Award-winning author Robbie Arnott and Boonwurrung actor-turned-writer Tasma Walton are the joint winners of the $100,000 ARA Historical Novel Prize, one of the richest literary awards in Australia.

The prize, run by the Historical Novel Society Australasia, is for novels where most of the story is set more than 50 years ago.

It was "impossible to elevate one [book] above the other", said author Angelo Loukakis, chair of the judging panel.

Arnott and Walton will each receive $50,000.

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Arnott wins for his fourth novel, Dusk, described by Loukakis a

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