| Annemarie McLaren | When the Strangers Come to Stay: Aboriginal-Colonial Exchanges and the Negotiation of New South Wales, 1788-1835 | 2021 | |
| Alexandra Dellios | Remembering Migrant Protest and Activism: the Migrant Rights Movement in pre-Multicultural Australia | 2020 (shared) | |
| Mike Jones | Culture, common law, and science: representing deep human history in Australian museums | 2020 (shared) | |
| André Brett | Scars in the Country: An Enviro-Economic History of Railways in Australasia, 1850–1914 | 2019 (shared) | |
| Iain Johnston-White | The Dominions and British Maritime Power in the Second World War | 2019 (shared) | |
| Peter Hobbins | An intimate pandemic: Fostering community histories of the 1918–19 influenza pandemic centenary | 2018 | |
| Benjamin Mountford | A Global History of Australian Gold | 2017 | |
| Ruth Morgan | Australindia: Australia, India and the Ecologies of Empire, 1788–1901 | 2016 | |
| Amanda (now Andy) Kaladelfos | Immigration, Violence and Australian Postwar Politics | 2014 | |
| Melissa Bellanta | Racial Crossings: Race, Intermarriage, and Victorian British Empire | 2012 | |
| Not awarded | "No application of sufficient merit was received." | 2010 | |
| Fred Cahir | Black gold: aboriginal peoples and gold in Victoria 1850-1870 | 2008 | |
| Not awarded | Reason unknown | 2006 | |
| Maria Nugent | Botany Bay: Where Histories Meet | 2004 |
The publishers, Blackwell Publishing Asia, have sponsored a prize for the best postgraduate paper at a Regional Conference.
The AHA information states that the "prize will be judged on two criteria: 1) oral presentation of the paper 2) written version of the conference paper. The written version of the conference paper (not a longer version) is to be submitted at the start of the conference. The winner of the prize will be announced at the close of the conference."[7]
Melissa Bellanta (University of Sydney) for Raiders of the Lost Civilisation, or, Adventure-Romances of the Australian Desert, 1890-1907, and
Nell Musgrove (University of Melbourne) for Private Homes, Public Scrutiny: Surveillance of 'the family' in postwar Melbourne
The WK Hancock Prize is run by Australian Historical Association (AHA)[8] with the Department of Modern History, Macquarie University. It was instituted in 1987 in honour of Sir Keith Hancock and his life achievements.
The award is for the first book of history by an Australian scholar and for research using original sources. It is awarded biennially for a first book published in the preceding two years with the award presented at the AHA's National Biennial Conference.
Mary Anne Jebb for Blood, Sweat and Welfare: a History of White Bosses and Aboriginal Pastoral Workers (UWA Press, 2002)citation
Warwick Anderson for The Cultivation of Whiteness: Science, Health and Racial Destiny in Australia (Melbourne University Press, 2002)https://web.archive.org/web/20070709215223/http://www.theaha.org.au/HANCOCK%20PRIZE%20CITATION%202004.doc
John Connor for The Australian Frontier Wars: 1788-1838 (University of New South Wales Press)
Brigid Hains for The Ice and the Inland: Mawson, Flynn, and the Myth of the Frontier (Melbourne University Press)
Maria Nugent for Botany Bay: Where Histories Meet (Allen & Unwin, 2005)
Sue Taffe for Black and White Together, FCAATSI 1958-1972 (UQP, 2005)
Robert Kenny for The Lamb enters the Dreaming: Nathaniel Pepper and the Ruptured World (Scribe Publications, 2007)
Tracey Banivanua-Mar for Violence and Colonial Dialogue: The Australian-Pacific Indentured Labor Trade (University of Hawaii Press, 2007)
Dr Natasha Campo for From Superwomen to Domestic Goddesses: the rise and fall of Feminism Peter Lang, 2009
Dr Clare Corbould for Becoming African Americans" Black Public Life in Harlem, 1919-1939 Harvard University Press, 2009[9]
Frances M Clarke for War Stories: Suffering and Sacrifice in the Civil War North
Ian Coller for Arab France: Islam and the Making of Modern Europe, 1798-1831
Michael L. Ondaatje for Black Conservative Intellectuals in Modern America[10]
Janet Butler for Kitty's War: The Remarkable Wartime Experiences of Kit McNaughton (University of Queensland Press, 2013)
Adam Clulow for The Company and The Shogun: The Dutch Encounter with Tokugawa Japan (Columbia University Press, 2014)[11]
Ruth Morgan for Running Out? Water in Western Australia (UWA Publishing, 2015)
Miranda Johnson for The Land Is Our History: Indigeneity, Law, and the Settler State (Oxford University Press)[12]
Laura Rademaker for Found in Translation: Many Meanings on a North Australian Mission (University of Hawai’i Press)[13]
Jason Gibson, Ceremony Men: Making Ethnography and the Return of the Strehlow Collection (SUNY Press)[14]
The Jill Roe Prize is awarded annually to a postgraduate student for the best unpublished article of historical research. It was inaugurated in 2014 in honour of the late Jill Roe.
The John Barrett Award for Australian Studies is for the best written article published in the Journal of Australian Studies, in the categories: the best article by a scholar (open) and the best article by a scholar (post-graduate).
John Barrett Award: Open Category
John Barrett Award: Postgraduate Category
Inaugurated in 2004, this award is named for Kay Daniels (1941–2001),[24] historian and public servant,[25] and recognises her interest in colonial and heritage history.
The biennial award will be administered by The Australian Historical Association.
The Serle Award was first presented in 2002. The award was established through the generosity of Mrs Jessie Serle for the historian Geoffrey Serle (1922–1998).[29]
The Serle Award is for the best thesis by an "early career researcher" and will be payable on receipt of publisher's proofs, which must be within twelve months of notification of the award. The biennial award will be administered by The Australian Historical Association.
| Winner | University | Thesis | Year awarded | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Karen Twigg | La Trobe University | Along Tyrrell Creek: An Environmental History of a Mallee Community | 2022 | |
| Annemarie McLaren | Australian National University | Negotiating Entanglement: Reading Aboriginal- Colonial Exchanges in Early New South Wales, 1788 – 1835 | 2020 | |
| Anne (now Yves) Rees | Australian National University | Travelling to Tomorrow: Australian Women in the United States, 1910–1960 | 2018 | |
| Laura Rademaker | Australian National University | Language and the Mission: Talking and Translating on Groote Eylandt, 1943–1973 | 2016 | |
| Carolyn Holbrook | University of Melbourne | The Great War in the Australian Imagination Since 1915 | 2014 | |
| Bill Garner | University of Melbourne | Land of Camps: The Ephemeral Settlement of Australia | 2012 | |
| Simon Sleight | Monash University | The Territories of Youth: Young People and Public Space in Melbourne, c.1870-1901 | 2010 | |
| Marina Larsson | La Trobe University | The Burdens of Sacrifice: War Disability in Australian Families 1914–1939 | 2008 | |
| Jessie Mitchell | Australian National University | Flesh, Dreams and Spirit: Life on Aboriginal Mission Stations 1825–1850 A History of Cross-Cultural Connections | 2006 | |
| Bartolo Ziino | University of Melbourne | A Distant Grief: Australians, War Graves and the Great Wa | 2005 |