The winning shot, Bubble-net, was captured by Western Australian photographer and tour operator Scott Portelli as part of a sailing expedition to Antarctica last year.

Bubble-net feeding is a cooperative hunting strategy used by humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae). As the whales surround a school of small fish, they make a team effort to disorient and corral the fish into a ‘net’ of bubbles. One whale will sound a call, at which point they’ll all swim up, with opened mouths, to feed on the trapped fish.

Portelli was on a small 60-foot yacht when he took the winning image. “There was one day where the weather was shifting between overcast and snowing. I sat and watched these whales bubble-netting for about six hours, but trying to capture that moment when they break the surface came down to persistence and timing.”

It’s widely believed that the whales developed this feeding method after they were hunted to near extinction, allowing as many of them as possible to feed in a short time.

As the overall winner, Portelli receives a cash prize of $10,000 and a holiday prize generously provided by Coral Expeditions. This is second time lucky for Portelli, who also won the competition in 2021 with an image of the elusive leafy sea dragon taken at South Australia’s Second Valley.

Portelli heads up a high-calibre field of 10 category winners unveiled by South Australian Museum Chief Executive Dr David Gaimster last night in an online ceremony, before the annual exhibition of all 91 finalists opens to the public on Saturday 31 August.

Now in its 21st year, the competition – which is owned and produced by the South Australian Museum – drew 1856 entries from 442 photographers across 12 countries in its search for the best wildlife and landscape photographs taken across the Australia, New Zealand, Antarctica and New Guinea bioregions.

Among the other winners, South Australia’s David Dahlenburg won the Portfolio category, in which photographers enter a group of six images with a shared theme.

His photo series, Grotesque Beauty, depicts tailings dams used to store byproducts of mining operations, located from South Australia’s Eyre Peninsula to the Far North. Dahlenburg works at a Barossa wine company by day but captured the images while flying for fun in a light aeroplane.

“Tailings dams have a sinister beauty—the colours are extraordinary,” Dahlenburg said. “They often contain waste materials, such as toxic chemicals and heavy metals, which can harm birdlife and groundwater. It’s estimated that there are about 18,000 tailings dams around the world.”

Of the imagery, this year’s judges, Chrissie Goldrick, Petra Leary and Andrew Meares, said: “This series of photographs addresses human impact on the environment, depicting a terrible beauty that is the often-unseen reality of mining.”

The other categories in the competition are Animals in Nature, Aerial, Macro, Landscape, Threatened Species, Monochrome, Our Impact, and Astrophotography. There is also a People’s Choice prize, voted by visitors to the exhibition, and a Junior category for budding photographers aged under 18.

Adelaide’s Maya Hughes, 14, won the Junior category for her picture of a pelican’s delicate head and neck feathers at South Australia’s Encounter Bay. “If I can inspire an appreciation and love of the natural world, conservation will follow,” Hughes said.

South Australian Museum CEO Dr David Gaimster congratulated this year’s winners. “The world around us has always been a natural subject for photographers. But the advent of photography has also coincided with nearly two centuries of unprecedented biodiversity loss.

“This makes the work of nature photographers all the more urgent and inspiring, and once again, the Australian Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year competition and exhibition has brought together another stunning group of finalists, capturing nature at every scale and in every corner of our unique bioregion.”

Australian Geographic Group Picture Editor Nicky Catley said: “We hope these photographs ignite your curiosity and wonder as they did for us, offering artful windows into non-human worlds. They remind us we must respect and care for nature, with an understanding that humans are not at the centre of existence, nor separate to other communities of life.”  

Minister for the Arts, Andrea Michaels said: "For over two decades, this prestigious competition has given photographers and audiences alike the chance to view the incredible wonders of our environment.

Through the lenses of these photographers, we can pause and contemplate the profound sense of connection and serenity that nature gives us.

I congratulate all of the entrants whose fantastic work is featured in the exhibition and send my particular congratulations to all of this year's exceptional winners."

The exhibition will open to the public at the South Australian Museum from Saturday 31 August until Sunday 3 November 2024. Tickets are available now via Humanitix.

For further information and to view the winners, runners-up and finalists, visit samuseum.sa.gov.au/c/npoty/gallery.

All winners and finalists will feature in the 2024 Australian Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year book, available at the South Australian Museum shop, online through Australian Geographic and at all leading bookstores through Hardie Grant Publishing.

