2020 Awards.jpg)
In a most unusual year, the Dorothea Mackellar Poetry Awards were still able to adapt and push through to captivate a nation of young poets. Not only did we survive, but we also beat last year’s entry numbers with a whopping 7,600 submissions!
Normally, winners and their families would be flown to Gunnedah to be presented with their prizes, however, this year the Awards came to them. They each put an enormous amount of effort into supplying us with a video reciting their poems and saying what winning their award means to them.
The Society engaged a professional film crew to capture our whole 2020 Presentation Ceremony where we hear from the President, Judges, Ministers of Education, Patrons, Winners and our Project Officer. It’s a true delight to watch and we encourage you to watch it to understand how important poetry is, and the breadth of Australia we reach with this national competition. See it here: www.dorothea.com.au/presentation-ceremony.
The Dorothea Mackellar Poetry Awards wishes to thank all the teachers, students and parents who submitted poetry this year, as well as the sponsors, special guests and VIP's who make this whole competition possible.
Click on the 2020 poster on the right to see the 2020 Presentation Booklet!
We look forward to seeing next year's entries!
Congratulations to the below students who captivated the judges with their imagination and creativity.
Also worth mentioning are the students who received a Commended, Highly-Commended or Shortlisted poem. Our judges gave special feedback for each one. Our Project Officer, Brittany, has put together a document containing a list of the poems, as well as the judges’ comments.
Click here to see the document.
The 2020 anthology is available to pre-order now. We also offer a digital version to reduce paper wastage. Orders are expected to be sent in October-November.
See order form here.
Our winners and runners-up for this year are as follows:
Category |
Poet |
Poem & Judges' Comments |
Lower Primary |
Nina Cordaro |
|
Lower Primary |
Adele Scully |
|
Upper Primary |
Iris Jiang |
|
Upper Primary |
Dorian Ndongo-Empesa |
“Haiku” |
Assisted Learning Primary |
Curtis Giang |
|
Assisted Learning Primary |
Larissa Ma |
“Gone” |
David Maher Award for Small Schools Winner |
Max Shearer |
“Darkness” |
Kurrumbede Award Winner |
Evie Watt |
“Cotton” |
Junior Secondary |
Ivy Downes |
“Stars” |
Junior Secondary |
Janice Han |
“Poem 1” |
Senior Secondary |
Theo Harkin |
“mist” |
Senior Secondary |
Janiru Liyanage |
|
Assisted Learning Secondary |
Lola Wang |
“Flowers” |
Assisted Learning Secondary |
Adrian Burns |
|
Schools' Award Primary |
Redeemer Baptist School, North Parramatta NSW |
|
Schools’ Award Secondary |
Darwin Middle School, Parap NT |
|
Previous Winners
Click year below to view poetry from earlier competitions.
2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014,