Metropolitan and regional players shared the industry awards last year in the state’s arts, culture and hospitality sectors.
Metropolitan and regional players shared the industry awards last year in the state’s arts, culture and hospitality sectors.
At the Catering Institute of Australia Gold Plate Awards, Voyager Estate won both the winery restaurant and tourism restaurant categories, and then the coveted premier’s award for best overall restaurant in Western Australia.
The South West region was well represented among those recognised at the awards, with Quay West Resort Bunker Bay winning the Australian Hotels Association (AHA) national award for best resort style accommodation.
Other winners from WA were The Greenwood (best sporting entertainment venue), Parade Hotel (best pub-style hotel with accommodation) and The Harbourside (best entertainment venue).
Beating strong competition from around the state, the Broken Hill in Victoria Park was crowned AHA Perth pub of the year.
Partnerships between business and the arts sector were commemorated at state and national level last year, with the Australia Business Arts Foundation Awards recognising two WA partnerships.
Fremantle Arts Centre and Alcoa of Australia were awarded the community prize for their project establishing large-scale outdoor aluminium sculptures in South West WA communities, while the media arts award went to a three-way indigenous film production partnership between ScreenWest, ABC and the Film and Television Institute WA.
The renamed WA Business and the Arts Partnership Awards acknowledged eight partnerships between business and the arts community, awarding the outstanding long-term partnership prize to Pilbara Iron and the Shire of Roebourne for their collaboration over the annual Cossack Art Award.
On the music front, Fremantle rock band Eskimo Joe found national acclaim at the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) Awards, taking out single of the year for their commercial hit ‘Black Fingernails, Red Wine’.
The band also won a WAMi award for most popular act, while rising stars Gyroscope were deemed most popular live act and won most popular album.
Local band Jebediah’s lead guitarist and vocalist, Kevin Mitchell, was the other WA representative at the ARIAs, winning best adult contemporary album under his solo moniker, Bob Evans.
At the Premier’s Book Awards, the multi-authored book Cleared Out: First Contact in the Western Desert was awarded the premier’s prize for 2005.
Written by Sue Davenport, Peter Johnson and Yuwali, the book documents the removal of a small group of Martu Aboriginal women and children from the Percival Lakes region of the Western Desert.
