Farm Writers Association of NSW

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Previous Winners

2010 Star Prize for Rural Broadcasting in NSW & ACT (and Australia!)
Farm Writers member and Canberra-based ABC journalist Sarina Locke took out the NSW & ACT prize on her way to winning the national Radio category and the overall national award.

2010 Star Prize for writing – NSW & ACT Finalist
Armidale journalist, Matthew Cawood, the NSW & ACT finalist in the 2010 IFAJ Star Prize writing competition was placed join-second in the national competition.

2008 Star Prize for writing – NSW & ACT Finalist
Armidale journalist, Matthew Cawood, is the NSW & ACT finalist in the 2008 IFAJ Star Prize writing competition for his story ‘Attack on pollinators’ published in The Land newspaper on 10th May 2007. Download’s Matthew’s story...

Bees – part 1
Bees – part 2

Read Matthew’s account of his experience at the 2008 IFAJ Congress, which he attended as part of his prize.

2008 IFAJ/John Deere Star Prize – Australia’s entrant
Brad Cooper from Queensland will represent Australia with his article "The last post: life and death in the Murray Darling Basin"

2008 IFAJ/John Deere International Star Prize for Rural Writing
...will be presented at the IFAJ congress in Austria/Slovenia in September.

2007 Alltech Young Leaders in Rural Journalism NSW & ACT
And the winner is... Lucy Skuthorpe, Canberra bureau chief Rural Press.

2007 Alltech Young Leaders in Rural Journalism – National Winner
Paul Hooper from Western Australia has won the prestigious Alltech Young Leaders in Agricultural Journalism Award for 2007. Paul is wool, business and transport writer for Farm Weekly. Read Paul’s account of his experience at the 2007 IFAJ Congress in Japan, which he attended as part of his prize.

2007 Star Prize – NSW & ACT Finalist
Armidale rural reporter, Matthew Cawood, is the NSW & ACT finalist in the 2007 IFAJ Star Prize writing competition for his story “Guyra graziers locked into cells” published in The Land newspaper on 16th November 2006. Download Matthew’s story...

Guyra graziers locked into cells - page 1 (1.22MB PDF)
Guyra graziers locked into cells - page 2 (630KB PDF)

Star Prize 2007 – Australia’s entrant
The Australian Star Prize for Rural Writing, sponsored by John Deere, with a cash prize of $1,000.00, has been awarded to Aimee Pedler, a senior journalist with the Stock Journal. Aimee’s winning entry was an investigative article looking at a critical shortage of agricultural teachers in South Australia.

IFAJ/John Deere International Star Prize for rural writing 2007
A young Dutch journalist, Marleen van Sleuwen, won the 2007 international award for an article that focussed on the ethical dilemmas facing farmers when managing unhealthy piglets. Van Sleuwen wrote her prize-winning article after only five months as a working journalist. Read more at
http://www.ifaj.org/starprize/2007Winners/index.htm

Star Prize 2006 - Australia's entrant
Congratulations to Neil Lyon who has won the Australian Star Prize for Farm Writing, a cash prize of $1,000, sponsored by John Deere.

Download Part 1 (2MB PDF)
Download Part 2 (3MB PDF)

ACAJ has also announced the winners of the Australian Star Prize for farm photography. Townsville photographer, Evan Morgan, won for a photo that appeared on the front page of the Rural Bulletin, a supplement to the daily Townsville Bulletin. Another Queensland photographer, Chris McCormack, came second and the third place went to South Australian photographer, Sam Wundke.

All four entries represented Australia in the world finals for the international Star Prizes for farm writing and photography. Neil Lyon attended the 2006 Congress in Norway - read his report and two articles:

Farmer co-operatives breath new life into Norway’s dairy industry
Extreme berry production

To read the judges' comments, download ACAJ's media release.

Star Prize 2006 - Winner
Andrew Blake, a member of the British Guild of Agricultural Journalists (GAJ), has won the 2006 Star Prize for farm writing for a story about how agricultural policy has influence changes on a UK farm.

2006 Travel Scholarship - NSW Finalist
Lucy Skuthorp, a journalist with The Land, has won the NSW round of the competition for this exciting opportunity.

2006 Travel Scholarship - National Winner
The national winner of the Alltech/IFAJ Travel Scholarship is the Queensland finalist, Adrienne Francis from ABC Country Hour in Darwin. To read more download ACAJ's media release and download her report on her Congress experience.