Chief Minister's Northern Territory History Book Award - Past Winners

The Chief Minister's Northern Territory History Book Award has recognised the efforts and talents of historians and writers since 2004.

YearWinners and Finalists
2024

Winner: Jakarda Wuka (Too Many Stories): Narratives of Rock Art from Yanyuwa Country in Northern Australia's Gulf of Carpentaria by li-Yanyuwa li-Wirdiwalangu (Yanyuwa Elders), Liam M Brady, John Bradley, and Amanda Kearney.

Highly Commended: Murli la: Songs and Stories of the Tiwi Islands by the Ngarukuruwala Women's Group with Genevieve Campbell.

Highly Commended: Tiwi Story: Turning History Downside Up by Mavis Kerinaiua and Laura Rademaker.

Finalist: Connecting the North: From the Diaries of the Overland Telegraph Expeditioners by Andrew Crouch.

Finalist: Darwin: Survival of a City the 1890s by Derek Pugh.

Finalist: Our Voices from the Heart by Professor Megan Davis and Patricia Anderson AO.

2023

Winner: Unmaking Angas Downs: Myth and History on a Central Australian Pastoral Station, by Shannyn Palmer.

Highly Commended: Telling Tennant's Story: The Strange Career of the Great Australian Silence, by Dean Ashenden.

Finalist: Wild Dogs of Song: The Palmerston (Darwin) Dingo Glee Club, 1895-1905, by Paolo Fabris and Steven Farram.

2022

Winner: Return to Uluru, by Mark McKenna.

Highly Commended: Writing in the Sand, by Matt Garrick.

Finalist: The History of the Northern Territory Stolen Generations, by Maisie Austin.

Finalist: Too Much Cabbage and Jesus Christ, by Catherine Bishop.

Finalist: Living in Hope; the complete memoirs of Frank Byrne, by Frank Byrne. 

2021

Winner: The Bible in Buffalo Country: Oenpelli Mission 1925-1931, by Sally May, Laura Rademaker, Donna Nadjamerrek & Julie Narndal Gumurdul.

Highly Commended: The Cummings Family: Family, Belonging and Connection to Country, by Maisie Austin and Matthew Stephen.  

Finalist: Port Essington: The British in North Australia 1838-49, by Derek Pugh.

Finalist: Power and Protection: The contest between the Government Residents and the medical Protectors of the Aborigines in South Australia’s Northern Territory, by Brian Reid.  : Oenpelli Mission 1925-1931

2019

Winner: Northern Dreams: The Politics of Northern Development in Australia by Lyndon Megarrity

Finalist: Found in Translation: Many Meanings on a North Australian Mission by Laura Rademaker
Finalist: Teaching "proper" drinking? Clubs and pubs in Indigenous Australia by Maggie Brady

Honourable Mention: Forgotten Country: A Short History of Central Australia by Alan Powell

Honourable Mention: Olive Pink: Artist, Activist and Gardener by Gillian Ward

Honourable Mention: Walking with camels - the story of Bertha Strehlow by Leni Shilton

2018

Winner: Stubborn City: Darwin 1911-1978 by Kathy De La Rue

Finalist: Charles James Kirkland: The Life and Times of a Pioneer Newspaperman in the Top End of Australia by Steven Farram
Finalist: The Intrepid Hilda Abbott: Author, Designer, Red Cross Officer, Political Wife, 1890-1984, by Pam Oliver
Finalist: Tjungunutja: from having come together by Sid Anderson, John Kean, Professor Fred R Myers, Lisa Nolan, Dr Benedict Scambary, Luke Scholes, Long Jack Phillipus Tjakamarra, Michael Nelson Tjakamarra, Joseph Jurrah Tjapaltjarri, Bobby West Tjupurrula, Desmond Phillipus Tjupurrula and Margie West

Honourable Mention: Quincy and the Sheriff by Robyn Smith

2017

Winner: Alice Springs: From Singing Wire to Iconic Outback Town by Stuart Traynor

Finalist: Remember Me Kindly: A History of the Holtze Family in the Northern Territory by Deborah Bisa
Finalist: Masters and Servants: Cultures of Empire in the Tropics by Claire Lowrie
Finalist: A Handful of Sand: The Gurindji Struggle, After the Walk-Off by Charlie Ward

