Koombana Days commended in Margaret Medcalf Award

Annie Boyd’s Koombana Days received a commendation in the 2014 Margaret Medcalf Award held at the State Library of Western Australia on Wednesday 18 June.

The annual award for referencing and research is given in honour of Miss Margaret Medcalf OAM, the second State Archivist for Western Australia (from 1971 to 1989).

Author Annie Boyd said she hoped the award would help get the word out about an important, untold, Western Australian story.

‘Some stories can only be brought to light by delving rather than browsing and the State Records Office is one of the places where genuine primary source material can be found,’ said Boyd.

Publisher Georgia Richter said she was delighted with the commendation in what was a very strong field of contenders.

’Annie’s extraordinary maritime tale is underpinned by untold hours of research and investigation and with it, an entire era in Western Australia’s social history is brought to life,’ said Richter.

The award was won by Penelope Hetherington for The marriage knot: marriage and divorce in colonial Western Australia 1829–1900.

The State Records Commission established the Margaret Medcalf Award in 2003. The award is a prize of $1,000.

Koombana Days is the story of the elegant, ultra-modern S.S. Koombana which arrived in Western Australia in March 1909 and which, after only three years of Nor’-West service, disappeared in a late-summer cyclone off the Pilbara coast. It is available in all good bookstores and online.