Helpmann Award for Best New Australian Work

The Helpmann Award for Best New Australian Work is an award presented by Live Performance Australia (LPA), an employers' organisation which serves as the peak body in the live entertainment and performing arts industries in Australia. The accolade is handed out at the annual Helpmann Awards, which celebrates achievements in musical theatre, contemporary music, comedy, opera, classical music, theatre, dance and physical theatre in Australia.^[1]

Helpmann Award Best New Australian Work
Country	Australia
Presented by	Live Performance Australia
First award	2001
Currently held by	S. Shakthidharan and Eamon Flack, for Counting and Cracking
Website	www.helpmannawards.com.au

The award is presented to the author, composer, book writer or lyricist of the production.^[2]

As of 2022^[update], the 2019 event was the last one held, owing to the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia.^[3]

Winners and nominees

   Winners are listed first and marked in a separate colour, in boldface.

Year	Title	Nominee(s)	Genre
2001 (1st)[4]
	Skin	Stephen Page	Ballet or Dance
	The Boy From Oz	Nick Enright	Musicals
	Life After George	Hannie Rayson	Theatre
	The Theft of Sita	Nigel Jamieson
2002 (2nd)
	Batavia	Richard Mills and Peter Goldsworthy	Opera
	Corroboree	Stephen Page	Ballet or Dance
	Mavis Goes to Timor	Angela Chaplin, Katherine Thomson and Kavisha Mazzella	Theatre
	A Man with Five Children	Nick Enright	Theatre
2003 (3rd)
	Walkabout	Stephen Page and Frances Rings	Ballet or Dance
	Bill and Mary	Bille Brown	Theatre
	Love in the Age of Therapy	Paul Grabowsky and Joanna Murray-Smith	Opera
	Oboe Concerto for Diana Doherty	Ross Edwards	Classical Music
2004 (4th)
	Inheritance	Hannie Rayson	Theatre
	Phobia	Douglas Horton and Gerry Brophy
	Myth, Propaganda and Disaster in Nazi Germany and Contemporary America - A Drama in 30 Scenes	Stephen Sewell	Theatre
	Held	Garry Stewart, ADT Dancers and Lois Greenfield	Ballet or Dance
2005 (5th)
	The Sapphires	Tony Briggs	Theatre
	Madeline Lee	John Haddock with Michael Campbell	Opera
	Eating Ice Cream With Your Eyes Closed	David Brown	Theatre
	Through the Wire	Ros Horin	Theatre
2006 (6th)
	Devolution	Garry Stewart	Ballet or Dance
	On the Case	Debra Batton and Mark Murphy	Physical or Visual Theatre
	Small Metal Objects	Bruce Gladwin, Simon Laherty, Sonia Teuben, Genevieve Morris and Jim Russel	Theatre
	Sydney Symphony Contemporary Music Festival: Mysterium Cosmographicum	Michael Smetanin	Classical Music
2007 (7th)
	The Lost Echo	Barrie Kosky and Tom Wright	Theatre
	The Adventures of Snugglepot & Cuddlepie and Little Ragged Blossom	Alan John and John Clarke with Doug MacLeod	Musicals / Presentation for Children
	Structure and Sadness	Lucy Guerin	Ballet or Dance
	Honour Bound	Nigel Jamieson	Visual or Physical Theatre
	The Love of the Nightingale	Richard Mills and Timberlake Wertenbaker	Opera
	Priscilla, Queen of the Desert	Stephan Elliott and Allan Scott	Musicals
2008 (8th)[5]
	Toy Symphony	Michael Gow	Theatre
	Parramatta Girls	Alana Valentine	Theatre
	Glow	Gideon Obarzanek	Ballet or Dance
	When the Rain Stops Falling	Andrew Bovell	Theatre
2009 (9th)
	Shane Warne: The Musical	Eddie Perfect	Musicals
	Just Macbeth!	Andy Griffiths	Theatre / Presentation for Children
	FOOD COURT	Back to Back Theatre with The Necks	Theatre
	Metro Street	Matthew Robinson	Musicals
2010 (10th)
	Smoke and Mirrors	Sydney Festival, Spiegeltent International, Craig Ilott and iOTA	Cabaret
	Miracle	BalletLab and Phillip Adams	Ballet or Dance
	Bliss	Brett Dean and Amanda Holden	Opera
	Dirtsong	The Black Arm Band with Steven Richardson and Alexis Wright
2011 (11th)
	Tim Minchin Vs Sydney Symphony	Tim Minchin and Sydney Symphony	Comedy
	Finucane and Smith's Carnival of Mysteries	Finucane and Smith	Cabaret
	Silent Disco	Lachlan Philpott	Theatre
