The National Book Council Banjo Awards were presented by the National Book Council of Australia from 1974 to 1997 for works of fiction and non-fiction.

History

The inaugural awards were given in 1974 or 1975. The name commemorates the

bush poet The bush ballad, bush song, or bush poem is a style of poetry and folk music that depicts the life, character and scenery of the Australian bush. The typical bush ballad employs a straightforward rhyme structure to narrate a story, often one of ...

Andrew Barton

Banjo Paterson Andrew Barton "Banjo" Paterson, (17 February 18645 February 1941) was an Australian bush poet, journalist and author, widely considered one of the greatest writers of Australia's colonial period. Born in rural New South Wales, Paterson worke ...

. The Council has enjoyed notable leadership, including Justice Michael Kirby and Michael Fraser (1991–1998). Many notable Australian writers have been recipients for this award, including Peter Carey,

Tim Winton Timothy John Winton (born 4 August 1960) is an Australian writer. He has written novels, children's books, non-fiction books, and short stories. In 1997, he was named a Living Treasure by the National Trust of Australia, and has won the ...

, Alan Gould, Liam Davison, Sally Morrison, and Roger McDonald. In 1978

Helen Garner Helen Garner (née Ford, born 7 November 1942) is an Australian novelist, short-story writer, screenwriter and journalist. Garner's debut novel, first novel, ''Monkey Grip (novel), Monkey Grip'', published in 1977, immediately established her ...

was the first woman to win the award for her novel Monkey Grip. The current Banjo Paterson Writing Award, established in 1991, is separate from the above awards, although similarly aims to commemorate the work of Banjo Paterson.

Winners

Winners include:

Fiction

1975 It was also declared the ''International Women's Year'' by the United Nations and the European Architectural Heritage Year by the Council of Europe. Events January * January 1 – Watergate scandal (United States): John N. Mitchell, H. R. ...

William Nagle for ''

The Odd Angry Shot ''The Odd Angry Shot'' is a 1979 Australian war film written, directed and produced by Tom Jeffrey (with Sue Millikin). It is based on the book of the same title by William Nagle, and follows the experiences of Australian soldiers during the ...

'' *

1978 Events January * January 1 – Air India Flight 855, a Boeing 747 passenger jet, crashes off the coast of Bombay, killing 213. * January 5 – Bülent Ecevit, of Republican People's Party, CHP, forms the new government of Turkey (42nd ...

for '' Monkey Grip'' *

1981 Events January * January 1 ** Greece enters the European Economic Community, predecessor of the European Union. ** Palau becomes a self-governing territory. * January 6 – A funeral service is held in West Germany for Nazi Grand Admiral ...

David Foster David Walter Foster (born November 1, 1949) is a Canadian record producer, composer, arranger, and musician. He has won 16 Grammy Awards from 47 nominations. His career began as a keyboardist for the pop group Skylark in the early 1970s befor ...

for ''Moonlight'' *

1982 Events January * January 1 – In Malaysia and Singapore, clocks are adjusted to the same time zone, UTC+8 (GMT+8.00). * January 13 – Air Florida Flight 90 crashes shortly after takeoff into the 14th Street Bridge in Washington, D.C. ...

Peter Carey for ''

Bliss BLISS is a system programming language developed at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) by W. A. Wulf, D. B. Russell, and A. N. Habermann around 1970. It was perhaps the best known system language until C debuted a few years later. Since then, C ...

'' *

1985 The year 1985 was designated as the International Youth Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** The Internet's Domain Name System is created. ** Greenland withdraws from the European Economic Community as a result of a n ...

Peter Carey for ''

Illywhacker ''Illywhacker'' is a novel by Australian writer Peter Carey. It was published in 1985 to commercial and critical success, winning a number of awards and being short-listed for the Booker Prize. Considered metafiction or magical realism, the n ...

'' *

1988 1988 was a crucial year in the early history of the Internet—it was the year of the first well-known computer virus, the Morris worm, 1988 Internet worm. The first permanent intercontinental Internet link was made between the United State ...

