Past Winners

The Dorothea Mackellar Memorial Society Inc. was founded in 1983 by post-war immigrant Mrs Mikie Maas OAM PHF. Upon arriving in Australia, Ms Mass read “My Country” by Dorothea Mackellar and was deeply moved by the patriotism displayed in the poem.

That same year, Gunnedah celebrated the unveiling of a bronze statue of Dorothea Mackellar sitting side-saddle on a horse. The statue is in ANZAC Park Gunnedah, opposite the Mackellar Centre on South Street. The statue was the result of several years of fundraising by locals, led by Mikie Maas.

In 1984, the society established the Dorothea Mackellar Poetry Awards – the largest children’s poetry competition in the country. The aim of the Dorothea Mackellar Poetry Awards is to capture the imagination of every school student in Australia, inspiring them with a passion for poetry.  It is a unique national project, provides Australia’s youth a voice and an opportunity to strive for excellence in literature.

1984 – “My Country”

The inaugural NSW Schools Poetry Competition was a great success with over 80 schools participating.

The 300 poems written on the topic ‘My Country’ were judged by Rosemary Dobson, one of our leading contemporary poets who has since received the Order of Australia for her contribution to Literature, and Joan Phipson, award-winning author and member of the Literature Board of the Australia Council.

All entries were returned to the schools, together with a report containing the results and winning poems.

All participants received a signed ‘Certificate of Appreciation’ for their contribution.

1985 – “The Place Where I Live”

400 poems were received from 200 participating schools -an amazing increase from the previous year considering this was only the second year the competition had been conducted.

National media attention and in particular, the continued publicity given to the competition by Ian McNamara on the ABC program ‘Australia All Over’, prompted schools from Queensland, the ACT, Victoria and South Australia to submit their pupils’ views on the 1985 them “The Place Where I live”.

As a result, serious thoughts were given to making the competition a national contest in future.

Many entrants took great care in illustrating their work which triggered the introduction of the Anne Bell Prize for the best presented poem. The Prize consisted of a trophy, a book autographed by poet/ artist Anne Bell, and twenty-five dollars cash.