Traynor wins NT History Book Award for ‘Alice Springs’

Stuart Traynor has won the 2017 Chief Minister’s Northern Territory History Book Award for his book Alice Springs: From Singing Wire to Iconic Outback Town (Wakefield Press).

The judges said Alice Springs, which is ‘the result of eight years of meticulous research’, ‘is a tale of the country’s heart and some of its most remarkable but little-known characters—of children torn between two cultures living at the telegraph station after the morse keys stopped clicking and of a modern community still living along the line’.

Traynor’s book was chosen from 15 entries. A shortlist of four also included:

• Remember Me Kindly: A History of the Holtze Family in the Northern Territory (self-published, Deborah Bisa)
• Masters and Servants: Cultures of Empire in the Tropics (Manchester University Press, Claire Lowrie)
• A Handful of Sand: The Gurindji Struggle, After the Walk-Off (Monash University Publishing, Charlie Ward).

The award, which is administered by the NT Library, recognises the most significant contribution to Northern Territory history published in 2016. For more information, click here.

Category: Local news