The City of Melbourne congratulates the 2023 Melbourne Awards finalists.
Find out more about the finalists, listed below by award category.
Aboriginal Melbourne - ganbu guljin
Creating positive change for Aboriginal children through sports clinics and workshops.
The Koorie Academy was founded in 2019 by head coach Ricky Baldwin, after noticing the lack of inclusive, safe environments for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander kids to learn basketball and life skills.
Celebrating Culture through sporting clinics, cultural workshops, and dance, the Academy brings children and their families together in an environment that is culturally rich, welcoming, and full of fun. The team of Deadly Coaches, Aboriginal artists and leaders facilitate workshops and clinics for all ages and skill levels, positively impacting the lives of thousands of children.
Bringing together Victoria’s funniest Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander comedians.
Kungari Comedy brings together Victoria's funniest Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander comedians to share funny stories about their experiences in Australia.
This year, Kungari Comedy produced Victoria’s first all-blak female comedy show. Kungari Comedy is produced by Kimmie Lovegrove, a proud Ngarrindjeri woman from the Lower Murray River and Coorong Lakes in South Australia, who has been living in Naarm since 2013. After graduating from RMIT University in 2017, Kimmie spent five years working with Deadly Funny as part of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, before launching Kungari Productions in 2021.
Improving and supporting health and life opportunities for Indigenous people.
In 2004, former AFL legend Michael Long walked from his home in Melbourne all the way to Parliament House in Canberra to champion the plight of Indigenous people. From this feat, the Long Walk charity was born, raising money to support Indigenous education programs.
Nineteen years on, Michael Long and the Long Walk returned to Melbourne with live music performed by some of Australia’s leading Indigenous artists, sport and art activations, food trucks and traditional workshops and ceremonies for families to enjoy. The event concluded with the iconic Walk to the G, part of the traditional Dreamtime match between Essendon and Richmond at the MCG.
Access and Inclusion
Providing stable and meaningful careers for neurodivergent adults.
Australian Spatial Analytics (ASA) is one of Australia’s largest and fastest-growing work-integrated social enterprises. Since 2020, ASA has helped create geospatial and digital engineering careers for more than 150 young neurodivergent adults, including 30 people in Victoria. Their work helps to solve Australia’s skills shortages and data sovereignty concerns while harnessing an untapped source of highly talented and motivated people who perform essential work that otherwise occurs offshore.
ASA also creates enduring social impact for young neurodivergent adults who face a 34% unemployment rate by providing stable and meaningful work; improving their confidence, resilience and well-being.
Fostering a sense of connection to celebrate Autism.
The Autistic Pride Day Symposium (APD) is a new event spearheaded by Just Gold, Australia’s first Autistic-led social enterprise and full-service creative agency. Launched in 2023, The APD Symposium champions neurodiversity and positions Melbourne at the forefront of the neurodiversity dialogue worldwide with a full-day of interactive workshops, presentations and seminars designed to empower and inspire.
Celebrating Autism's strengths, the project combats stigma, promotes inclusive policy making, and empowers the Autistic community, while providing a globally-accessible APD Toolkit to celebrate the day.
A festival of lived experience-led creativity ensuring the arts are accessible for everyone.
Mojo Festival of Arts is an extravaganza of lived-experience-led creativity and community honouring World Schizophrenia Day. Presented by Schizy Inc, an organisation on a mission to make the arts more accessible, Mojo showcases some of the best new stand-up comedy, theatre, music, dance, visual art and literature from artists with diverse and complex mental health. Unique, courageous and optimistic, Mojo Festival of Arts boldly goes where no mental health policy can, and poses for a picture on the way out!
Fostering inclusion and connection for multiple-marginalised disabled people.
The (Un)marginalised podcast is a resource created by and for multiply marginalised disabled people to increase community connections, accessibility, safety, and equity for all.
