Six students from around the country flew in to accept their awards as they were named winners in the competition that drew close to 10,000 entries from 655 schools.

The awards was attended by Federal Member for New England Barnaby Joyce.

“I would like to congratulate all nine winners of the 31st Dorothea Mackellar Poetry Awards, including Aryanne Caminschi from St Mary’s Anglican Girls’ School (Karrinyup, WA) whose poem Riverstone was the winner in the senior secondary category, and Lucia Gelonesi from SCEGGS (Darlinghurst, NSW) whose poem Meeting Helen Keller was the winner in the upper primary category,” Mr Joyce said. 

“My congratulations also go to St Stephen’s Primary School (Tapping, WA), for winning The Sheelah Baxter Award for Primary Schools, and to Cammeraygal High School (Crows Nest, NSW) for receiving the Secondary Schools’ Award.”

Mr Joyce also congratulated the Dorothea Mackellar Poetry Awards Committee members for their “passion and hard work”.

“Dorothea Mackellar’s reflections on this area, but made from another country were the exercise of spirit, sentiment and the exercise of sadness,” he said. 

“And in this reflection she gave us one of the great poems of Australia.”

Mr Joyce said while the poet had lived in Gunnedah for some time, her famous poem My Country was written while she was in England reflecting on her home country.

Guest speaker for the awards presentation was author Sophie Masson, who has written more than 50 novels for children.

Ms Masson said she believed this year’s award theme of “The Open Door” was well chosen.

“Poetry represents an opportunity to escape, and can represent a view to something else,” she said.

“Poetry helps us to see beyond.”

Secondary judge for the awards, writer Nette Hilton, praised the students who entered the 2015 competition.

“These students have astounded me with their understanding of the power of words and have used it so effectively and efficiently to involve me in their journeys,” she said.

“I have walked many walks and heard many tales. I have seen evidence of pain in the imagined journeys of refugees, I have witnessed the outrage at inequality – if it was left to these poets, there’d be no such thing as racism, or refugees, or gender inequity.

“I have laughed out loud at some of the humour and the wickedness of implied meanings.”

Primary judge and writer Corinne Fenton said it had been a “special privilege to hear the voices of Australian primary school children sharing their joys, worries, celebrations and concerns, large and small pieces of their lives, captured in the words they shared in their precious poetry”.

The awards were held during National Literacy and Numeracy Week and this year were granted three years funding through the federal government.

There are three new patrons for the awards this year – former Queensland judge Margaret White, Whitehaven Coal chairman and former Deputy Prime Minister Mark Vaile, and Professor Peter Shergold from Western Sydney University.

Minister for Education and Training Christopher Pyne also congratulated the winners of the awards. 

“These awards, named after one of Australia’s best-loved poets – Dorothea Mackellar – offer students of all ages from schools throughout Australia an opportunity to explore and engage with poetry,” Mr Pyne said. 

Winners of the awards were: Senior secondary – Aryanne Caminschi, Western Australia; junior secondary – Lily McCann, Tasmania; assisted learning secondary –  Evan Feng, NSW; upper primary – Lucia Gelonesi, NSW; lower primary – Charlie Carroll, NSW; assisted learning primary – Aasha Rahman, NSW; Multicultural NSW Award – Katja Dedekind, Queensland; the Sheelah Baxter Award for Primary schools – St Stephen’s Primary School, Tapping, Western Australia;  Schools’ award secondary – Cammeraygal High School, Crows Nest, NSW.