The winners of the 2025 Caring for Country Music competition have been announced today, celebrating creative and cultural biosecurity messages across northern Australia.
Now in its second year, the competition expanded to include Western Australia and Queensland, strengthening cross-jurisdictional biosecurity awareness through music and dance.
The 2025 Caring for Country Music Competition winners are:
Group: Tread Lightly - Callum Pask and SOLCHLD (Aurora Liddle-Christie), QLD
School: Biosecurity - Parap Primary School Year 5/6, NT
Solo: Feral Cats - Tim Darby, WA
Dance: Caring for Country (Gatapaŋa), Yirrkala School, NT
People's Choice: Homeward Bound, Sally Balfour, NT
The competition encourages communities to connect with biosecurity in a fun, creative and accessible ways, promoting early detection, monitoring and understanding of pests and diseases.
A new Dance Video category was added in 2025, supporting creative visual storytelling and recognising the role of movement and performance - especially within First Nations cultures.
Entries were judged on creativity, originality, musicality and alignment with biosecurity themes.
Department of Agriculture and Fisheries CEO Amelia Vellar said the Caring for Country Music Competition is a creative and engaging way to raise biosecurity awareness across the Territory and broader northern Australia.
"We all share responsibility for keeping the Territory safe from pests and diseases. Using music and dance to spread biosecurity messages is an effective way to reach everyone," Ms Vellar said.
"Congratulations to all winners and entrants for helping spread the word."
The NT Department of Agriculture and Fisheries delivered the competition in partnership with MusicNT, with funding provided by the Australian Government's Northern Australia Biosecurity Strategy (NABS).
MusicNT Executive Director Mark Smith said this first year of the Caring for Country competition expanding to WA and QLD, was exciting to hear songs talking to the importance of biosecurity.
"To see schools engage and take out some of the major prizes is a reflection of the role that schools play both in supporting music as well as encouraging creativity in young people." Mr Smith said.
"Congratulations to the winners and thank you to all who took part in this year's program."
To learn more and check out the winning songs and dance video go to here
