Overall winner: Nature’s Prey

Tour boats had been watching the young whale for days as it slowly moved through the bay, appearing sicker and slower with more shark bites over its body day after day. Friends had spotted an oil slick on the surface caused by the fallen whale. I rushed out to their location and jumped in the water to find the skeleton of the young humpback whale laying still on the ocean floor. Surrounding the bare bones were several different species of well-fed sharks. Coral Bay, Western Australia.

Animals in nature winner: Night Light Dining

Each spring, the Great Dividing Range is treated to a magical event. After sunset, bioluminescent fireflies emerge from the darkest corners of the forest for a short time. However, they’re not entirely safe. Insectivorous dusky leaf-nosed bats leaving their roost capture fireflies mid-flight, displaying a stunning acrobatic aerial battle. Queensland.

Urban Animals: Total bliss

One of my two resident magpies enjoying (really enjoying!) the sprinkler on a warm afternoon. Clare Valley, South Australia.

Winner our impact: Snagged

While trying to jump fences, kangaroos sometimes get their feet snagged on the wire. Their upper body flips toward the ground, tangling their legs in the wires. Known as ‘fence hanging’, the individual has no way of getting up or freeing itself and usually dies, unless a human can free it. Darlington Point, New South Wales.

Monochrome runner up: Crackle and Pop

A storm passed in front of our house. I have never been so close to lightning strikes. The thunder rolled like undulating galvanised steel sheets. This is a single frame capturing the ferocity of the downpour and the energy released from the lightning strikes. Middleton, South Australia.

Our impact: Reduce Reuse Recycle

Waste is not just waste but a whole other resource; let’s start using all our resources constructively. An Indo hermit crab (Coenobita) in Raja Ampat, Indonesia.

Monochrome: Spectre of the Skies

The black-shouldered kite is a small raptor commonly seen in agricultural areas. When hunting, they appear to float in one spot while rapidly flapping their wings with their eyes fixated on their prey. Moments after this was captured, the kite dropped into tall grass to collect some lunch. Toora, Victoria.

Landscape runner up: Forces of Nature

A stormy afternoon at the start of autumn in Western Australia’s wheatbelt watching dark clouds moving across the land, dropping rain as they went. As the wind picked up, clouds of dust were created ahead of the rain and hail that followed.

Junior: Monarch Caterpillar

Adult monarchs are striking with their distinctive orange and black markings, but their larvae are equally fascinating with their conspicuous yellow, black and white bands. This shot was captured after a shower of rain, leaving the plants and their fellow residents covered in jewel-like droplets of water. Tai Tapu, New Zealand.

Landscape: Lost World

The Lost World is located on the north-eastern slopes of kunanyi / Mount Wellington, Tasmania. At 1,100 metres above sea level, the area is made up of 180-million-year-old dolerite formations. This image was captured after a prolonged period of whiteout conditions.

Junior runner up: Abstraction of an Icon

My image Abstraction of an Icon is an expressive depiction of a kangaroo spotted whilst climbing along the rocks at Friendly Beaches, Tasmania. I used a slow shutter speed to obscure the form and to capture the power, grace and speed of this national symbol.

Botanical: From little things

The ability of mangrove trees to survive in such a harsh environment never ceases to amaze. If this sapling survives the high salinity, daily tides and scorching sun, it may grow to be as large as those behind it. Port Kembla, New South Wales.

Urban animals: Swaying in the breeze

Lacewings are a group of insects that lay beautiful, pearly white eggs atop a shimmering stalk. Around homes, they often lay their eggs on wooden doorframes, but sometimes they lay them elsewhere, like on the ol’ clothes peg. In good news, these eggs all successfully hatched! Bensville, New South Wales.

Astrophotography : The Silence

The Silence. Taken right before the Milky Way disappeared into blue hour on a dead silent foggy morning. Toolondo Reservoir, Victoria.

Botanical runner up: Gnarled Mossy Cloud Forest

The plateau of Mount Gower (868 metres) is home to a critically endangered ecological community known as the gnarled mossy cloud forest. This stunted forest is home to many endemic and endangered plants found nowhere else, bound by dramatic slopes that descend through the clouds into the sea below. Lord Howe Island, New South Wales.

Animals in nature runner up: Midnight Seahorse

A knobby seahorse hunts its prey in the cold night-time waters off Kettering, Tasmania. Sitting still amongst the seagrass, they become almost invisible to the untrained eye. It’s an amazing experience seeing these tiny seahorses hunt their crustacean prey late at night.

Threatened species winner: Ocean Giant

A whale shark, whose status is endangered, engulfs a bait ball of fish on the Ningaloo Reef. Little is known about this behaviour, as it is so rare only a handful of records exist. The sharks are too slow, so must rely on the efforts of other predators such as tuna to catch them. Coral Bay, Western Australia.

Astrophotography: Star Fall

A roaring Pelverata Falls plunges off the moonlit escarpment as the galactic core of the Milky Way rises above Snug Tiers Nature Recreation Area, Tasmania.