The Victorian Country Press Association’s night of nights was hosted last week, seeing for the first time in 30 years Victoria and New South Wales join forces in Yarrawonga to host the event.
It was a major gathering of the regional publishing sector and delivered an outstanding result for our group across multiple mastheads and categories.
The two day event of networking, a conference and the anticipated awards presentation evening saw the likes of Gold Walkley journalist Nick McKenzie, theatre owner and property developer David Marriner, The Age editor Patrick Elligett and journalist turned Professor Andrea Carson speak.
McKenzie spoke about his early years reporting in Wagga Wagga for the ABC and how formative that experience was, both for his own development and for the community he served.
His remarks were a timely reminder of the essential role regional newspapers play in public interest journalism across Australia.
The Star Mail this year received a nomination for its six-week campaign in the lead up to the Federal election which investigated the necessity of an operating CCTV network across the Yarra Ranges. It was titled Capturing the Yarra Ranges.
This had been an issue raised across various townships over several years after the Federal Government initially funded the installation of cameras but did not fund ongoing maintenance.
Until Star Mail’s investigation, the state and condition of the cameras and network were unclear, but it was soon revealed that the majority of the cameras were unusable.
The nomination for Best Editorial Campaign saw Star Mail walk away with a Highly Commended recognition from judge, Professor Kristy Hess.
Her comments were that “The campaign was simple and targeted. The newspaper ran a series of articles calling for a working CCT network to improve public safety. It was clear and branded appropriately. The series engaged the community. Stories were well written, and the campaign branded effectively.”
Ms Hess said this year’s editorial campaign category was hard to judge.
“I have judged this category for the past two years and the quality of entries this year far exceeded expectations, making this a tough one to judge in 2025,” she said.
“There were some innovative ideas from a podcast series giving voice to the experiences of local war veterans, to a classic campaign to improve street safety.”
The winner of this category was a newly acquired associate newspaper for Star News Group, The Guardian in Swan Hill, who through a fundraising campaign was able to deliver a local MRI machine.
Despite not winning, the team at Star Mail who worked on the six week campaign, Mikayla van Loon, Callum Ludwig, Dongyun Kwon, Tanya Steele and Shamsiya Hussainpoor, were extremely proud to have received a nomination and highly commended for their efforts.
It was a big task as a small newsroom to investigate such a topic and was the culmination of lots of research, interviews, teamwork and discussion.
Thanks to all in the community who contributed, spoke to us, provided insight into the challenges facing each township and helped bring this campaign to life.
Star Mail photographer Stewart Chambers also nabbed a Commended recognition for his photograph of Bridget Murphy and her horse Macey, who were preparing for their Paralympics debut in Paris in the Best Sports Photo category.
“A wonderful photo, plenty of emotion captured and nicely cropped to give impact on the page,” Judge Nigel Hallett said.
One of the most significant achievements for the group at the awards came from the Portland Observer, where photographer Nicole Cleary won Best News Photo, Best Overall Photo, and then the National CPA Best Photo Award, securing a rare triple title.
The Portland Observer was also Highly Commended in its Newspaper Excellence category, an incredible result for a masthead that was closed by its former owners in December and relaunched in January. Managing Editor Marlene Punton proudly accepted the awards, a powerful symbol of both revival and excellence.
The Pakenham Gazette’s Rob Carew features in the awards most years and this year won Best Agricultural Photo. Tara Murray, sports editor for the Star Weekly based in Melbourne’s North West won Best Sports Story in the Wyndham Star Weekly.
“Congratulations to all involved. Your work continues to set the standard for regional Australian journalism and producers of regional and local news media,” Star News Group managing director Paul Thomas said.
“(These awards) reflect excellence in local storytelling, newsroom resilience and renewal, industry leading photojournalism, and the pride our teams take in serving their communities.”
