The Institute has three annual awards, the Alexander Henderson Award, the President's Award and the Manuscript Award, each of which comprises a certificate and a trophy. The winners and place getters are announced at the Presentation Dinner, which is usually held in Melbourne on the last Friday in May. Other entrants receive a commemorative certificate. 

Entries from previous years may be inspected at the Institute's Library during opening times. 
   

The student will be attending a Secondary College that is part of the Australian Education system at the time of researching and compiling the entry.

The student will be no older than twenty when submitting the work for consideration of the Award.

Entries must be submitted, accompanied by the entry form, to the Awards Coordinator by 30th November. Selection and presentation of the Award will be made before August of the following year.

Winning entries will be displayed at the Presentation Dinner held in the following May.

The Institute will retain either the original, or a copy of the original, (provided by the student).

This will be housed in the Institute's Library.

The original, or copy will be returned to the submitter if the cost of return postage is provided by the submitter.

Entries will be in the form of a book or booklet.

Simple family tree charts, or substantial information copied from someone else's work will not be accepted.

The family described in the work should be related to the submitter.

An entry need not have been written in the year of submission for the Award, but must not have been submitted previously for this or any other Award.

More than one entry may be submitted in any year, but each entry must describe a different family line which is related to the submitter.

The Institute has the right to publicise entries by title, and include comments made by the judges.

No winner will be selected if, in the opinion of the judges, a reasonable standard has not been achieved.

The decision of the judging panel will be final, subject to the endorsement by the Institute Council, before public announcement of the Award winner.

The Judges

The Award will be determined by an independent judging panel of at least three persons, appointed each year by the Institute Council.
The judging panel will consist of at least one of each of the following:

• A genealogist or person experienced in genealogical research.
• A qualified librarian or teacher.
• An historian.

No member of the judging panel may be a member of the family of an entrant.
 

What the judges look for:

• Is the work the result of original and documented research?
• Is the presentation logically arranged?
• Is the physical presentation attractively arranged?
• Does the work contain a title page, author's name and date of compilation?
• Is there are list of contents?
• Are the pages numbered?
• Is there a simple index of names?
• Are there illustrations and maps with clearly identified sources?
• Are the charts well-drawn and easy to follow?
• Are all sources cited?
• Are people thanked for their assistance?