South East Book Promotions, now known as Kanawinka Writers and Historians, began in a small way. Founded by writers and historians from across the region, its initial aims were to promote the sales of books written about the South East by people from the South East. These books were a rich resource for the region but at that time had only limited and localised distribution.

SEBP rapidly had an impact and sales increased, so it was decided to expand its objectives. It published a series of small booklets on different aspects of the region – the South East Celebration Series – and ran workshops and offered editorial advice and assistance with publishing, writing etc.

In 1994 it organised the first ever National Community History Awards. The Award attracted nation wide support from community historians and major publishers and expanded from one prize – the Christina Smith Award - to a second and third Award the Ebenezer Ward Prize for a smaller book and SA Historical Society’s Award for the best SA History entered. Unfortunately after the 2002 competition the Awards were cancelled due to difficulty obtaining sponsorship but they had succeeded in raising the profile of Community History and bigger players had begun establishing prizes in this genre. Although this was a sad decision the group had the satisfaction of knowing that Community History was becoming recognised among the serious history discipline and the Awards had played a significant part in this.

A big leap forward to the group was when SEBP won the inaugural ABC Regional Development Award in 1994 and the prize money gave the group freedom to expand its assistance to writers and to initiate new programmes.

In 1999 the group gained a Centenary of Federation SA Grant to organise a series of lectures on different aspects of the history and development of the region. These were highly successful and attracted prominent speakers. In 2001 SEBP gained a grant from the State History Trust to assist in publishing, Exploring the Anatomy of a Region, the proceedings of these lectures.

SEBP‘s next major enterprise was to publish a facsimile copy of Christina Smith’s The Booandik Tribe of SA Aborigines, which had been long out of print. Demand was so high it soon went into a reprint and then yet another further down the track.

The group has run seminars on writing and publishing but there is much ‘off the record’ sharing of advice and assistance with editing, writing, publishing etc. and useful tips are often brought to meetings or circulated on the internet, so information sharing is an important aspect of what the group is about.

Another enterprise that literally made history was the running of a regional State History Conference, which was held at Struan, a gracious venue that enhanced the variety of high quality speakers and who will forget the walk through the private cemetery with the then State Historian Rob Nicol?

All during these years its members continued recording the region’s history and The Last Jam Sandwich by secretary Judy Murdoch in 2000 won the SA Historical Society’s Award for the best S.A history, a well-earned tribute to a talented writer and meticulous historian who has been a great driving force to our organisation.

In 2003 the name of the group was changed to Kanawinka Writers and Historians as this was seen to reflect its wider interests and objectives. The Kanawinka Fault runs like a spine through the South East and into Western Victoria. It is the determining factor in the depth and flow patterns of underground water – water that is the region’s lifeblood. The name Kanawinka gives an identity, a richness and unifying force to writers, historians and researchers from the South East and across the border. It also has the added attraction that Kanawinka is an Aboriginal word for tomorrow – so we are entering the Land of Tomorrow! In 2005 KWH won a grant from Australian Stories – one of only twenty awarded in the whole of Australia - to transcribe notes made by George Goyder when in 1864 he re-valued 70 South Eastern properties. Making these transcripts easily available has been a great asset to South Eastern and indeed South Australian early history. Supported by State Records, the Surveyor General, the Botanical Gardens and the Department of Heritage and Environment, who wrote contributions for Through the eyes of Goyder, the Limited edition book is a high quality production with superb illustrations, extensive maps and valuable supporting material. Yet another winner for this vibrant group, it won a design award and is a jewel in the crown of our group.

Setting up a website gave the group a much wider exposure and put us squarely in the 21st century while preserving all that has gone before. A glance at the range of books handled by the group over the years and its activities is impressive.

There are many notable characteristics of KWH – its dynamism, its ever interesting meetings that are always worthwhile and have many side benefits such as information sharing over delightful meals. It is also dynamic – watch this space could well be good advice for something new is always happening. It may be a group enterprise or an individual publication but there is always a sense of living and growing. Currently besides numerous books in the foetal or neonatal stage by individuals the group is working on an annotated version of Clayton’s diaries that cover a period of great growth in the South East. Also on the ‘books’ is a compilation of a series of tourism topics and the possibility of a Roadshow – Unlocking the Past, a collaborative enterprise by Shauna Hicks and Gould’s Historical Groups coming to the South East in 2011.