The award was announced at the recent Australian Society of Archivists National Conference.

The Category 2A award is given for the best publication that uses, features or interprets Australian archives, written by or on behalf of a corporate body.

The category is aimed at rewarding publications that illuminate archives and archival collections for the community generally.

The award judges described Return to Lake Innes as an excellent publication: "This excellent publication is the transcription of the journals and letters of Annabella Innes, a significant archival collection inscribed on the UNESCO Australian Memory of the World Register.

"The work is of a high standard, and the well-designed format enables a reader to appreciate this amusing and discerning first-hand account of life in NSW in the 19th century. By publishing these archives, the author has made a highly significant archival record accessible to all researchers and a much wider audience. The journals and letters are enhanced by the contextual information included in the book and the detailed index."

Mr Smith won the same award last year as one of the authors of the book Port Macquarie's Last Convicts, published by the Port Macquarie & Districts Family History Society in 2019.

Return to Lake Innes was officially launched earlier this year by Leslie Williams, Member for Port Macquarie. Transcribed and edited by Clive Smith, the publication shares original letters and journal entries written by Annabella Boswell, nee Innes, during a stay at her uncle's Port Macquarie estate in 1848 and on a return visit in 1853. It is a sequel to the previously published journal written by Annabella Boswell in the 1840s.

The publication was supported by Create NSW's Cultural Grant Program, a devolved funding program administered by The Royal Australian Historical Society on behalf of the NSW Government.

Return to Lake Innes and Annabella Boswell's earlier journal Annabella of Lake Innes can be purchased at the Port Macquarie Museum at 22 Clarence Street for $10 per copy.

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