Creator Liel Bridgford is a proud disabled, immigrant, gender non-conforming femme passionate about enhancing the lives of multiple marginalised disabled people. A provisional psychologist, writer, educator, and podcaster, Liel created (Un)marginalised to focus on intersectionality using a disability-justice approach.
The project addresses barriers to access and inclusion while fostering connections, community, acceptance and pride
City Design
Honouring the victims and survivors of family violence.
The Family Violence Memorial is a landscaped garden that honours victims and survivors of family violence.
Situated on the corner of St Andrews Place and Lansdowne Street, it is a space sculpted by landscape, informed by lived experiences and guided by empathy; a place for people to remember, resist and reflect.
The garden features purple flowers that bloom all year – symbolic of the global movement to end family violence, and a path that leads to an English Elm tree representing the passing of time and renewal. It also includes a smoking vessel and plaque inscription, which recognises the cultural significance of the site.
A transformative urban precinct, steeped in history.
Wesley Place is one of the largest urban renewal projects in Melbourne. Being home to some of Melbourne’s most important ecclesiastical buildings, including Wesley Church, the project sought to respect heritage while supporting the next generation of inner-city community, with frictionless workplaces, curated retail, and plenty of green open space.
Wesley Place is a transformative precinct designed for the future, offering refuge from the adjoining city streets and creating new spaces for connection; an urban park for visitors and workers to unwind and recharge in nature.
Arts and Events
Creating urgent art for urgent times through cross-artform and cross-platform collaborations.
APHIDS is an artist-led experimental art organisation founded in 1994. The group creates experimental work across art forms and contexts: in public space, festivals, digital platforms, across visual and performing arts, major institutions and beyond.
Collaborative and future-focused, APHIDS works with people inside and outside of art world to bring attention to urgent social, political and cultural concerns. Over their almost 30-year history, the organisation has created over 85 new works, resulting in 175 presentations across Australia and the world.
A luscious and decadent celebration of wild art, high hopes, hot dance and future joy.
Internationally acclaimed for their arresting mix of provocation and entertainment, genre-defying theatre company Finucane & Smith create spectacles of humanity, hope, extinction and joy; amplifying extraordinary lesser-heard voices and promoting a future we can all share.
In 2022, teaming with art legends Sofitel Melbourne On Collins, Future. Joy. Club. transformed Sofitel’s mirrored ballroom into the unmissable post-lockdown celebration of hope, humanity, burlesque, art, community and wild joy: a club for everyone, that no-one wanted to leave.
Empowering everyone to express their creativity since 1982.
Since 1982, the Melbourne Fringe Festival has democratised the arts, empowering everyone to express their creativity.
In 2022, the Fringe celebrated its 40th anniversary and reached unprecedented heights with 275,00 attendees, 448 events, 4,800 artists, and 96 venues across the city. Showcasing diverse artforms and amplifying voices from the margins, the Melbourne Fringe Festival is a catalyst for bold and urgent works, generating over $2.5 million in box office revenue and attracting new audiences, with a significant economic impact of $22.9 million.
Bringing together Melbourne’s diverse Muslim community for celebration and connection.
Melbourne’s Muslim community comprises up to 70 ethnically and linguistically diverse groups, and SalamFest brings the whole community together to celebrate being Muslim in Melbourne.
The festival provides an opportunity for all Victorians to immerse themselves in new cultures and experiences while celebrating the artistic offerings of Muslim culture and heritage.
With a true spirit of multiculturalism, SalamFest dreams of a world without hate and discrimination; each annual festival is a step towards that dream.
A small theatre with a huge line-up of comedy, cabaret and kitsch.
The Butterfly Club is a small theatre featuring hundreds of quirky performances like burlesque, cabaret and comedy, alongside award-winning cocktails, and an enormous collection of kitsch.
Since 1999, it has been the perfect place to see the next big thing, and has provided a launchpad for household names including Sammy J and Reuben Kaye. The Butterfly Club’s artists have earned 100+ Green Room Awards nominations and enjoy consistent recognition at major festivals, including the coveted Most Outstanding Show award at the 2023 Melbourne International Comedy Festival.
