AFFHO Meritorious Award for Family History 2009 Citation
  
  "Paul Mackett has given outstanding service to family history in Australia through his work on
  Australian Aboriginal Genealogical Records since 1989. With very few genealogical records for
  Australia's indigenous people readily available, his collection represents a unique and extremely
  valuable resource for family and other research on aboriginals. His index has been a marvellous,
  unique research tool for those with Aboriginal heritage seeking to trace their family tree.

  Whilst those with European ancestry have ready access to birth, death and marriage records, such
  events were often not registered for aboriginals until the mid twentieth century. They do not appear
  in many of the usual sources such as electoral rolls and post office directories that others would
  search for information. Early cemetery records, another useful source for genealogists, often just
  note a burial as "aboriginal". With many families having been moved to reserves and children
  separated from their families, knowledge of even close family is often not readily available.

  Paul discovered for himself how scarce the records were when assisting a friend in the research of
  an aboriginal family. Since then he has sought to extract material from publicly available records in
  various state and federal archives throughout Australia (material available for Queensland, Northern
  Territory, Western Australia, Tasmania and New South Wales). He has searched and recorded any
  entries relating to aboriginal families in documents from a diverse range of records including police,
  hospital, education, cemetery, Colonial Secretary, Protector of Aboriginals, and Auditor General's
  files, Police Letterbooks, Watch house charge books, wages registers, employment registers, permits
  for employment, child endowment ledgers, registers for blanket distribution, pocket money record
  books, removals, and many other sources. He has literally "been through hundreds of registers and
  hundreds of thousand pages of correspondence looking for references to Aboriginal people", all this
  in his spare time and lunch hours! For Queensland alone his transcripts and index extend to a
  staggering 6,900 pages - a truly remarkable achievement.

  He has made the results of his research freely available on the internet and through a variety of
  libraries. A copy is held at the Queensland State Archives and the Community and Personal Histories
  Section of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Partnerships (Qld) where it is used by
  government staff to assist aboriginals trace the faint paper trail of their ancestry. Paul also
  personally does research for those seeking answers to their history - again, all in his "spare" time.

  A geologist by profession and a quiet achiever in family history circles, Paul has been recognised for
  his work both locally and nationally - receiving the Queensland Family History Society Award for
  Services to Family History in 1993 and the Order of Australia medal for his work in 1996. We now
  recognise the invaluable work Paul Mackett has done on the wider family history stage."