Home  |  2011 Fiction Finalists  |  2011 Non-Fiction Finalists  |  2011 Poetry Finalists  |  Past Winners

Past titles: Non-Fiction


Book2010

Ten Hail Marys;
Kate Howarth [CATEGORY WINNER]

Shortlist

Flying with Paper Wings; Sandy Jeffs
Listening to Country; Ros Moriarty
The Lost Mother; Anne Summers
Otherland; Maria Tumarkin


Book2009

Down to the Crossroads: On the Trail of the 2008 US Election;
Guy Rundle [CATEGORY WINNER]

Shortlist

The Tall Man: Death and Life on Palm Island; Chloe Hooper
Darwin's Armada: How Four Voyagers to Australasia won the Battle for Evolution and Changed the World; Iain McCalman
The Red Highway; Nicolas Rothwell
Gough Whitlam: A Moment in History; Jenny Hocking


Book2008

American Journeys;
Don Watson [THE AGE BOOK OF THE YEAR WINNER]

Shortlist

I am Melba; Ann Blainey
Van Diemen's Land; James Boyce
An Exacting Heart: The Story of Hephzibah Menuhin; Jacqueline Kent
A Family History of Smoking; Andrew Riemer


Book2007

Colonial Ambitions: Foundations of Australian Democracy;
Peter Cochrane [THE AGE BOOK OF THE YEAR WINNER]

Shortlist

Back from the Brink: How Australia's Landscape Can Be Saved; Peter Andrews
The Great War; Les Carlyon Slicing the Silence: Voyaging to Antarctica; Tom Griffiths
Unpolished Gem; Alice Pung


Book2006

Velocity: A Memoir;
Mandy Sayer [CATEGORY WINNER]

Shortlist

A Trial Separation: Australia and the Decolonisation of Papua New Guinea; Donald Denoon
The Weather Makers: The History and Future of Climate Change; Tim Flannery
Thunder from the Silent Zone: Rethinking China; Paul Monk
Florence Broadhurst: Her Secret and Extraordinary Lives; Helen O'Neill


Book2005

Plenty: Digressions on Food;
Gay Bilson [THE AGE BOOK OF THE YEAR WINNER]

Shortlist

A Certain Maritime Incident: The Sinking of SIEV X; Tony Kevin
Leaving Year Zero: Stories of Surviving Pol Pot's Cambodia; Richard Lunn
In Tasmania; Nicholas Shakespeare
Pig City: From the Saints to Savage Garden;
Andrew Stafford


Book2004

A Death in Brazil;
Peter Robb [CATEGORY WINNER]

Shortlist

Inside Out; Robert Adamson
Einstein's Heroes; Robyn Arianrhod
Dancing with Strangers; Inga Clendinnen
Car Wars; Graeme Davison


Book2003

Charles Conder: The Last Bohemian;
Ann Galbally [CATEGORY WINNER]

Shortlist

The Philosopher's Dog; Raimond Gaita
Broken Song: T.G.H.Strehlow and Aboriginal Possession; Barry Hill
Black Sheep: Journey to Borroloola; Nicholas Jose
Pushing Times Away: A Memoir; Peter Singer


Book2002

Recollections of a Bleeding Heart;
Don Watson [THE AGE BOOK OF THE YEAR WINNER]

Shortlist

Gallipoli; Les Carlyon
Stasiland; Anna Funder
Carpet Wars; Christopher Kremmer
An Indelible Stain; Henry Reynolds


Book2001

The Life and Myth of Charmian Clift;
Nadia Wheatley [CATEGORY WINNER]

Shortlist

The White Divers of Broome; John Bailey
The Colonial Earth; Tim Bonyhady
Broken Circles; Anna Haebich
The Essence of Capitalism; Humphrey McQueen


Book2000

Craft for a Dry Lake;
Kim Mahood [CATEGORY WINNER]

Shortlist

Tiger's Eye; Inga Clendinnen
A Better Woman; Susan Johnson
Stravinsky's Lunch; Drusilla Modjeska