2024 Australian Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year winners and runners-up:

Overall winner: Bubble-net, Scott Portelli (WA)

Animals in Nature:

Winner: Emperor’s Rule, Wayne Sorensen (QLD)

Runner-up: Dawn Departure, Justin Gilligan (NSW)

Aerial:

Winner: Angel Wings, Tim Burgess (ACT)

Runner-up: White Egret, Charles Davis (NSW)

Astrophotography:
Winner: Rainbow Valley – Valley of the Stars, Brody Gamble (NT)

Runner-up: Aura, Jose Luis Cantabrana Garcia (NSW)

Threatened Species:

Winner: Teen Spirit, Richard Robinson (NZ)

Runner-up: Shrieking Carnaby, Nathan Watson (WA)

Our Impact:
Winner: Unseen 22, Matthew Bagley (Vic)

Runner-up: Tailings Dam, David Dahlenburg (SA)

Landscape:

Winner: Aurum, Benjamin Alldridge (Tas)

Runner-up: Sideralis Symphonia, Jose Luis Cantabrana Garcia (NSW)

Macro:

Winner: Symmetry of Lurking, Adam Javorčík (Slovakia)

Runner-up: A Window to the Underworld, Jakub Hodan (Slovakia)

Monochrome:

Winner: Light Through the Darkness, Beth Baker (WA)

Runner-up: Inspection, Charles Davis (NSW)

Portfolio:

Winner: Grotesque Beauty, David Dahlenburg (SA)

Junior:

Winner: Elegance, Maya Hughes (SA)

Runner-up: Nest of Silk, Oliver Lacey (QLD)

- ENDS -

For more information or to organise an interview, please contact: 

Marketing and Communications, South Australian Museum

0434 880 950 media@samuseum.sa.gov.au                                                                                                              

Images:

To download the images of winners, runners-up, and finalists, please head here.  

High-resolution images and captions available on request.

Note: watermarked images MUST be used online. Letterboxed images can be supplied to a specific size if required. Images must not be cropped. Watermarks must not be cropped out.

Editor’s notes:

• The Australian Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year competition was formerly known as ANZANG.

• The competition and resulting exhibition are owned, managed and produced by the South Australian Museum.

• The Australian Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year competition is a partnership between the South Australian Museum and Australian Geographic.

• The South Australian Museum gratefully acknowledges the support of Dr Stuart Miller AM, founder and patron of ANZANG, and his sister, Mrs Alison Huber, in memory of their parents, Dr Robert and Mrs Clarice Miller, both late of Waikerie, South Australia.

Image Usage Requirements 

Usage

All files/images are orientated correctly for display and must be reproduced in the orientation that they appear. Images can be resized but not rotated or flipped. They must be reproduced at a sufficiently high resolution to ensure that the photographs are not distorted, blurred, pixelated, or otherwise altered without written approval from the South Australian Museum. Images cannot be cropped except where this is clearly stated in the caption as a ‘detail’. 

Any images reproduced for online channels must use the watermarked versions of the image, as supplied by the South Australian Museum unless otherwise advised. Watermarked images may not be cropped.

Copyright 

All images are the property of the photographers and can only be used to promote the Australian Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year competition and exhibition, or to illustrate stories about the competition and exhibition. No other usage is permissible except where arranged in writing with the South Australian Museum and the photographer. 

Mandatory Credit  

The credit “The Australian Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year competition is produced by the South Australian Museum” must appear in the editorial copy. 

Photographer’s Credit 

The name of the photographer and the name of their photograph must be included in captions as a minimum requirement in the following format: Title of photograph by First name Surname or First name Surname’s photograph entitled Title of photograph.  

Including additional information in the caption such as the category, prize placement or where the photographer is from is permissible as long as the above conditions are met. 

About the South Australian Museum

The South Australian Museum has been committed to making Australia’s natural and cultural heritage accessible, engaging and fun for over 165 years.

It is a place where families can learn and grow together. Today the Museum is one of the most visited museums in Australia and holds collections of national and international significance.

About the 2024 Judges

Based in Auckland, Petra Leary is an accomplished artist specialising in Aerial Photography. Her award-winning work has gained global recognition and has been showcased on prestigious platforms such as The Guardian, Instagram, Type7 by Porsche, Accidently Wes Anderson, Sony World Photo, SkyPixel, and many more. This recognition extends to judging several photography competitions including the Australian Photographer of the year for the past five years. Petra’s artistic style is characterised by a strong graphic element, influenced by her innate design sensibility. She creates a strong visual composition that embraces symmetry and colour, while still maintaining a minimalist feel and an iconoclastic eye for pop culture.

Andrew Meares is Deputy Director ANU School of Cybernetics, an Associate Professor, and lead of the Cybernetic Futures group. Andrew’s research activities comprise the creation, circulation, and curation of images. Andrew is leading work in visual cybernetics, which applies cybernetic approaches to help understand how systems are built, sustained and maintained, both imagined and observed. Andrew brings 30 years of industry experience as a Walkley award-winning photojournalist at the Sydney Morning Herald, a media industry leader, and as a political communications specialist. He has covered politics, protests, portraits, bushfires, coups, and warzones. Andrew’s photography practice now spans platforms from aerial to 4x5 inch analogue and contextualises the computational image.

Chrissie Goldrick was appointed Chair of the Australian Geographic Society in August 2023, having served as Editor-in-Chief of Australian Geographic for the previous decade. She came from a background in UK television news and newspapers to work in the picture department of Australian Geographic in 1998, and last year, marked 25 years with the much-loved media brand. Over the years, as well as travelling to shoot feature stories, Chrissie has acted as a leader on numerous Australian Geographic expeditions and has chaired both advisory committees and awards committees. She first judged the Australian Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year in 2012, after which she approached the South Australian Museum with a proposal to form a partnership to help promote and grow this visual celebration of Australia’s natural environment.