Plus behind-the scenes tales of triumph. Welcome to this special edition of Galah Weekly, our award-winning newsletter that this week celebrates the 2025 Galah Regional Photography Prize and does not mention the election at all. By Dean Southwell, who will make sure he’s at the party next time.
Lisa Sorgini wasn't setting out to create images when she witnessed the impact of the February 2022 floods around Lismore.
Sorgini – who lives at Ocean Shores in the NSW Northern Rivers region – and a friend had instead looked for ways to help while juggling young children and had taken sandwiches and drinks to some of those dealing with the devastation.
“I’m not a photojournalist and I’m uncomfortable capturing people’s difficulties if I can’t relate to it. I was pretty reserved about taking images at the time, although I took a few,” she said.
One of the results is The Flood, a diptych of two images that was announced as the winner of the $25,000 Galah Regional Photography Prize at a party at the New England Regional Art Museum in Armidale on Friday.
Sorgini grew up in the Northern Rivers region and went to high school in Lismore. On Friday she dedicated the award to her Italian-born father, who died a few weeks ago: “He would have been so proud and happy.”
The winning images show Sorgini’s nature-loving son Ari ankle-deep in mud along with a scene of the flood aftermath. Sorgini said it’s a work that reflects her concern – and challenges as a parent – over climate change and how it is reshaping communities and lives.
“That image is textbook Ari, who is really in tune with the environment. The positive in the climate challenge is the way children engage with it and maybe they’re the great hope for dealing with it.”
Sorgini’s work has been awarded and exhibited internationally and in July she will be part of a major Australian exhibition at the Rencontres d’Arles 2025. She is also releasing a book, In Passing, in the next few months.
She said the award was a confirmation of the great talent outside the major cities and a way of connecting regional artists.
Adam Ferguson, one of the five judges and inaugural prize winner in 2023, said the judging panel had looked for images that provided a new or previously unseen perspective on Australia. Sorgini had managed to examine the effect of environmental catastrophe and extreme weather through a very intimate lens.
“It's easy for imagery to focus on the sensational or iconic. Lisa’s work is quite a personal way of looking at climate change. She’s managed to tell the macro through the micro.”
Another Lismore artist, Tajette O’Halloran, and Pia Johnson, of Woodend, Vic., were highly commended.
The $2000 People's Choice award went to Sweetheart, Merriwa, an image by Maitland photographer Thérèse Maher of her daughter Eugenie giving a final farewell to a beloved horse.
The Excellence in Photojournalism award went to Kalgoorlie photographer m ellen burns for her work Tilly Time. Burns will receive mentoring sessions with GoodWeekend photographers and editors.
If you couldn't make it to Armidale in person, but want to see the winners receiving their Golden Galahs, catch up here.
Check out all 42 images in the 2025 Galah Regional Photography Prize, where you can also buy works from the exhibition. It's a great way to support regional photographers while building your contemporary photography collection.
If you’re in the market for health insurance that’s a little closer to home, or built on values similar to your own, you can’t go past Westfund – health insurance from a healthier place. Based in Lithgow, NSW, and available Australia-wide, Westfund is more than a health fund. It's a not-for-profit organisation building a new kind of healthcare for collective good.
Join Westfund on eligible Combined Hospital and Extras cover by 30 September 2025 and we'll waive the two-month waiting periods on Extras. Use promo code WESTFUND25. T&Cs apply. Learn more here.
The $27,000 Galah Regional Photography Prize is the richest regional photography prize in the nation, attracted more than 1100 entries from across regional Australia and its five judges had to compile a final shortlist of 42 works from 37 photographers.
The award was established to shine a light on the talent in regional Australia and to promote the artists behind it.
Galah was established to tell the story of regional Australia that goes beyond stereotypes of simple country people dealing with hardship when we know instead it is full of smart, clever, resilient people and opportunities.
Editor-in-chief Annabelle Hickson says the prize – and its significant prizemoney – signals just how serious Galah is about supporting regional artists.
“We need them to live in our regional communities, to tell our stories, to make beautiful art, to create the cool factor that might draw other people into the town – like doctors or teachers and other people we are crying out for,” Hickson said.
The prize could not have happened without the support and collaboration of NERAM and Armidale Regional Council.
Our official charity partner was the Country Education Foundation, empowering young people from across regional Australia through education.
