The Australia Post, Our Community Photo Bank Awards

The 2010 Photo Bank Awards are now closed.

You can still contribute photos, but they will not be eligible for prizes for this year's competition.

Voting has also closed and winners have been announced. Click here to read about the winners, or scroll down to the bottom to find links to the winning pictures.

About the Awards

Australians don't have a clear idea of all the things community groups add to our society in every field of activity. We want to make it easier for them. We are building up a gallery of photos that show the full extent of Australia's communities and the people who work with them - a free Photo Bank that can be drawn on by advocates, fundraisers, volunteers, newspapers, and writers.

The Community Photo Bank is open to any community group that needs to illustrate some aspect of the life of the community. You can plug these photos freely into your own projects, making it simpler to show how we work together and care for each other.

We want you all to contribute to documenting Australian community life in all its infinite variety, and to encourage you to participate we're throwing in $5000 in prizes.

What's the prize?

1. The most popular picture
2. The picture that best exemplifies the work of Australian community groups

Each prize is worth $2,500 — $1,000 for the photographer, and another $1,500 for the community group that nominates them.

For everybody else who puts their photos into the community photo bank, you get the opportunity to open up an iconic image of your community and your organisation among people looking for images. If people are writing about you or your community, don't you want them to show you as you want to be portrayed?

Who's eligible?

1. has taken a good photo that they can release for public use (see below) and
2. is nominated or represented by an Australian community group.

How will the winners be chosen?

The winner of the Most Popular Picture Award will be chosen by the votes of visitors to the website. The winner of the Community Groups Award will be chosen by a panel selected from the Australian community sector and representatives of Our Community and Australia Post.

Voting will remain open for three weeks beyond the close of photo entries.

When?

Entry into the 2010 competition will be open from 31 May, 2010 to 15 October, 2010 .

Voting will remain open until 5pm on Friday, November 5, 2010.

The winners will be notified in November 2010.

How?

Submit your photos by uploading them to www.ourcommunity.com.au/marketing/photobank/ or posting them on disc (will not be returned) to: Photo Bank, Our Community, PO Box 354, North Melbourne, 3051

Rights clearance

The group or individual that nominates the photographs takes responsibility for obtaining clearances from the people in them for the use and hosting of the pictures.

Photos will be placed on the site under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 2.5 Australia License, meaning that they can be used freely (but can't be sold or taken away from you or used for commercial purposes). Full terms of the license are available from http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.5/au/legalcode.

Please note that photographs uploaded to this website will be available for public use. We reserve the right to apply discretion in photographs involving children.

Past winners

2010 Awards

Congratulations to Awesome Arts in Western Australia and Ben Macmahon for the Tutti Ensemble in South Australia - the winners of the 2010 Australia Post / Our Community Photo Bank Awards.

• AWESOME Arts for AWESOME Arts Australia Ltd
  (Winner: the photo that best exemplifies the work of the Australian community sector)
  AWESOME Arts Creative Challenge 'Feast' Program visits the Bright Young Things of Jarlmadangah Burru Aboriginal Community (south east of Derby WA). The young people had lots of fun making artworks out of food products.
• Ben Macmahon for Tutti Ensemble
  (Winner: People's Choice Award)
  The Tutti Choir at the World Youth Day concert. The Tutti Ensemble is a recognized leader in community cultural development and disability culture in South Australia. Tutti offers opportunities to both disabled and non-disabled people of all ages to become involved in the visual, performing and digital arts through the Tutti Arts Program and to perform in a range of concerts and music-theatre events through its socially inclusive choral program.

Highly Commended

• Thomas Webb for Blind Sports Victoria
• Jessie Flavel for Community Accommodation & Respite Agency (CARA)
• Evgueni Singatouline for Fairfield Migrant Resources Service
• Ashley Roach from Fullframe Photographics for Spinal Injuries Association
• Bruce Molloy for Veggie Village Community Gardens
• Andrew Mather for Jan Juc Surf Life Saving Club
• Jane Hickling for Animal Welfare League
• Brett Hamlyn for Kyogle Together

2009 Awards

Congratulations to Karen Alsop from the Hillcrest Rangers and Tracy Rockley from the Australian Rett Syndrome Association - the winners of the inaugural Australia Post / Our Community Photo Bank awards (2009).

• View Karen's photo here.
• View Tracy's photo here.