His books have won or been short-listed for every major literary award in Australia. He has won the Booker Prize twice - in 2001 for True History Of The Kelly Gang and in 1988 for Oscar And Lucinda.
In 1998 he won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Jack Maggs and again in 2001 for True History Of The Kelly Gang. In 2007 he won the NSW Premier's Award and the Victorian Premier's Award for Theft: A Love Story.