2016

Winner: The Pearl Frontier: Indonesian Labor and Indigenous Encounters in Australia's Northern Trading by Julia Martinez and Adrian Vickers

Finalist: Silent Pearls: Old Japanese Graves in Darwin and the History of Pearling by John Lamb
Finalist: Different White People: Radical Activism for Aboriginal Rights 1946 – 1972 by Deborah Wilson

Honourable Mention: Gulf Country Songbook: Yanyuwa, Marra, Garrwa and Gudanji by Karin Riederer, Yanyuwa, Marra, Garrwa and Gudanji families

2015

Winner: Radar Gunner by Dick Dakeyne

Finalist: Warning by Sophie Cunningham
Finalist: A History Written in Metal: Commemorative Plaques at Charles Darwin University’s Casuarina Campus 1972-2013 by Stephen Farram

2014

Winner: Maningrida: A History of the Aboriginal Township in Arnhem Land by Helen Bond Sharp

Finalist: Carrier Attack Darwin 1942: The Complete Guide to Australia’s Own Pearl Harbour by Dr Tom Lewis and Peter Ingham
Finalist: Antecedents: The History of Ward Keller by Dr Robyn Smith

2013

Winner: Tiwi: Art, History, Culture by Jennifer Isaacs
Winner: A Wild History: Life and Death on the Victoria River Frontier by Darrell Lewis

Finalist: The Flash of Recognition: Photography and the Emergence of Indigenous Rights by Jane Lydon
Finalist: Defending Whose Country? Indigenous Soldiers in the Pacific War by Noah Risema

2012

Winner: Great Central State: The Foundation of Northern Territory by Jack Cross
Winner: Darwin Spitfires: The Real Battle for Australia by Anthony Cooper

Finalist: Gumbuli of Ngukurr: Aboriginal Elder in Arnhem Land by Murray Seiffert

2011

Winner: No Place Like Home by Dr Mickey Dewar

Finalist: Northern Voyagers: Australia’s Monsoon Coast in Maritime History by Alan Powell
Finalist: Contact Zones: Sport and Race in the Northern Territory, 1869-1953 by Matthew Stephen
 

2010Winner: An Awkward Truth by Peter Grose
2009Winner: Lives of the Papunya Tula Artists by Vivien Johnson
Winner Yalangbara: Art of the Djang’kawu by Banduk Marika and the Rirratjingu clan, edited by Margie West
 
2008

Winner: Ochre and Rust by Philip Jones

Finalist: Alone on the Soaks by Alex Kruger and Gerrard Waterford 
Finalist: Australia's Muslim Cameleers by Philip Jones and Anna Kenny
Finalist: Australia's Northern Secret: Tourism in the Northern Territory by Baiba Berzins
Finalist: In the Name of the Law by Robert Foster and Amanda Nettlebeck
Finalist: An Intruder's Guide to East Arnhem Land by Andrew McMillan
Finalist: The Murranji Track by Darrel Lewis

2007

Winner: Empty North: The Japanese Presence and Australian Reactions 1860s to 1942 by Dr Pam Oliver

Finalist: Through Chinese Eyes: The Chinese Experience in the Northern Territory 1874-2004 by Glenice Yee
Finalist: Darby: One Hundred Years in a Changing Culture by Liam Campbell

2006

Winner: Frontier Justice: A History of the Gulf Country to 1900 by Tony Roberts

Finalist: Southport Northern Territory 1869-2002 by Marge Duminski
Finalist: Paint Me Black by Claire Henty-Gebert
Finalist: People of the Victoria River Region: An Album by Pearl Ogden
 

2005

Winner: Paddy Cahill of Oenpelli by John Mulvaney

Finalist: The Evolution of Darwin 1869-1911 by Kathy de la Rue
Finalist: The Diary of Emily Caroline Creaghe, Explorer edited by Peter Monteath 
 

2004

Winner: Acclimatisation: Architecture at the Top End of Australia by David Bridgman

Finalist: Tom and Jack: A Frontier Story by Geraldine Byrne
Finalist: Their Way: Towards an Indigenous Warlpiri Christianity by Ivan Jordan
Finalist: The Menzies School of Health Research: Establishment, 1978-1997 by Brian Reid