And our wonderful media partners were GoodWeekend and Found Regional and its platform REGGIE.
Galah subscribers played their part too. In 2023, Hickson saw how even being a finalist could be a financial burden on entrants. This year Galah teamed with the Australian Cultural Fund to create an “artist subsidy fund”. Our flock donated $21,695, which was shared among the finalists to help cover the cost of printing, framing and freight.
Thank you for helping us bring this prize to life.
Judges had the daunting task of whittling down more than 1100 entries to the 42 finalists before choosing a winner.
The brave judging panel was made up of 2023 winner Adam Ferguson, NERAM director Rachael Parsons, Good Weekend magazine editor Katrina Strickland, acclaimed portrait photographer Hugh Stewart and Galah's art editor Fiona Bateman.
Ferguson said entries had been a great representation of regional talent and it had been exciting to walk around the exhibition as part of the final judging. He said art had an important role in telling stories in new ways.
He also spoke of the importance of artistic rigour: “A pretty picture isn’t enough.” It’s why he saw the artists’ statements and the stories behind the images as a critical component of their work.
Rachael Parsons doesn’t take much prompting to speak of the value of art or the role art galleries and museums can play in regional communities. She can also speak to the benefits art prizes.
“Regional galleries and art are intrinsic to the vitality of the communities. Galleries are more than just walls to hang artworks. They’re spaces where communities can engage in culture and ideas,” she said.
“Art prizes serve an important purpose, attracting interest outside the regular art world. They provide new opportunities and a platform for artists in public galleries. And people who work in museums and galleries take notice.”
Parsons had been at NERAM for two years before she was appointed director in 2018. She has been wearing two hats recently, adding the role of Galah Regional Photography Prize judge to her day job.
Like Ferguson, she spoke of the challenge of judging when the quality of entries had been so high but also the fascination of learning what had drawn fellow judges to different works. She also said there had been an incredible response to the exhibition of finalists’ work, which continues until 8 June.
Two very different journeys that started on the other side of the world have crossed paths at Armidale – and became part of Friday's night's story.
More than 20 years ago caterer Laura Swan was living in Herefordshire, near the England-Wales border in the UK. In 2004 and with two young children, Swan and her then-partner bought a cattle farm at Barraba, north of Tamworth.
Two more Australian-born children followed. Swan said Barraba had been a wonderful community to raise them, starting on day one when the real estate agent introduced the newcomers around the town.
Swan had always loved being involved with food and was inspired by her frequent trips to France, where she saw meals as an occasion to be shared.
“I’d always had the ability to get people around the table,” she said. In Barraba, a family who asked her to cater their wedding gave her another push.
So she launched Swan Fine Foods, starting with offerings sold at the local market and moving into catering and specialising in food for weddings and parties.
Later, when school meant constant trips to Armidale, Swan moved to nearby Uralla, buying a former church that had been converted to a cafe.
Swan, whose food was a central part of Friday’s party, admits her approach to her business and the limits she puts on her operation won’t see her build a huge operation. “I think food is a gift you share. I like to honour that gift so if you’re not there yourself it can be hard to get someone else to replicate it.”
About the same time Swan was making a new home near Armidale, the city threw its arms open to another set of migrants.
Between 2018 and 2022 the city helped resettle 650 Ezidi refugees who’d fled the murderous Islamic State regime in northern Iraq and Syria in 2014. Hundreds more have settled in Armidale since.
Many had farming backgrounds and two years ago a local Rotary club helped develop horticultural programs that saw some of the migrants produce crops like tomatoes, capsicums and melons on two 4-hectare plots near the city. Soon their produce became a feature of Armidale markets.
Others, like Salam Qaro and wife Fryal Khudaida, moved into their own businesses. They were among the first Ezidis to move to Armidale and in February opened The Ezidi Food and Bakery.
Swan said the couple also lived a “pay-it-forward” philosophy, providing meals for the homeless. On Friday they contributed traditional breads and dolmades (traditional stuffed vine leaves) to the celebration.
You didn’t have to look far for other regional success stories on Friday.
Orange-based Nadja Wallington and husband Steve Mobbs both come from winemaking families. Their relatively young ChaLou Wines was named 2025 Halliday Dark Horse Winery at the Halliday Wine Companion Awards. On Friday they could be found pouring, chatting, and doing tastings.
