Nine schools from across rural and urban NSW and QLD have been announced as finalists in the 2019 Archibull Prize, with one to be named Grand Champion Archibull at the awards ceremony in Sydney on November 19.

The Archibull Prize is an annual competition, from Picture You in Agriculture, for secondary students designed to encourage conversations between farmers and the community about climate resilient farming and careers in the agriculture sector. Each school partners with a Young Farming Champion and researches an agricultural industry, looks at the challenges and expresses their solutions in animation, words and on a life-sized fibreglass cow known affectionately as an Archie.

Wendy Taylor from Red Blue Architecture and Design was the judge who had the hard decision of narrowing down Archies from the 18 participating schools to the nine finalists.

“We’ve had a great diversity of entries from a range of industries this year, with many showing a real connection to their local communities. Our Archies are quirky, serious, fun, interesting and challenging with strong concepts and beautiful stories.” she said

The 2019 finalists from NSW are Burwood Girls High School (representing wool), Granville Boys High School (representing eggs), Hurlstone Agricultural High School (representing sheep and wool), Manly Campus, Northern Beaches Secondary College (representing wool), Lake Cargelligo Central School (representing grains) and Wee Waa High School (representing grains).

The 2019 finalists from QLD are Beaudesert State High School (representing dairy), Canterbury College and McAuley College, both representing horticulture.

The 2019 Archibull Prize culminates in the awards ceremony to be held at Sydney Olympic Park on Tuesday November 19 to be hosted by special guest and gardening guru Costa Georgiadis. Multiple cash prizes, up to $1,000, will be presented to the winners as well as the coveted title of Grand Champion Archibull.

The general public can also support their favourite Archie by voting in the People’s Choice category here with entries closing on November 7.

The Archibull Prize is supported by Australian Wool Innovation (AWI), Foundation for Rural and Regional Renewal (FRRR), Hunter and Riverina Local Land Services, Royal Agricultural Society of NSW (RAS), Celestino and the University of New England (UNE).

Mega shoutout to our supporting partners supporting young people to solve tomorrows problems today