Maurice Lurie for ''Whole Life'' *

1989 1989 was a turning point in political history with the "Revolutions of 1989" which ended communism in Eastern Bloc of Europe, starting in Poland and Hungary, with experiments in power-sharing coming to a head with the opening of the Berlin W ...

Peter Carey for ''

Oscar and Lucinda ''Oscar and Lucinda'' is a novel by Australian author Peter Carey. It won the 1988 Booker Prize the year it was released, and the 1989 Miles Franklin Award. It was shortlisted in 2008 for The Best of the Booker, in celebration of the prize's ...

'' *

1990 Important events of 1990 include the Reunification of Germany and the unification of Yemen, the formal beginning of the Human Genome Project (finished in 2003), the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope, the separation of Namibia from South ...

Thea Welsh for ''The Story of the Year of 1912 in the Village of Elza Darzins'' *

1991 It was the final year of the Cold War, which had begun in 1947. During the year, the Soviet Union Dissolution of the Soviet Union, collapsed, leaving Post-soviet states, fifteen sovereign republics and the Commonwealth of Independent State ...

Glenda Adams Glenda Emilie Adams (née Felton; 30 December 1939 – 11 July 2007) was an Australian novelist and short story writer, probably best known as the winner of the 1987 Miles Franklin Award for '' Dancing on Coral''. She was a teacher of creative ...

for '' Longleg'' and

for ''

Cloudstreet ''Cloudstreet'' is a novel by Australian writer Tim Winton published in 1991. It chronicles the lives of two working-class families, the Pickles and the Lambs, who come to live together in a large house called Cloudstreet in Perth, Western Au ...

'' *

1992 1992 was designated as International Space Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 – Boutros Boutros-Ghali of Egypt replaces Javier Pérez de Cuéllar of Peru as United Nations Secretary-General. * January 6 ** The Republ ...

Alan Gould for ''To the Burning City'' *

1993 The United Nations General Assembly, General Assembly of the United Nations designated 1993 as: * International Year for the World's Indigenous People The year 1993 in the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands had only 364 days, since its ...

Liam Davison for ''Soundings'' *

1994 The year 1994 was designated as the " International Year of the Family" and the "International Year of Sport and the Olympic Ideal" by the United Nations. In the Line Islands and Phoenix Islands of Kiribati, 1994 had only 364 days, omitti ...

Elizabeth Jolley Monica Elizabeth Jolley (4 June 1923 – 13 February 2007) was an English-born Australian writer who settled in Western Australia in the late 1950s and forged an illustrious literary career there. She was 53 when her first book was published, ...

for '' The Georges' Wife'' *

1995 1995 was designated as: * United Nations Year for Tolerance * World Year of Peoples' Commemoration of the Victims of the Second World War This was the first year that the Internet was entirely privatized, with the United States government ...

Sally Morrison for ''Mad Meg'' *

1996 1996 was designated as: * International Year for the Eradication of Poverty Events January * January 8 – A Zairean cargo plane crashes into a crowded market in the center of the capital city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo ...

Rod Jones for ''Billy Sunday'' *

1997 Events January * January 1 – The Emergency Alert System is introduced in the United States. * January 11 – Turkey threatens Cyprus on account of a deal to buy Russian S-300 missiles, prompting the Cypriot Missile Crisis. * January 1 ...

