Palawa playwright Dylan Van Den Berg has pulled off a remarkable triple feat at this year’s Australian Writers’ Guild Awards (AWGIES), winning both categories for which he was nominated and then going on to be awarded the $100,000 David Williamson prize for most outstanding script among all the category winners.

“I didn’t really know what to say other than trying to convey gratitude and also being stoked to be recognised by other writers,” he said after the ceremony in Sydney. “It’s the only award that is judged solely by writers on the scripts themselves. So it’s really remarkable to be recognised by peers.”

Van Den Berg won the Community and Youth Theatre category for Ngadjung and the Original Stage Play category for Whitefella Yella Tree, which also earned him the David Williamson Prize for Excellence in Writing for Australian Theatre.

Van Den Berg will receive $20,000 from the Williamson award money, while the remainder goes to Griffin Theatre Company, which produced Whitefella Yella Tree.

Other AWGIE winners this year include Alana Valentine and Christos Tsiolkas for musical theatre work Watershed: The Death of Dr Duncan and Harriet Dyer for TV comedy Colin From Accounts.

“David Williamson has done so much for the form of playwriting and also through this award supports the next generation of writers as well,” said Van Den Berg. “To receive an award in his name is pretty incredible.”

Van Den Berg, 31, began his association with the theatre as an actor.

“Since I was a kid, I always wanted to be a storyteller,” he says. “I kicked off my career as an actor. I wasn’t particularly good, but it was something about the act of telling stories in front of a live audience that I really loved. And it wasn’t until maybe five or six years ago when my acting career kind of hadn’t worked out that I thought, hang on, maybe I just need to write roles for myself or tell stories in a different way.