Each of Friday’s winners took home a Golden Galah Trophy. The Golden Galah was first crafted by Lithgow-based artist Tim Johnman for the inaugural Galah Regional Photography Prize in 2023.
Johnman designs and manufactures original artwork, producing large and small-scale pieces in a variety of materials including stainless steel, bronze, concrete and clay.
The Golden Galah started as a handmade plasticine model. Then Hycast, a supplier of engineered precision investment castings based in Sydney, turned the model into a mould into which they could pour bronze. They cast a flock of galahs in liquid bronze, then tumbled the birds to create the perfect finish.
Mother’s Day is just a week away but you still have time to give the gift of Galah. To celebrate Mother's Day, every copy of Issue 12 will be delivered in a beautiful package with a packet of Rebecca Starling’s chocolate lace flower seeds from Starling Flowers. Unfortunately we can’t send the seeds to Tasmania, WA or the NT. Read more
The Galah Regional Photography Prize exhibition continues at NERAM until 8 June but there’s a semi-permanent exhibition in Armidale that can’t be missed. The Howard Hinton Collection is the result of one of the greatest acts of artistic philanthropy in Australia. Until 2028 at NERAM, Armidale. Read more
Gigantic by name and grand by nature, this exhibition is all about art that fills the room and commands attention, from huge canvases and sprawling abstracts to oversized objects and large statements. The show features works from 12 artists from the Yass region and beyond. At Tyger Gallery, Yass, until 10 May. Read more
Moree will dish up some of its best regional fare at a wine and food festival that showcases producers, their produce and creatives from across the region. The Moree on a Plate Festival will also feature food writer Roberta Muir hosting live cooking demonstrations using locally grown fare. At Moree, NSW, 10 May. Read more
Don’t expect a quiet night with the Versace Boys. Mullumbimby/Byron-based Will Henderson and Alex Johnson (better known as Coastie) describe themselves as “litta than your sister”.
In 2023 they took their brand of raunchy, energetic music, flamboyant fashion and juicy freestyles to the first Galah Regional Photography Prize party. They returned for the 2025 event in Armidale on Friday night. Here is some insight into their story.
Will, how did you two meet?
I was born in Armidale and did high school in Bellingen. Coastie is from Wollongong. I moved to Germany with my partner, who was studying physical theatre, and eventually spent 10 years there. I was always a musician, growing up learning violin in Armidale, guitar in Bellingen and studied performance at the Sydney Conservatorium.
Berlin life started slowly – I was broke and often busking in the snow. It evolved to more than 30 festivals a year with three bands, playing a fair few shows to more than 5000 people and a heap of nude crowd surfing. Coastie and I met at a Sticky Fingers concert in Berlin. He was touring around, busking and playing shows with his German girlfriend.
What prompted you to form the Versace Boys?
We hit the studio with our producer mate Miggy in a Covid lockdown and made five songs in the five days we were there. After that we started busking at the Mullum markets and now we’ve made it to busking at the Byron markets. Haters said we would never make it.
Why the name?
You can’t get much further away from high fashion than us so we thought it was funny.
What people experience at a Versace Boys gig?
We try to infuse a fair bit of spontaneity through freestyles to make each event unique. We’ve often been described as “satirical hip-hop” or “Ket Pop”. We get inspiration from Flight of the Conchords, Bondi Hipsters, Mark Rebillet and Snoop Dogg.
How do two guys who often wear a chicken onesie onstage describe their dress sense?
Three words darling: “Better than yours”. We do between three and six costume changes every show. The chicken suit gets a good workout and often needs a deep clean.
What’s the most memorable gig you’ve done?
Last year in the middle of winter we played Kuranda Roots in north Qld. It was gorgeous, naked hippies jumping into topaz waterfalls.. It was also the first time we’d used wireless microphones, so we could run around and climb scaffolding for the first time.
You’ve just signed with Origin Records and released an album. What’s next?
Versace Boys have two EPs to release this year. We’re booking up summer and looking forward to Sacred Hearts Fest, Mushroom Valley, Mullum Roots Festival and a heap more regional touring.
We’d love to hear about the news, events and people that should be making the headlines in the Galah Weekly newsletter. Share what’s new(s) in your neck of the woods with us at newsie@galahpress.com
