School students from all over Queensland have been congratulated for bringing rural health and safety issues to prominence via the 2021 Farm Safety Calendar Competition.
Industrial Relations Minister Grace Grace praised the students for wanting to raise awareness of safety issues on farms and in rural communities.
"The Farm Safety calendar competition gives primary school students the opportunity to share with their communities the common hazards on farms and other rural properties," Ms Grace said.
"The agriculture industry employs around three per cent of state's workers yet accounts for almost a third of our workplace deaths. Tragically, farm vehicles, often with children around, figure in a large proportion of those incidents."
"The published calendar is a great opportunity for safety messages to be displayed at home and rural workplaces all year round further reminding Queenslanders to work and play safely.
"There was massive interest this year with a record 1953 entries featuring creative and colourful drawings about electrical safety, animal safety, tractor and machinery safety, quad bike safety, water safety, and general health and wellbeing."
The 12 winners each receive a $250 gift voucher, plus another $500 for their school, with their artwork and safety messages headlining the 2022 calendar.
Ms Grace said 30,000 copies of the latest farm safety calendar will be available from Workplace Health and Safety Queensland in October, which is Safe Work Month.
She thanked the judges from the Queensland Country Women's Association, AgForce Queensland, North Australian Pastoral Co, Department of Education, WHSQ and the Electrical Safety Office again for the difficult job of choosing 12 illustrations.
The annual competition has been running since 2015 with almost 8,500 entries from Queensland kids over the past seven years.
The dozen winners for the 2022 calendar were chosen from nearly 2,000 entries.
This is up from 1,502 entries for the 2021 calendar.
