Earlier this year children and young people from Kindergarten to Year 12 were invited to take part in the 2025 Dorothea Mackellar Poetry Awards, Australia’s largest and longest-running poetry competition for students.
This year’s optional theme was ‘All the beautiful things’. More than 6,000 students entered from across the country, showcasing the creativity and imagination of young Australians. The winners were announced on Friday 5 September, with 11 winners and 6 runners-up recognised for their outstanding work.
Rebecca Ryan, President of the Dorothea Mackellar Society, praised the quality and diversity of this year’s poems:
“The written word is powerful. I was in awe of how lines of text written by children from around Australia spoke not only to their lived experience but mine too! More than that, they were brave enough to share all their feelings with us, to be judged,” said Rebecca.
“I have a love for the written word and a well communicated idea. However, we are living in a time where the rights of creatives are under threat. It’s a world where AI companies data mine the work of poets, writers, filmmakers, songwriters to produce a ‘new’ artificially generated work.”
The Dorothea Mackellar Poetry Awards aim to capture the imaginations of students nationwide, inspiring them to express their thoughts, feelings and experiences through poetry in their pursuit of literary excellence. The Department of Education sponsors the Dorothea Mackellar Poetry Awards.
To explore the 2025 winners and runners-up poems, visit: Dorothea Mackellar Poetry Awards.