Forty-two entrants from Toogoolawah to Beulah have been chosen as finalists in regional Australia’s richest photography prize for regional artists, and two have a strong connection to the Birchip P-12 School.

Naomi McKenzie (nee Ferrier), ex-student of Birchip P-12 and the daughter of Robyn and John Ferrier, of Birchip, and Amelia Scholtz, a current Birchip P-12 School teacher and farmer at Beulah with partner Riley Lehmann, are two of this year’s finalists vying for the $27,000 Galah Regional Photography Prize.

The judging panel selected 42 images made by 37 regional photographers from more than 1100 entries across regional Australia and these works will be presented at the New England Regional Art Museum in Armidale, NSW, in an eight week exhibition from April 11 to June 8, 2025.

The winning works will be announced at an exhibition party at NERAM on Friday, May 2, 2025. 

Galah 
The biennial “Galah” Regional Photography Prize was established by Galah Press editor Annabelle Hickson.  Annabelle didn’t plan to live in regional Australia, but she fell in love with a farmer from western NSW and thought she’d give it a shot. 

She had previously had a journalism career at “The Australian” and twelve years after moving west, as the 2019-2020 drought eased, Annabelle wanted to read stories from regional Australia that weren’t about disadvantage.  

She wanted a publication that assumed people in regional Australia were a smart and increasingly diverse lot, who cared about community and creativity and the environment, as well as profitability. And she wanted a publication that acted as a bridge between the city and country divide. So, she made “Galah”.

In 2023 Annabelle created the photography competition to encourage excellence in contemporary photography from regional Australia. The intention of the prize is to celebrate, support and advance the practice of regional photographers and this is great recognition for Naomi and Amelia.

Amelia
Amelia has her own photography business titled “Rural Haus Photography” (which is a nod to her German heritage) and she specialises in documenting stories of families, farms and small businesses around rural Australia. 

Naomi 
Naomi is currently exhibiting “Elemental Reciprocity” at the Condensery Somerset Regional Art Gallery in Queensland.

“Elemental Reciprocity” captures a Scar Tree on Dungibara Country symbolising the family’s sacred connections to Dungibara Country, as well as their commitment to their multi-generational agricultural lands. In this composition, Naomi has merged new film photographs and pictures from the family’s personal archive. Using a solution derived from the tree’s eucalyptus leaves, Naomi has developed the resulting photographs in her Toogoolawah studio, creating a technical process entangled with the tree itself. 

Congratulations to Naomi and Amelia and good luck for the final.