Australian historian Alan Atkinson wins $100,000 literary prize

It seems appropriate that Alan Atkinson should win the $100,000 Victorian Prize for Literature for the magisterial third volume of The Europeans in Australia. This is, after all, an account of the building of a nation and it was in Melbourne that the first parliament sat after federation in 1901.

That was in the Royal Exhibition Building, but on Wednesday in the gardens of State Parliament, Premier Daniel Andrews presented the historian with the most valuable single literary prize in the country. It was the culmination of the annual Victorian Premier's Awards, with each winner of the five $25,000 categories eligible for the big one.

Atkinson said he was very relieved to have finished the final instalment, which covers the period from the 1870s to the aftermath of World War I. "The last volume was an enormous effort."

He started work on the project more than 20 years ago, never thought it would take so long, and admitted he was glad he had finished it.

The establishment of democracy had been crucial to Australia, he said. "The problems and challenges of democracy are in the end more important and challenging because the nation is built on democracy."