Australia Council accolades have been awarded to honour outstanding and lifelong contributions to the arts by four of Australia’s most valued arts personalities.

The literature board awarded the 2004 Writers’ Emeritus Award to Dr Margaret Scott. One of Australia’s best known poets, writers, academics and broadcasters, Dr Scott is also well known for appearances on the ABC’s popular Great Debate series and Good News Week. Her writing has been published extensively here and overseas, including album: A novel of secrets and memories (2000), Visited (1983), The Black Swans: selected work (1998) and Collected Poems (2000).

Perth-based Bryn Griffiths, whose career is distinguished by a commitment to the principle of giving all Australians the right to access the arts, has received the Community Cultural Development Board’s 2004 Ros Bower Memorial Award. One highlight of Mr Griffith’s remarkable career was as writer-in-residence with the Australian Merchant Navy, as a result of a Council grant. Over six months, he wrote about shipboard life, conducted writing workshops and recording the experiences of the crew. Mr Griffith has played a vital role in helping Australians to think critically about their experiences, particularly their working life, through art.

Prolific, self-taught photographer Jeff Carter was presented with the Visual Arts/Craft Emeritus Award for his achievements over a 50-year career. Armed with a typewriter and a 1A folding Kodak camera, he took to the road in 1946 to document the people, places and life of a changing Australia. The result was one of this country’s most remarkable and historically significant photographic archives.

Art historian, lecturer and critic Bernard Smith was awarded the Australia Council’s Visual Arts/Craft Medal for 2004. Mr Smith set the benchmark for the history of art in Australia with seminal publications, such as Place, Taste and Tradition, European Vision and the South Pacific and Australian Painting. He caused a sensation with The Antipodean Manifesto, a criticism of abstract art that was signed by artists including Charles Blackman, Arthur Boyd, Clifton Pugh and John Perceval.