Overview

• The prize named Robbie Arnott (Dusk) and Tasma Walton (I Am Nannertgarrook) as joint adult winners, a first for the award.
• The A$100,000 adult purse will be shared equally, with additional honours to Suzanne Leal (children/YA, A$30,000) and Emily Maguire (readers’ choice, A$5,000).
• Judges said the books offer complementary examinations of colonial violence, citing overlapping episodes involving 19th-century sealers on Tasmania’s northern coast.
• Walton’s novel grows from extensive research into her great-great-great-grandmother Nannertgarrook’s 1830s abduction by sealers and centers First Nations testimony.
• Arnott’s Dusk was praised for imaginatively building on historical fact to depict exploitation of land, and he acknowledged surprise at its eligibility.