Banjo Paterson Writing Awards

From The Orange Wiki

Current revision as of 23:17, 8 August 2023

Winners of the 2009 Childrens' Banjo Paterson Writing Awards at the Banjo Paterson Sculpture

Banjo Paterson was born on February 17, 1864 at Narrambla, near Orange in Central West NSW and from 1991, each year, the city has held the Banjo Paterson Writing Awards to honour this great Australian writer (1864 – 1941). He is most famous for penning the words to Waltzing Matilda and The Man From Snowy River. The awards are announced launched each year on the anniversary of Banjo's birth (17 February) and close in April with winners announced in August at the annual Orange Readers and Writers Festival. Introduced by the Banjo Paterson Committee and Orange City Council, the awards are now supported by Central West Libraries.

The overall winner in the first year was Mrs Heather Bird of Roseville, New South Wales, who travelled to Orange for the Awards presentation. Mrs Bird’s story, entitled ‘A Sash with Tassels’, was about a city woman who travelled to the country to receive second prize in a writing competition – so she would have been very pleased to have actually gone home with first prize.

The Awards attract interest from all over Australia and overseas and are of a consistently high standard. They are held in conjunction with the ABC Central West Banjo Paterson Children’s Writing Awards. From 2008 the Yvonne Zola Encouragement Award was presented to an entrant in the Children's Awards in memory of the late Yvonne Zola, a local teacher and champion of childrens' writing.

WINNERS OF BANJO PATERSON WRITING AWARDS 1991-2023

POETRY

• 1991 One winner only – see Prose
• 1992 One winner only – see Prose
• 1993 One winner only – see Prose
• 1994 Katrina Iffland
• 1995 Anne Fairbairn “High Country Dreaming”
• 1996 Ron Stevens “Appearances”
• 1997 David Astle “Collecting the Spoken”
• 1998 Peter Hanbury “Reconciliation”
• 1999 Anne Morgan “An Unknown Wreck: Macquarie Island”
• 2000 Louise Oxley “Memorial”
• 2001 Hylda Rolfe “For an old lady”
• 2002 Jennifer Martiniello “Emily Knwarreye”
• 2003 Roger Vickery “Recollections of an Old Town”
• 2004 Judy Johnson “A Whaler’s Wife at Sea”
• 2005 Judy Johnson “The Last Days of Mary Watson”
• 2006 Judy Johnson “How Australia’s Last Manned Lighthouse Knows her Keeper”
• 2007 David Campbell “Lifeblood”
• 2008 Jo Mills “Walyunga”
• 2009 Judy Johnson "The Bushranger's Bible"
• 2010 Brenda Saunders "Wonderland"
• 2011 Jo Mills"Orpheus in the Desert"
• 2012 Helen Thurloe "Host"
• 2013 Jim Cassidy - "The Blacksmith"
• 2014 Margaret Bradstock "Leichhardt as Headland"
• 2015 Margaret Bradstock "The Black Line"
• 2016 Joanne Mills "Emu Girl, on the day before flying"
• 2017 Margaret Bradstock "The Little Explorer's Diary"
• 2018 Roger Vickery "Jukurrpa on bark"
• 2019 David Taylor "Water Soul"
• 2020 Joanne Mills "Aurora Australis"
• 2021 Mark O'Flynn "Interesting times we could all do without"
• 2022 John Scholz "Steeple"
• 2023 Jonathan Cant