Brian Castro Brian Albert Castro (born 1950) is an Australian novelist and essayist. Early life and education Castro was born at sea, between Macau and Hong Kong, in 1950. His father was of Spanish, Portuguese, and English descent, and born in Shanghai. His ...

for ''Stepper''

Non-fiction

* 1978 Kevin Gilbert for ''Living Black: Blacks Talk to Kevin Gilbert'' (1977) * 1981 Albert Facey for '' A Fortunate Life'' * 1988

Manning Clark Charles Manning Hope Clark, (3 March 1915 – 23 May 1991) was an Australian historian and the author of the best-known general history of Australia, his six-volume ''A History of Australia'', published between 1962 and 1987. He has been descri ...

for ''History of Australia, Volume Six'' * 1990 Steve Hawke & Michael Gallagher for ''Noonkambah: Whose Land, Whose Law'' * 1991 Drusilla Modjeska for ''Poppy'' * 1992 David Marr for ''Patrick White: A Life'' and Roger Milliss for ''Waterloo Creek: The Australia Day Massacre of 1838, George Gipps and the British Conquest of New South Wales'' * 1993 Roger McDonald for ''Shearers' Motel'' * 1994 Hazel Rowley for ''Christina Stead: A Biography'' (1994) * 1995

Peter Singer Peter Albert David Singer (born 6 July 1946) is an Australian moral philosopher who is Emeritus Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University. Singer's work specialises in applied ethics, approaching the subject from a secu ...

for ''Rethinking Life and Death'' * 1996 Henry Reynolds

Notes

Notable shortlisted authors include: *

Matthew Condon Matthew Condon (born 1962) is a prize-winning Australian writer and journalist. Biography Educated at the University of Queensland and the Goethe Institute, Bremen, Germany, he is the author of ten novels and short story collections, includin ...

, in 1992 for ''Usher'' and in 1995 for The Ancient Guild of Tycoons, *

Robert Dessaix Robert Dessaix (born 1944), also known as Robert Jones, is an Australian novelist, essayist and journalist. Early life and education Robert Dessaix was born in Sydney, Australia, and was adopted at an early age by Tom and Jean Jones, after w ...

for '' A Mother's Disgrace'' in 1994. * Garry Disher for ''The Sunken Road'' in 1996. *

Richard Flanagan Richard Miller Flanagan (born 1961) is an Australian writer, who won the 2014 Man Booker Prize for his novel ''The Narrow Road to the Deep North (novel), The Narrow Road to the Deep North'' and the 2024 Baillie Gifford Prize for ''Question 7'', ...

for ''

Death of a River Guide ''Death of a River Guide'' is a 1994 novel by Australian author Richard Flanagan. ''Death of a River Guide'' was Flanagan's first novel. Synopsis As Aljaz Cosini lies dying at the bottom of a river in Tasmania he starts to experience a series of ...

'' (1995) *

David Foster (novelist) David Manning Foster is an Australian novelist and scientist. He has written a range of satires on the theme of the decline of Western civilization and produced short stories, poetry, essays, and several radio plays. Early life and education ...

for '' The Glade Within the Grove'', 1996 * Rodney Hall for ''Captivity Captive'' in 1989 and '' The Grisly Wife'' in 1994. *

Marion Halligan Marion Mildred Halligan Order of Australia, AM (16 April 1940 – 19 February 2024) was an Australian writer and novelist. She authored twenty-three books, including fiction, short-fiction, and non-fiction. Her novel ''Lovers' Knots'' (1992) won ...

for ''Spider Cup'' in 1990 and ''Lovers' Knots: A Hundred-Year Novel'' in 1993 * Susan Johnson (Australian author) ''A Big Life'' (1993); *

Alex Miller Alex Miller (born 4 July 1949) is a Scottish football manager and former player. As a player, he had a 15-year career with Rangers, winning several trophies. As a manager, he won the 1991–92 Scottish League Cup with Hibernian. He subsequen ...

for ''

The Ancestor Game ''The Ancestor Game'' is a 1992 Miles Franklin literary award-winning novel by the Australian author Alex Miller. Abstract Writer Steven Muir, August Spiess and his daughter Gertrude, work together to understand the puzzle of Lang Tzu, an exi ...

'' (1993)

References

{{Reflist Australian fiction awards Australian non-fiction book awards 1997 disestablishments in Australia 1974 establishments in Australia Banjo Paterson

History

Winners

Fiction

Non-fiction

Notes

See also

References