Book1999

Sacred Places. War Memorials in the Australian Landscape;
Ken Inglis [THE AGE BOOK OF THE YEAR WINNER]

Shortlist

Ngarrindjeri Wurruwarrin; Diane Bell
White Nation: Fantasies of White Supremacy in a Multicultural Nation; Ghassan Hage
Frontier Lands and Pioneer Legends; Pamela Lukin Watson
Sex and Suffering. Women's Health and a Women's Hospital; Janet McCalman
Sins of the Brother; Mark Whittaker & Les Kennedy


Book1998

The Reds;
Stuart McIntyre [CATEGORY WINNER]

Shortlist

South of My Days; Veronica Brady
Romulus, My Father; Raimond Gaita
Sister, Sister; Anna Rosner Blay


Book1997

Snake Cradle;
Roberta Sykes [THE AGE BOOK OF THE YEAR WINNER]

Shortlist

The Europeans in Australia; Alan Atkinson
The Fiftieth Gate; Mark Baker


Book1996

Robin Boyd: A Life;
Geoffrey Serle [CATEGORY WINNER]

Shortlist

Keating: The Inside Story; John Edwards
Hunters and Collectors: The Antiquarian Imagination in Australia; Tom Griffiths
Spaces in Her Day: Australian Women's Diaries of the 1920s and 1930s; Katie Holmes
The Christesen Romance; Judith Armstrong


Book1995

The Future Eaters;
Tim Flannery [CATEGORY WINNER]

Shortlist

The First Stone; Helen Garner
Bearbrass; Robyn Annear
One Summer, Every Summer; Gideon Haigh
Good Times, Hard Times; Mark Peel


Book1994

Lyrebird Rising;
Jim Davidson [CATEGORY WINNER]

Shortlist

Georgiana; Brenda Niall
Noel Counihan : Artist and Revolutionary; Bernard Smith
Rose Scott; Judith Allen


Book1993

Journeyings;
Janet McCalman [CATEGORY WINNER]

Shortlist

Christina Stead; Hazel Rowley
Take Me to Paris, Johnny; John Foster


Book1992

A Fence Around the Cuckoo;
Ruth Park [CATEGORY WINNER]

Shortlist

Wards of the State; Robert Adamson
Tell Me I'm Here; Anne Deveson
Waterloo Creek; Roger Milliss
Inside Outside; Andrew Riemer


Book1991

Patrick White. A Life;
David Marr [THE AGE BOOK OF THE YEAR WINNER]

Shortlist

Sitting in; Barry Hill
My Strange Friend; David Martin
The Seeds of Time; Christopher Sexton


Book1990

Blessed City;
Gwen Harwood [THE AGE BOOK OF THE YEAR WINNER]

Shortlist

Poppy; Drusilla Modjeska
Australians at Home; Terence Lane & Jessie Serle


Book1989

Mariners Are Warned!;
Marsdern Horden [THE AGE BOOK OF THE YEAR WINNER]

Shortlist

Don't Take your Love to Town; Ruby Langford
Martin Boyd: A Life; Martin Boyd
My Father's Son; Ric Throssell
Puzzles of Childhood; Manning Clark


Book1988

Big-Noting;
Robin Gerster [CATEGORY WINNER]

Shortlist

Louisa; Brian Matthews
Survival in Our Own Land; Christobel Mattingley and Ken Hampton
Paradise Found and Lost; Oskar Spate
Two Centuries of Panic: A History of Corporate Collapses in Australia; Trevor Sykes


Book1987

The Fatal Shore;
Robert Hughes [CATEGORY WINNER]

Shortlist

Arthur Phillip: His Voyaging; Alan Frost
Limits of Hope: Soldier Settlement in Victoria, 1915 – 1938; Marilyn Lake
Whole Life; an Autobiography; Morris Lurie
Where's Morning Gone?; Barney Roberts


Book1986

George Johnston: A Biography;
Garry Kinnane [CATEGORY WINNER]