	Moth	Declan Greene	Theatre
	Where the Heart Is	Expressions Dance Company and Queensland Performing Arts Centre	Ballet or Dance
	Songs from the Middle	Eddie Perfect
2012 (12th)
	Angela's Kitchen	Paul Capsis, Julian Meyrick and Hilary Bell	Theatre
	Kursk: An Oratorio Requiem	David Chisholm	Classical Music
	Ganesh Versus the Third Reich	Mark Deans, Marcia Ferguson, Bruce Gladwin, Nicki Holland, Simon Laherty, Sarah Mainwaring, Scott Price, Kate Sulan, Brian Tilley and David Woods	Theatre
	Symphonia Eluvium	Elena Kats-Chernin	Classical Music
	Songs for Nobodies	Joanna Murray-Smith	Theatre
2013 (13th)
	The Secret River	Kate Grenville. Adapted for the stage by Andrew Bovell	Theatre
	Midnight Son	Gordon Kerry and Louis Nowra	Opera
	The Happiest Refugee	Anh Do
	King Kong	Craig Lucas (book), Marius de Vries (original music), Michael Mitnick and Richard Thomas (additional lyrics), featuring Songs and Original Compositions by 3D, Guy Garvey, Sarah McLachlan, Justice and The Avalanches	Musicals
	Medea	Kate Mulvany and Anne-Louise Sarks	Theatre
	School Dance	Matthew Whittet	Theatre
2014 (14th)
	Pinocchio	Rosemary Myers with Julianne O'Brien	Musicals / Presentation for Children
	Wulamanayuwi & the Seven Pamanui	Jason De Santis & Eamon Flack	Theatre / Presentation for Children
	The Shadow King	Tom E. Lewis and Michael Kantor	Theatre
	Black Diggers	Tom Wright	Theatre
2015 (15th)[6]
	The Rabbits	Kate Miller-Heidke (composer), Lally Katz (librettist) and Iain Grandage (musical arrangements and additional music)	Opera / Presentation for Children
	Little Bird	Nicki Bloom (writer and co-lyricist), Quentin Grant (composer and co-lyricist) and Cameron Goodall (composer and co-lyricist)
	What Rhymes with Cars and Girls	Aidan Fennessy (writer) and Tim Rogers (music and lyrics)	Theatre
	Marlin	Damien Millar	Theatre / Presentation for Children
	Switzerland	Joanna Murray-Smith	Theatre
	Endings	Tamara Saulwick & Peter Knight
2016 (16th)
	Ladies in Black	Carolyn Burns and Tim Finn with Simon Phillips	Musicals
	Prize Fighter	Future D. Fidel	Theatre
	Bambert's Book of Lost Stories	Dan Giovannoni and Luke Kerridge	Theatre / Presentation for Children
	The Gallipoli Symphony	Christopher Latham, Omar Faruk Tekbilek, Gareth Farr, Richard Nunns, Graeme Koehne AO, Peter Sculthorpe AO OBE, Elena Kats-Chernin, Kamran Ince, Ross Harris, Andrew Schultz, Ross Edwards and Demir Demirkan	Classical Music
	lore	Frances Rings, Deborah Brown and Waangenga Blanco	Dance
	Picnic at Hanging Rock	Tom Wright	Theatre
2017 (17th)
	The Drover's Wife	Leah Purcell	Theatre
	Hot Brown Honey	Busty Beatz and Lisa Fa’alafi	Cabaret
	The Wider Earth	David Morton	Theatre
	Jasper Jones	Kate Mulvany	Theatre
	Backbone	Darcy Grant, Elliot Zoerner, Shenton Gregory, Geoff Cobham, Jacob Randell, Jascha Boyce, Simon McClure, Lachlan Binns, Mieke Lizotte, Lewie West, Martin Schreiber, Joanne Curry, Lachlan Harper, Jackson Manson, Triton Tunis-Mitchell and Lewis Rankin	Visual or Physical Theatre
	Girl Asleep	Matthew Whittet	Theatre
2018 (18th)[7]
	Bennelong	Stephen Page	Ballet or Dance
	Hamlet	Brett Dean and Matthew Jocelyn	Opera
	Muriel's Wedding The Musical	PJ Hogan, Kate Miller-Heidke and Keir Nuttall	Musicals
	Black is the New White	Nakkiah Lui	Theatre
	Laser Beak Man	Nicholas Paine, David Morton, Tim Sharp and Sam Cromack	Theatre
	Lano & Woodley — Fly	Colin Lane and Frank Woodley	Comedy
2019 (19th)[8][9]
	Counting and Cracking	S. Shakthidharan and Eamon Flack	Theatre
	Spinifex Gum	Felix Riebl	Contemporary Music
	Barbara and the Camp Dogs	Ursula Yovich and Alana Valentine	Musicals
	Blackie Blackie Brown: The Traditional Owner of Death	Nakkiah Lui	Theatre
	The Harp in the South: Part One and Part Two	Kate Mulvany	Theatre
	Lé Nør (The Rain)	The Last Great Hunt and Artistic Collaborators	Theatre

See also

• Helpmann Awards