Community
Inspiring and connecting the community with Victoria's most significant rail projects.
Metro Tunnel HQ is a highly engaging information centre that educates Victorians about the biggest rail infrastructure projects in this State’s history – including the Metro Tunnel Project.
Located in the heart of Melbourne’s CBD, the centre has welcomed over 330,000 guests since it opened in 2018. Its free Education and Community programs have set new benchmarks for public engagement, creating excitement and inspiring young people to pursue careers in infrastructure.
Providing essential support to help vulnerable people care for their pets.
Pets of the Homeless are big believers of the therapeutic role pets play in our mental and general well-being, and they’re on a mission to keep vulnerable people and their pets together.
The organisation provides essential support to owners during times of hardship, including providing pet food, helping with veterinary care and safe shelter.
Founded by Yvonne Yong in 2015 as a single-person effort to deliver donated pet supplies to those living on the streets, the charity quickly grew to a fully-fledged charity organisation, having provided 1.5 million pet meals to date.
Empowering and elevating women of colour in Australia’s STEM fields.
STEM Sisters believe in the power of diversity and inclusion to drive innovation and success. The organisation is dedicated to nurturing, empowering, and elevating women of colour in Australia’s Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields, helping them achieve professional liberation, economic empowerment and the freedom to pursue professional goals, without externally imposed limitations.
STEM Sisters work to break down barriers and create lasting systemic change, ensuring that women of colour are well-represented in STEM education, careers, and leadership positions.
Providing resources and support for those affected by or at risk of homelessness.
The Living Room (powered by Youth Projects) is a primary health service that provides free healthcare and support to improve the physical, mental and social well-being of people experiencing, or are at risk of, homelessness.
A unique place that makes people feel welcome and respected, The Living Room reduces social isolation and provides access to a range of living essentials from critical health services, social supports, food and clean clothes, to phone charging, showers and laundry facilities.
Knowledge and Innovation
Providing a unique way for primary school teachers and students to learn Auslan together.
Auslan Education Services is an innovative business providing Auslan teaching programs to primary schools. Specifically tailored for school-setting age groups, the program fosters whole school participation and provides an invaluable learning environment, where teachers and students learn together.
Now in its second year, the Auslan Program is being successfully used in over 100 primary schools giving students and teachers the opportunity to learn Auslan, and helping to bridge the gap between hearing and deaf people in our community.
Innovation that helps people engage with the history and culture of Fawkner Memorial Park.
Creativa is a creative media and technology company that specialises in animation, live-action, immersive technology, and app development.
Their most recent creation, 'Discover Cemeteries,' co-created with the Greater Metropolitan Cemeteries Trust, changes the way visitors explore Fawkner Memorial Park via an innovative app-based virtual tour. The app blends film, animation, and augmented reality to tell true stories about the history of the cemetery and the people at rest on the grounds.
A unique, innovative, and truly mixed media location-aware experience, Discovery Cemeteries provides Melburnians and visitors with an exciting new way to engage with history, culture and heritage.
Improving outcomes for people with cancer through a shared resource of tissue samples.
The Victorian Cancer Biobank (VCB) provides a coordinated and integrated program that collects and distributes tissue samples to support cancer research to deliver better clinical outcomes to people with cancer.
Established in 2006, VCB is now one of the largest multi-centre collection facilities of its kind in the world, operating as a consortium between Cancer Council Victoria and five major health precincts in Melbourne.
To date, about 40,000 Victorians have participated in this program which has benefited over 300 cancer research projects, with more than 450,000 samples being readily available for emerging research.
Empowering the prosthetics community through virtual reality.
Virtetic is a digital health company enabling people to kick start their journey with a prosthesis through the power of games and immersive technologies.
By practising with a VR prosthesis, people can start functional rehabilitation, manage their phantom pain and learn to use a prosthesis as soon as they can start with therapy.
