In 2020, he was a finalist in the Tom Bass Figurative Sculpture Prize and the Jacaranda Acquisitive Drawing Award.
[8] Thurgate's finalist 2019 Dobell Drawing Prize entry was featured in The Guardian.
[9] His finalist 2023 Dobell Drawing Prize was a performance piece drawn on the opening night, a big mural that is semi-permanent, where it was eventually covered with wall paint, and no traces of the drawing would remain.
[10] This is common with Thurgate's work, where it is drawn on the walls with charcoal and displayed for a limited time only.
[11] Thurgate's works are in numerous private and public collections, including National Art School,[2] Maitland Regional Art Gallery,[13] Macquarie University,[14] University of South Australia,[15] Catherine Croll Collection,[16] and Alex Seton Collection.