Australian Fiction (1979-1983)
Best Australian Science Fiction (1969-1977)
or Australian SF
Subcategory of Ditmar Awards
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History

From the conception of the Ditmar Awards in 1969, the primary categories were 'Australian SF' and 'International SF', with an additional award for 'Australian Fanzine'.

'Australian Science Fiction / Australian Fiction' as a category covered both long-form and short-form writing.

From 1978, the awards began experimenting with splitting the award for long-form and short-form writing. This award (combining short and long fiction in one award) continued intermittently, as 'Australian Fiction', in the awards for 1979, 1980 and 1983.

Latest Winners / Recipients

Year: 1983

winner The Man Who Walks Away Behind the Eyes Terry Dowling , 1982 single work short story science fiction
— Appears in: Omega Science Digest , May-June 1982; (p. 74-79, 124-126) Wormwood 1991; (p. 79-97) Wonder Years : The Ten Best Stories From a Decade Past 2003; (p. 55-71) Make Believe : A Terry Dowling Reader 2009; (p. 91-107)

Year: 1980

winner y separately published work icon Australian Gnomes Robert Ingpen , Adelaide : Rigby , 1979 Z999753 1979 single work children's fiction children's

Year: 1979

winner y separately published work icon Beloved Son George Turner , London : Faber , 1978 Z112561 1978 single work novel science fiction

'Forty years after his starship escapes from an apocalyptic Earth, Commander Albert Raft and his crew return to a much younger and violent Earth society that wants to embrace Raft as a god because of his telepathic powers.'

Source: Publisher's blurb (Avon reprint).

Year: 1977

winner y separately published work icon Walkers on the Sky David J. Lake , New York (City) : DAW Books , 1976 Z1137816 1976 single work novel science fiction

'Sometimes the sky held only clouds, but at other times it could get quite busy. It could be full of sailing ships or bands of mounted warriors or even single figures strolling carefully across the empty air. From the viewpoint of those below they were either apparitions or gods, but in any case to be ignored. From the viewpoint of the sky walkers, those below were neither phantoms nor gods, yet certainly always beneath their notice. Both viewpoints were wrong. Because the time had come when one of the sky walkers was going to do the incredible - fall through. And when that happened, all hell was going to break loose. And did!'

Source: Publisher's blurb (Daw edition).

Year: 1976

winner y separately published work icon The Big Black Mark A. Bertram Chandler , New York (City) : DAW Books , 1975 Z810958 1975 single work novella

'Commander John Grimes, Federation Survey Service, should have been happy but he was not.' Although recently promoted, much to his surprise, Grimes finds himself consigned once again to being captain of a non-war ship. It doesn't help that his new vessel, Discovery (another Census ship) is a badly neglected rust-bucket. Worse still is the crew - a bunch of malcontents comprising the worse the Survey Service has to offer.

Before long a mutinous atmosphere begins to pervade the ship, with the situation spiraling downhill after Grimes is forced to cite the leader of the ship's marines, Major 'Mad' Swinton with the court-martial offence of murdering citizens from another planet. Grime's own misgivings about the voyage also manifest themselves through snatches of memory relating to the 'Wild Colonial Boy' and the ill-fated Bounty.

When the Commander and a few of his faithful crew are eventually dispatched into space aboard a tiny escape craft, he begins to understand how Captain William Bligh must have felt. Not only about the big black mark against his service record, but also about surviving against impossible odds.

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