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Bob Connolly

Biographical Notes from The Walkley Awards website for 2005

Non-fiction Book Winner

Bob Connolly, Making Black Harvest, ABC Books

Bob Connolly and his late wife, Robin Anderson, made their mark with a trio of documentaries spanning a decade in Papua New Guinea. First Contact was nominated for an Academy Award in 1983. Then came Joe Leahy's Neighbours and, finally, Black Harvest.

Over the 12 months that Connolly and Anderson filmed Black Harvest, the remote valley where they lived descended into full-scale traditional warfare. They were often threatened, and had their house burnt down, but they recorded the footage for a documentary that won awards all over the world.

The couple returned to Australia and made the memorable Rats In The Ranks (1996) and Facing The Music (2001). But in 2002, Robin died after a nine-month battle with a rare form of cancer.

The book Making Black Harvest developed when Connolly re-read Robin's diaries. He dug up his own notes and letters written in the field to pen the story behind the film; how he, Robin and their two-year-old daughter lived and worked in a place where most Europeans stayed in compounds behind barbed wire.

Judges' comments

This book stands out because of its originality and deeply personal nature. It is truly enthralling, frankly recounting the couple's moral dilemmas as they documented the growing disaster overwhelming the Ganiga tribespeople. Beyond its force as a piece of creative non-fiction, Making Black Harvest is a wonderful piece of information gathering - ethical, humorous and poignant.