The Brendan Award was inaugurated in 1997 by the Australian-Irish Heritage Association to honour those who have given outstanding service to the Irish community in Australia and especially in Western Australia.

St Brendan is one of the most revered Saints in Ireland. He was born c489 in Ciarraigh Lua near Tralee in Co Kerry and died c578. He was known as the Navigator as he sailed around the cost of Ireland and the Scottish Isles spreading the word of God and setting up monasteries. He was famous for his seven-year voyage in a search for The Land of Delight during which he was supposed to have discovered America.

The first Brendan Award was sculpted by Irish artists Joan and Charlie Smith and has been presented for the past two decades. Subsequent awards were designed by Denis Bratton and sculpted by Dave Burke of Celtic Swan Furniture and the latest ones sculptured by Charlie Totten. The wood sculpture takes the form of an Irish Standing Stone, many of which are scattered around Ireland. They represent many things, gravesites, boundary markers, and remains of religious structures which may have been used by the druids.