PROSE

• 1991 Heather Bird “A Sash with Tassels”
• 1992 Kit Denton "Porpoise"
• 1993 Bruce Roberts “The Gun or the Vet”
• 1994 Ashley Hay
• 1995 Simon Luckhurst “Signs of Life”
• 1996 Peter Hanbury “As Joey Sees It”
• 1997 David Astle “Blood Tree”
• 1998 Georgia Richter “The Bracken War”
• 1999 Angela Malone “Fiddle Song”
• 2000 Pat Skinner “Cake Forks at Lake Titicaca”
• 2001 Tom Flood “The Old Trails”
• 2002 Tracylee Arestides "South Gate Road"
• 2003 Erin Gough “Jump”
• 2004 Barry Divola “Nipple”
• 2005 Barry Divola “Cicada Boy”
• 2006 Barry Divola “Nixon”
• 2007 Joanne Riccioni “Mrs Taylor Gets a Tattoo”
• 2008 Margaret Betts "Exposure"
• 2009 Peter W Bishop "Lukey"
• 2010 Jacqueline Winn "The Dangers of Swimming"
• 2011 Brian Yatman "The Magpie Lucky Dip"
• 2012 Jim Kent "Midwife"
• 2013 Kamille Roach "Pilbara Ash"
• 2014 Thomas McPherson "Cricket Woes"
• 2015 Margaret Betts "Caged"
• 2016 Dean Briggs "Flashes in the Pan"
• 2017 John Scholz "Movement at the Station"
• 2018 Stephen D'Arcy "Arthur Peters The Bard of Creswick"
• 2019 Paul Clarke "Dave & Mackie"
• 2020 Jaclyn Riley-Smith "Literally the worst"
• 2021 Carmel Lillis "Laughing Like Children"
• 2021 Sagamba Muhira and James Page "Out of Africa"
• 2022 David Judge [1] "I am Who They Have Been"
• 2023 Timothy Guy

COMIC POETRY SECTION (1997 and 2002)

• 1997 Tug Dumbly “Barbeque Bill and the Roadkill Café”
• 1998 John Bird “The Ant Bed Court”
• 1999 Peter Hanbury “The Sitting Poets Society”
• 2000 Peter Hanbury “The Organ Replacement”
• 2001 Tug Dumbly “Skasey of the Overdraft”
• 2002 No prize awarded

BUSH POETRY SECTION (From 2003)

• 2003 Susan Muranty “The Wild Suburban Tree”
• 2004 Graeme Johnson “Faces on the Wall”
• 2005 Ron Stevens “Battlefields and Blossoms”
• 2006 Ellis Campbell “The Carlton Clydesdales”
• 2007 Cathy Bennetts “Old Murphy’s Pub”
• 2008 Ron Stevens “Distant Dialogue”
• 2009 Ron Stevens "The Shame of Staying Put"
• 2010 Ron Stevens "Behind the Flag"
• 2011 Wendy Enchelmaier "The Ghost of Old Ted"
• 2012 Tom McIlveen "Rainbow Serpent's Progeny"
• 2013 Allan Goode "Your Shout!"
• 2014 Elizabeth Egan "Black Brutus"
• 2015 Catherine Lee"Chronicle"
• 2016 Brenda Saunders "Channel Country"
• 2017 Max Merckenschlager "The Novice and the Bard"

CHILDREN’S WRITING (Since 1993)

• 1993 Stephen Smith “The Dutchman”
• 1994 Elizabeth Sayers “When I was Grown Up”
• 1995 Elizabeth Elliot “Bushfire”
• 1996 Lucy Robertson “The Troublesome Male”
• 1997 Lucy Robertson “Moving On”
• 1998 Sally Robertson “The Play”
• 1999 Tegwyn Bath “Returning Home”
• 2000 Caitlin Jones “Home to Stay”
• 2001 Hannah Bath “4.00am”
• 2002 Caitlin Bath “Fairy Land”
• 2003 Caitlin Bath “Blow Wind”
• 2004 Catherine Fellows “Lost in Time”
• 2005 Caitlin Bath “Wind Moods”
• 2006 Lucy Kopechy “On the Hawkesbury”
• 2007 No prize awarded
• 2008 Thomas Whitehead “My Favourite Holiday”
• 2009 Isaac Bath "Bushfire"
• 2010 Chris Frith "The Downpour"
• 2011 Adam Weitzer "Black Temper"
• 2012 Parris Hammond "Letter to the Moon"
• 2013 Caitlyn Green "Courage"
• 2014 Mitchell Kostitch "A refugee lost in the sea"
• 2015 Jackson Nassis "Shooting Star"
• 2016 Brittany Doolan "Strangers on a Train"
• 2017 Tobias Johnston "Arcane Intellect"
• 2018 Kodi Sawtell "Ink"
• 2019 Yameen Khan "The Other"
• 2020 Maxyn Dorz "The Crow"
• 2021 Lola Stafford "One Land...Two People"
• 2022 Nemi De Silva "Blood Ties"
• 2023 Kaitlyn Rutledge