Virtetic originated from research at the University of Melbourne in collaboration with the Royal Melbourne Hospital and Caulfield Hospital. Virtetic now has collaborations in Spain, the UK, and with the market leader in prosthetics, Ottobock.
LGBTIQ+
Melbourne's most welcoming and inclusive tram.
Launched in December 2022, The #AllAboard tram is one of the most recognisable on Melbourne’s iconic tram network and is a popular feature in the annual Pride March in St Kilda.
The #AllAboard Tram is a tangible representation of Keolis Downer’s (the operator of Yarra Trams) commitment to inclusion, demonstrating everyone is welcome in Melbourne and aboard the tram network.
This is the only tram designed by the public. The #AllAboard Tram is re-wrapped each year following a design competition held in collaboration with leading LGBTQIA+ organisations, giving Melbourne’s rainbow communities a chance to be part of the process and creates a bright and prominent symbol that speaks to their lived experiences.
A rich mosaic of trans joy, beauty, love, power and euphoria.
Gender Euphoria is an extraordinary cabaret phenomenon co-created by Mama Alto and Maude Davey. Featuring the largest all-trans and gender-diverse ensemble to perform in an Australian main stage context, the work platforms a rich mosaic of joy, beauty, love, power and euphoria.
Beyond performance or art, it’s a celebration of queer voices and a rallying cry that empowers trans communities and nurtures positive, inclusive and transformative social change for all.
Improving people's sexual health with professional, non-judgemental care.
The Melbourne Sexual Health Centre is a public clinic delivering world-class clinical services such as sexual health and STI testing, diagnosis and treatment services.
Located in Melbourne but serving across Victoria, the team provide professional and non-judgmental clinical care to ensure that the LGBTIQA+ community always feel welcomed and supported.
Engaging with the government, industry and community, the MSHC responds to emerging issues that affect the LGBTIQA+ community to find solutions to improve people’s sexual health, well-being and quality of life.
Sharing the magic of storytelling for all.
Story time is for everyone is a fabulous story time event, hosted by Melbourne/Narrm's most inclusive drag talent. Whether you're a child or a child-at-heart, everyone deserves to feel included, accepted and loved for who they are through the magic of storytelling.
Determined to not let the threat of violence cancel their right to rainbow storytelling, Story time is for everyone brought together a group of drag entertainers for a virtual story time event, led by Melbourne-based drag queen, Della Katessen
Amplifying the voices of LGBTQIA+ international students and alumni..
The Voices of Us is the first and only podcast dedicated to sharing and amplifying authentic stories of LGBTQIA+ international students and alumni.
Led by and for the community, the podcast delves into topics such as queerness awakening, gender, sexuality, self-acceptance, coming out, cultural responsiveness and support. Voices of Us creates a safe and empowering platform for LGBTQIA+ international students and alumni to feel a sense of belonging while fostering meaningful partnerships to create an inclusive and equitable world for everyone.
Sustainability
Replacing paper receipts with a safe, smart and privacy-protected e-receipt platform.
1receipt® is a unique platform that eliminates paper receipts while issuing, storing, and managing shopping receipts through a smartphone app.
Unlike other e-receipts, shoppers don’t need to reveal any personal information (such as an email or phone number) to the retailer in order to get their receipt. 1receipt® also benefits retailers by giving access to an exclusive “AI-powered” dashboard that empowers them to personalise shoppers' in-store experience.
Revolutionising the fashion industry through a clothing recycling program.
Passionate about tackling the textile pollution problem, RCYCL provides a direct-to-consumer return satchel that allows people to easily recycle their used clothing at the end of its life cycle.
The service creates an immediate impact on the environment while contributing to a circular economy. The team work directly with textile experts to ensure all fibres can be processed and recycled, with nothing going to waste. They also support retailers and brand partners by allowing them to champion the RCYCL message to their customers.