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Nominated works may be fiction or non-fiction in any media and must demonstrate the use and accurate referencing of State Archives. 

WA’s State Archives Collection is a unique collection of more than one million Colonial, State and local government records from 1829 which document the decisions, actions and legacy of government at local and State levels, as well as internationally.

The diverse range of nominations for the 2026 Award include a theatre production, board game, online content, PhD and Masters theses, books and journal articles.

The Award winner will be announced at a ceremony to be held at the State Library Theatre on Friday 23 October 2026.

The winner receives a cash prize of $1,000 or shares this prize if there is more than one winner.

The annual Award for Excellence in Research honours Ms Margaret Medcalf OAM, WA’s second State Archivist for her landmark contribution to the development of the State archives collection from 1971 to 1989.

Ms Medcalf turned 100 years old on 26 March 2026.

2026 Margaret Medcalf Award for Excellence in Research shortlist

• Examining the 1841 Wonnerup/Minninup Massacre through Western Australian Colonial Records and Wardandi Oral Histories (MPhil thesis) by Mary Blight, Curtin University, 2025
• "our own familiar English": A historical sociolinguistic study of the shaping of Australian English through the lens of Western Australia (PhD Thesis) by Madeliene Clews, University of Western Australia, 2025.
• Our Horrible Asylum (Masters Dissertation and Board Game) by Fiona Giles, Notre Dame University, 2025.
• ‘Secrets of the prison house’ an inmate’s view of Fremantle Prison 1903-1905 by Bert Leighton (book) by Andrew Gill (Editor)
• Tracking Frontier Violence: Expanding Territories and Control of Country (Unpublished Paper) by Michelle Hilbrands, 2025.
• Japanese Doctors in White Australia: Treating Prejudice (Book) by John Lamb. Routledge Advances in Asia Pacific Studies, 2025.
• ‘A Convict in Her Own Right': Rethinking Prisoner Classification in Western Australia, 1829–1868 (article) by Emily Lanman in Law & History: Journal of the Australian and New Zealand Law and History Society 11 (1) 2025.
• Brendan’s Odyssey - Barracks Arch, the Pemberton to Northcliffe Railway, the Big Bell Hotel, the Brisbane and Wunderlich display parks and the Jokers Tunnel (YouTube Channel and Website – 2025 contributions) by Brendan Meharry, 2025.
• Collecting the West: Revealing Western Australia through its Collection (book) by Alistair Paterson, Andrea Witcomb, Gaye Sculthorpe, Baige Zylstra, Tiffany Shellam, UWA Publishing, 2025.
• The Shameful Isles: the true story of North-West Australia's fatal experiment with medical Apartheid (book) by David Price. Fremantle Press, 2025.
• The Aboriginal Land Inquiry: Recovering the Voices of the WA Aboriginal Land Rights Movement 1983-1984 (BA Hons Thesis) by Ashleigh Severinsen. Notre Dame University, 2025.
• The Unfortunate Woman v Her Well-Respected Killer (Short film on YouTube by Megan Shaw (Curator). Law Society of Western Australia, 2025.
• Riots: Returned soldiers and public disorder in Australia at the end of World War 1 (Book) by Fiona Skyring. UWA Publishing, 2025.
• Arthur Haynes and the Smoking Gun (Theatre Production) by Theatre 180 (Jenny Davis, Playwright and Josephine Jay, Visual Design and Production). Theatre 180, 2025.
• The Australian Wars: the truth about the bloody battles fought to establish the nation (book - chapters relating to Western Australia) by Rachel Perkins, Stephen Gapps, Mina Murray and Henry Reynolds (Editors) - (WA Chapters written by Chris Owen, June Oscar, Henry Reynolds, Kim Scott) [Allen & Unwin, 2025].