History of the Australian Export Awards

This year will mark the 48th year of the Australian Export Awards, now recognised as one of the most important events on the Australian business calendar.

Dorothy the Dinosour, Jeff Fatt and Paul Field from the Wiggles accept their 2005 Australian Exporter of Year Award.

Exporting is important to Australia, it gives businesses the opportunity to grow their markets, it makes our industries more efficient and accounts for over one fifth of our Gross Domestic Product.

Previous winners have come from all parts of Australia, from small family businesses in rural townships through to leading household names such as Bega Cheese,  ResMed, The Wiggles, Australia Zoo, Wild Child and Rio Tinto Iron Ore.
 
Other winners such as Cochlear and BridgeClimb Sydney, were both inducted into the Australian Export Awards Hall of Fame in 2008.  Russell Mineral Equipment were honoured with this accolade in 2009 at the 47th Australian Export Awards. To be eligible for the Hall of Fame, a business must have won an Australian Export Award three times.

The major strength and appeal of the Export Awards has been this diversity of its applicants and winners. Since the first limited national presentation ceremony in 1963 some 592 Australian businesses have won a national Australian Export Award and  a total of 1,757 awards have been presented to businesses since then. The vast majority of winners were small and medium sized businesses.

Many outstanding export award winners have been based in regional areas, and their efforts were recognised in 2001 with the introduction of the Regional Exporter of the Year Award.

Darren Alexander, CEO, Autech Software & Design delivers his acceptance speech at the 47th Australian Export Awards on 20 November 2009.

In 2009, Autech Software & Design was honoured with Regional Exporter Award.  Innovation has been the pinnacle of Autech’s success, with the company winning over 12 industry awards including being named Australia’s most Innovative company by winning the inaugural G’Day USA innovation shoot-out as judged by the Wall Street Journal in 2007. 

In recent years, the Awards expanded to include the Small Business, Large Services and Small to Medium Services Export Award categories.