The Australian Association for Maritime History (AAMH) is an Australian maritime history organisation.
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History
The association was formed in May 1978. Its main aim is to promote the study, publication, and general appreciation of maritime history. The eminent American maritime historian John B. Hattendorf considers the AAMH one of the most prominent scholarly organisations in the English-speaking world and the late Professor Frank Broeze of the University of Western Australia considered that the creation of the AAMH contributed to a rising awareness of the significance of the role of the sea to Australian cultural history. The AAMH is not restricted to Australia and Australian maritime history: its membership and field of interest are international in scope. The AAMH is run by an Executive Council that has officers from all Australian States and Territories. It is currently based in Perth, Western Australia.
The AAMH served as the Australian sub-commission of the International Commission of Maritime History until the ICMH merged with the International Economic Maritime History Association to form the International Maritime History Association in 2016. The AAMH also supports lectures, conferences, workshops, publications and book prizes.
Maritime Book Prizes
The AAMH co-sponsors with the Australian National Maritime Museum, the Frank Broeze Memorial Maritime History Prize awarded for a book treating any aspect of maritime history relating to or impacting on Australia and the Australian Community Maritime History Prize awarded to a regional or local museum or historical society for a publication (book, booklet, educational resource kit, CD, DVD or other media) relating to an aspect of maritime history of that region or community.
The Frank Broeze Memorial Maritime History book prize is named in honour of Frank Broeze. Professor Frank Broeze was a maritime historian and one of the founders of AAMH. He served as President of the Association in the 1980s and was the first editor of the Association's journal The Great Circle.
The objective of the prizes is to promote a broad view of maritime history that demonstrates how the sea and maritime influences have been more central to the shaping of regions that encompass Australia; that is, the Indian, Pacific and Great Southern Oceans. The AAMH encourages this historical and archaeological approach of investigation and dissemination through its journal.
There are two categories: the Maritime History Book Prize for commercially published books and the Australian Community Maritime History Prize for works (books, DVDs, pamphlets etc.) by a locally based organisation.
The Great Circle
The Great Circle is the Journal of the Australian Association for Maritime History. The Great Circle (ISSN 0156-8698) is a refereed journal and is published twice a year. The journal is archived on JSTOR.
Quarterly Newsletter
The Australian Association of Maritime History’s quarterly newsletter was established by Vaughan Evans (a founding member of the AAMH) in 1980, two years after the formation of the Association itself. Both these events came at a time when the field of maritime history was in its infancy in Australia.