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The Victorian Community History Awards were presented online on the 27th of October by Public Record Office Victoria in partnership with the Royal Historical Society of Victoria. See below for the full list of winners and commendations:

Victorian Premier's History Award

  • WINNER Ablaze – A Feature Documentary by Alec Morgan, Tiriki Onus and Tom Zubrycki 

Judges' Special Prize 

  • WINNER For the Fallen: The 1921-1922 Melbourne Public Library Mural Competition within the setting of Decorative Painting in Australian Art by Paul Paffen
  • WINNER Under the Rainbow: The Life and Times of EW Cole by Richard Broinowski 

History Publication Award winner and commendations

  • WINNER In the Shadow of the Prom by Michael McCarthy 
  • Labassa: House of Dreams by Vicki Shuttleworth (for the National Trust of Australia VIC)
  • Changing Fortunes – Ebb and Flow of People and Place in a Pocket of Port Melbourne by David F. Radcliffe
  • Made in Lancashire: A Collective Biography of Assisted Migrants from Lancashire to Victoria 1852-1853 by Richard Turner
  • Jas A Munro & Co: The Largest Garage in Melbourne by Ian Berg 
  • Save Our Sons: Women, Dissent and Conscription During the Vietnam War by Carolyn Collins

Local History Small Publication Award winner and commendations

  • WINNER Places of Reconciliation: Commemorating Indigenous History in the Heart of Melbourne by Sarah Pinto 
  • Little Lon by Andrew Kelly, Illustrators Heather Potter and Mark Jackson
  • One Hundred Years in the Making: Box Hill RSL 1920-2020 by Steven Cooke
  • Dwellers of Fisherman’s Flat by Maggie Stowers 

Community Diversity Award winner and commendations

  • WINNER On Taungurung Land: Sharing History and Culture by Roy Henry Patterson, Jennifer Jones
  • Albert Pompey Austin: A Man Between Two Worlds by Roy Hay 
  • Victoria’s Transgender History by Noah Riseman and Transgender Victoria 
  • Blak Cook Book: New Cultural Perspectives on Cooks’ Cottage (A Set of Provocations) by Clare Land, Paola Balla & Kate Golding (Authors), Letterbox (Designer), City of Melbourne 

Digital Storytelling Award winner and commendations

  • WINNER A Miscarriage of Justice by Atalanti Dionysus / Atalanti Films 
  • Eastern Market Murder by Emma Ramsay and Andy Yong (True Crime Games)
  • Ordinary People in Extraordinary Circumstances: “The Missing” by Fred Cahir, Lucinda Horrocks & Jary Nemo with Federation University, Wind & Sky Productions, Australian Red Cross Society and Ballarat RSL 
  • Through Childhood Eyes: Hidden Stories of World War Two by Way Back When Consulting Historians, Russell Goldsmith, and City of Port Phillip 
  • Beats, Ballads and Ballrooms: Darebin Live Music Venues 1955-2020 by Iain McIntyre, Kirstyn Lindsay, and Teishan Ahearne 

Collaborative Community History Award winner and commendations

  • WINNER A History of LGBTIQ+ Victoria in 100 Places and Objects by Graham Willett, Angela Bailey, Timothy W Jones & Sarah Rood (For Australian Queer Archives)
  • Wadawurrung Country by Wadawurrung Aboriginal Corporation and National Wool Museum
  • Unmasked: Celebrating Nursing and Midwifery, Victoria and Beyond by Her Place Women’s Museum Australia with Dr Madonna Grehan, Professor Odette Best, and Penelope Lee 

Oral History Award winner and commendations

  • WINNER End of an Era: The Last Gippsland Lakes Fishermen by Lynda Mitchelson-Twigg, representing the Gippsland Lakes Commercial Fishing Community, assisted by Nikki Henningham, Leigh Henningham, Tanya King, Donna Squire and Geoff Stanton 
  • COVID Kids Oral History Project by Way Back When Consulting Historians 
  • In the Eye of the Storm: Volunteers and Australia’s Response to the HIV/AIDS Crisis by Robert Reynolds, Shirleene Robinson, and Paul Sendziuk 
  • Understanding Through Testimony, Jewish Holocaust Centre  

Local History Project Award winner and commendations

  • WINNER Victorian CEDT Index by Chinese Australian Family Historians of Victoria (CAFHOV)
  • The Geelong Honours Them Project, Geelong Regional Library Corporation – Geelong Heritage Centre

Historical Interpretation Award winner and commendations

  • WINNER Finding Fanny Finch by Commonplace Productions (Bill Garner and Sue Gore) with Kacey Sinclair, Alice Garner, Pat Furze and the Band Friends of Wendy Cotton 
  • On the Land: Our Story Retold, National Wool Museum, City of Greater Geelong 
  • Stories of Chinese ANZAC and Chinese Australian WWII Soldiers, Museum of Chinese Australian History 

History Article Award winner and commendations

  • WINNER The Rise and Fall of Lady Gillott in Melbourne’s Turn-of-the-Century Society by Barbara Minchinton 
  • Kurrburra (Koala) the Boonwurrung Wirrirrap and Bard (1797-1849) – A Man of High Degree by Ian D. Clark, Rolf Schlagloth, Fred (David) Cahir, and Gabrielle McGinnis
  • Family History and the Long View of the Great War by Fiona Gatt 
  • ‘The Dreaded Pneumonic Influenza Has Made its Appearance Amongst Us’: The Influenza Pandemic of 1918-19 in Gippsland, Victoria by Erik Eklund 
  • The Architecture of Manufacturing: Design for Making in Post-War Victoria by Philip Goad 

Watch the award ceremony here:

Resources:

For more information on the Victorian Community History Awards, or to request any changes or additions to this page, email Tara Oldfield at media@prov.vic.gov.au

The Victorian Community History Awards are supported by the Victorian Government through the Community Support Fund. 

 

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