COTMA Achievement Awards 

2025 Brisbane Awards:

The Bill Kingsley Award

  • Tramway Historical Society - Restoration of Christchurch Hills Car No. 24

    • Achievement Awards were:

  • Ballarat Tramway Museum - Providing an Accessible Tram W7 1029

  • MOTAT - Renewal of dual gauge trackwork

For the judges comments view here.

Presidents Awards for an outstanding contribution by an individual over an extended period were made to:

  • Richard Gilbert in recognition of his active involement with COTMA since its inception and his enduring commitment to the Ballarat Tramway Museum.

Volunteer Awards, made on the recommendation of museums, were made to:

  • Bill Allnutt - Perth Electric Tramway Society

  • Ray Blackmore - Perth Electric Tramway Society

  • Anthony Smith - Ballarat Tramway Museum

  • Vic Solomons - Sydney Tramway Museum

  • Michael Stukely - Perth Electric Tramway Society

  • John Tier - Wellington Tramway Museum

For the Award presentation view here.

Past Awards:

For past awards view here

 

 

 

Basis of the Awards and Judging Criteria

COTMA member museums achieve miracles – and that deserves recognition.

COTMA's Achievement awards have been made since the 2000 biennial conference.  The Achievement awards are not competitive, but are to set standards of achievement that their fellow peers can recognise, flag and inspire others to equal or better.  There may be any number of achievement awards at a conference.

For the first time in 2006, a formal "EAR Award" (Excellence and Recognition) was made to the organisation that the judges considered had made the most significant achievement.

In 2014, the EAR Award was retitled "The Bill Kingsley Award" to acknowledges Bill’s outstanding service to the tramway museum cause, including his work on the establishment and development of COTMA
We know that many of you have done some excellent work over this time. 

The criteria for judging the awards are: 

  • Degree of difficulty,
  • Quality of outcome,
  • Value to community,
  • Historical accuracy

Each criterion is given a score out of 5 by three judges and high scoring projects receive an achievement award marked by a certificate. 

The three judges are Tony Messenger, Dr John Radcliffe) and Carolyn Cleak.

The top scoring submission is the winner of the Bill Kingsley award, which carries a certificate, a trophy and a cash prize of $500.


Submissions can be sent to COTMA PO Box 6172 Hawthorn West Vic 3122 and/or by email to cotma@cotma.org.au giving details of the achievement in no more than three A4 pages, plus photographs etc, and attaching any supporting documents that you feel are relevant.

Individual members of museums also deserve recognition.

Recognition is for:

  • individual volunteer work that a museum group deems significant should be acknowledged by their trans-Tasman peers.
  • individual volunteer work that has influenced, advanced, is an example of, or promoted tramway preservation at a national or international level.
  • individual volunteer work at a level superior to that which has been recognised at a local museum group level.

Submitted evidence of the recipient’s achievement will be published on the COTMA website.  

Nominations for Volunteer Achievement Awards are to be sent to the Secretary, Mal Rowe, at email secretary@cotma.org.au, should be on no more than one A4 page and should describe in some detail the contribution your nominated volunteer has made in line with the points listed above.

 

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Council of Tramway Museums of Australasia Inc. - A0030417B - ABN 81 315 085 479