Shortlist

The Soldiers' Story; Terry Burstall
The War Diaries of "Weary" Dunlop; E.E. Dunlop
Plankton's Luck; Mungo MacCallum
Heroes; John Pilger


Book1985

Mapping the Paddocks;
Chester Eagle [CATEGORY JOINT WINNER]
Vietnam: A Reporter's War;
Hugh Lunn [CATEGORY JOINT WINNER]

Shortlist

Memory Ireland; Vincent Buckley
A Knockout with a Slouch Hat; T. A. G. Hungerford
Valley People; Jim Marwood
Raffaelo! Raffaelo!; Desmond O'Grady
The Moon Man; E.M. Webster


Book1984

H.B. Higgins: The Rebel as Judge;
John Rickard [CATEGORY WINNER]

Shortlist

Punishment Short of Death; Margaret Hazzard
Struggletown; Janet McCalman
Will Dyson; Ross McMullin
Wild Man of Letters'; Craig Munro
The Boy Adeodatus; Bernard Smith
Gilbert Murray; Francis West


Book1983

A History of Tasmania. Vol. 1;
Lloyd Robson [CATEGORY WINNER]

Shortlist

Full Fathom Five; Mary Albertus Bain
Shackleton's Forgotten Argonauts; Lennard Bickel
Cutting Green Hay; Vincent Buckley
Sons in the Saddle; Mary Durack
Against the Stream; A. F. Howells
This is the ABC; Ken Inglis


Book1982

John Monash: A Biography;
Geoffrey Serle [CATEGORY WINNER]

Shortlist

Robert Hawke; Blanche d'Alpuget
The Golden Age of Australian Opera; Harold Love
Gods and Politicians; Bruce Grant
France Australe; Leslie Marchant


Book1981

A Million Wild Acres;
Eric Rolls [THE AGE BOOK OF THE YEAR WINNER]

Shortlist

Trial Balance; H.C. Coombs
Annie's Coming Out; Rosemary Crossley and Anne McDonald
A Fortunate Life; A. B. Facey
Rebels and Procursors; Richard Hase


Book1980

Shortlist

Whirlwinds in the Plain; E. M. Webster
Henry Parkes; A. W. Martin


Book1979

Shortlist

Ernest Giles: Explorer and Traveller 1835 – 1897; Ray Ericksen
Weevils in the Flour; Wendy Lowenstein
This Bed My Centre; Ellen Newton
The Spanish Lake; O. H. K. Spate


Book1978

The Anzacs;
Patsy Adam-Smith [THE AGE BOOK OF THE YEAR WINNER]

Shortlist

A History of Australia Vol. IV; Manning Clark
Mediator; Blanche d'Alpuget
Australia's Founding Mothers; Helen Heaney
Going it Alone; Bill Mandle
A Nation for a Continent; Russel Ward
The Secret State; Richard Hall
Die Like the Carp; Harry Gordon


Book1977

A Certain Grandeur;
Graham Freudenberg [THE AGE BOOK OF THE YEAR WINNER]

Shortlist

Mucking About; Sir Paul Hasluck
Ruling Class, Ruling Culture; R. W. Connell
Lament for the Barkindji; Bobbie Hardy
Bairnsdale; Hal Porter


Book1976

Capitalism, Socialism and the Environment;
Hugh Stretton [THE AGE BOOK OF THE YEAR WINNER]

Shortlist

Cape Solitary; Ray Ericksen
A Time for Building; Paul Hasluck
Lion and Kangaroo; Gavin Souter


Book1975

Shortlist

Native Companions; A. D. Hope
T. J. Ryan; D. J. Murphy


Book1974

A History of Australia, Vol 111;
Manning Clark [THE AGE BOOK OF THE YEAR WINNER]

Shortlist

A Drift of Things; Roland Robinson
Norman Lindsay: The Embattled Olympian; John Hethering
Wild Life of Eastern Australia; Stanley and Kay Breeden