The Maroondah Photographic Competition is an annual event open to all residents, employees and visitors of Maroondah. The competition showcases the photographic talents of the community and highlights landmarks and features within the municipality.

Entrants are able to submit two A4 sized photographs for the competition, which are displayed at an exhibition at The Maroondah Art Gallery at Maroondah Federation Estate. There are three categories for the competition, including junior (up to age twelve), intermediate (13 to 17 years) and open (all ages).

This year’s competition saw 121 entries and this this evening I had the pleasure of launching the exhibition and announcing the winners for each category, including the Mayors Encouragement Award.

All submitted photographs will be on exhibition until the 24th of July at the Maroondah Art Gallery.

The speech I delivered, including the awards recipients for the evening, is available within this post:

Good evening and welcome to the 2010 Maroondah Photographic Competition at the Maroondah Art Gallery at Maroondah Federation Estate. This week marks NAIDOC Week and I would like to begin by providing the Acknowledgement of Country in recognition of the traditional owners of this land.

In the spirit of Reconciliation, we acknowledge that we are meeting on land for which the Wurundjeri people have been custodians for many centuries, and on land which the Indigenous Australians have performed age old ceremonies.

We, Maroondah City Council, accept, respect and have shared with the Wurundjeri people in their customs of welcome.

The Wurundjeri people support the coming together of all people, respecting their individuality to focus on a unified and cohesive nation.

I would like to welcome my fellow Councillors, Cr Rob Steane and Cr. Paul Macdonald, as well as Frank Dixon, Maroondah’s CEO and Helen Croxford the Director of Community and Leisure Services.

I’d also like to acknowledge the ongoing support from received from sponsors for the competition, including Croydon Camera House, Hoyts Cinemas, The Maroondah Journal and Eastland.

We are very grateful to these organisations for their generosity in providing prizes and support to this competition which is now in its 14 year. Croydon Camera House has been providing the winning prizes for fourteen years now. Hoyts is providing the second prizes and the Mayor’s Encouragement Award is courtesy of Eastland.

The Maroondah Journal has again given the competition great support and promotion. We look forward to seeing some of this year’s entries featured in next week’s issue.

Please join me in thanking all our sponsors for their on-going support.

You’ll find a wonderful array of photos displayed here tonight and I’m sure you’ll agree that the standard is again exceptionally high. The Maroondah Photographic Competition encourages everyone in our community to showcase their photography skills and I would like to congratulate each of the entrants in this year’s competition.

There are 121 photos, taken by 70 photographers and with so many excellent photos entered, it has been really difficult for the judges to select the winners. There are three categories of entries, plus the Mayor’s Award this year:

• A Junior Category for entrants aged up to 12 years;
• An Intermediate Category for entrants aged between 13 and 17 years;
• The Open Section for entrants 18 years and over

Before I announce the winners, I would like to make special note of the 11 junior entrants in this year’s competition. We have a special Certificate of Appreciation for each of you which I will present now.

Junior Category

2nd Prize, the Hoyts tickets – Mia Sango for “Little brother drawing”.
1st Prize, a voucher to the value of $100 from Croydon Camera House – Courtney Blyth for “Don’t think I should be sitting here?”

Intermediate Category

2nd Prize, from Hoyts – Stephanie Lamb for “Friends and Fun”.
1st Prize, a $200 Croydon Camera House voucher – Stephanie Lillis for “Reflections in the Lake”.

Open Category

2nd Prize, from Hoyts – Ciaran Magee for “Quiet autumn”.
1st Prize, the $300 voucher from Croydon Camera House – Roger Frost for “Under the gum trees”.

Congratulations to each of the category winners. The Mayor’s Prize has been awarded to a photograph that in my view had an excellent use of colour and scenery. The A $200 Eastland shopping voucher is awarded to Merryl Vaughan for “Shimmering reeds”.

Congratulations to all this year’s prize winners for their wonderful photos. Please also show your appreciation with a round of applause and thank you once again for attending our Award Presentation tonight.

Please take some time to view the competition photos in the Muriel McGivern room. In the J.A.Turner room beyond you’ll find an exhibition of some of the works from Council’s Art Collection.

Please encourage your friends and neighbours to visit both exhibitions, which will be here at the Maroondah Art Gallery until the 24th of July.