FIRST WIN: Luke O’Shea was the inaugural winner of the Recorded Australian Song Lyric of the Year award. 220113GOD05
THE leading Australian storytellers and poets were rewarded for their talents at the Tamworth Town Hall yesterday at the Australian Bush Laureate Awards.
Bush poet Carol Heuchan of Cooranbong, NSW, was the biggest winner taking out Album of the Year for Partners which also won her the Single Recorded Performance of the Year Golden Gumleaf for the album’s title track. Partners is a live recording of Carol and her poetry.
Book of the Year went to Around The Campfire by Terry Piggott of Canningvale, WA. The work includes a dozen or more of Terry’s photos as well as his highly regarded bush poetry.
Collected Verse Book of the Year was won by Award Winning Bush Verse, a compilation by Max and Jacqui Merckenschlager of Caloote, SA. The work, described as “a first anthology of award-winning bush poems and bush-themed stories” is published by Melbourne Books.
Published Poem of the Year went to The Truth About Waltzing Matilda by David Campbell of Beaumaris, Vic.
Stephen Whiteside of Glen Iris, Victoria, was named the winner of the Children’s Poem of the Year for The Sash, a poem about a young Ned Kelly’s “sash”.
The winner of the Judith Hosier Heritage Award – for outstanding achievement in nurturing Australia’s heritage of verse – was Jan Morris of Tamworth for her long association with bush poetry, especially as a judge and administrator of the Blackened Billy poetry competition and Golden Damper Awards.
