PM's award writes author's history

History

It could be argued that history was written for Dr Philip Jones the moment he set foot on campus as an undergraduate student at the University of Adelaide.

An Arts and Law student in the 1970s, Dr Jones came to embrace the study of History under the inspiration of some of the University's pre-eminent educators, such as professors Austin Gough and Hugh Stretton.

What he learned from those early years of study, in particular the research he conducted for his Honours degree in History, has held him in good stead ever since.

It also laid the foundations for his latest - and history-making - success: winning the inaugural $100,000 Prime Minister's Literary Award for Non-Fiction.

Dr Jones, Senior Curator of Anthropology with the South Australian Museum, won the prize for his book Ochre and Rust: Artefacts and Encounters on Australian Frontiers.

Ochre and Rust is an account of Australia's frontier history using Aboriginal artefacts as the basis for a more detailed look at the people behind the objects.

The book, which won Dr Jones the award ahead of such celebrated authors as Germaine Greer and Clive James, was described by the judges as a work of "elegance", "simplicity" and "outstanding clarity".

The judging panel wrote: "Jones's conception of using artefacts such as a cake of red ochre, Aboriginal shields and Daisy Bates's travelling suit to discuss aspects of the Australian frontier is an original one. His work has depth and breadth of analysis; and his prose has simplicity and elegance.

"The insights drawn are through a true historian's eye and the work illuminates larger debates about encounters between the first Australians and the European settlers."

Dr Jones credits the techniques used in his book to reconstruct a broader history of the frontier to his studies at the University, which also includes a PhD in History.

"It was doing Austin Gough's social history/French history course in my final year of the joint Law/Arts degree that made me realise that history would be my vocation," Dr Jones said. "With Austin's encouragement I went on and did Honours in 19th century French social history, and I wrote a thesis on the history of leisure among the working class, using primary sources.

"From that point on I saw the value of primary sources and original documents. I was really following Austin's example in terms of his humanism as an historian, the fact that he used individual stories of real people to open up bigger issues, and his eye for detail. You can use this accumulation of detail to build a bigger picture.

"This was the technique that I used in my Honours thesis and subsequently I guess it has become an almost subconscious methodology," he said.

Dr Jones, who is also a guest lecturer with the Graduate Program in Art History at the University of Adelaide, said winning the PM's literary award was an "extremely special feeling".

Professor David Lemmings, Head of the University's School of History and Politics, was among those to congratulate Dr Jones on his success. "Philip's outstanding achievement demonstrates the value of studying History, especially for its ability to fire the imagination in relation to the human condition," he said.

Ochre and Rust is published in hardcover by Wakefield Press and sells for $49.95.