The Walkley Awards are Australia's most prestigious and long-running media awards, having flourished for over 45 years. The Awards cover radio, television, online and print, and following a recent merger, the Nikon-Walkley Press Photographer of the Year Awards. Walkley Gold Award winners included Andrew Rule, Estelle Blackburn and Paul Kelly. Check out the Walkley's website.

For those that are interested in the online Walkley Award, it was scooped up by the Sydney Morning Herald, a broadsheet morning newspaper, for its 2000 Olympic Games website. The site is still posted, and can be found at old.smh.com.au/olympics/. The Sydney Morning Herald was the most successful newspaper in Australia in the Awards, also picking up the Information Graphics, News Report and Magazine Feature Awards for print.

On television, the big winners were the ABC, SBS and Channel 9. The radio category was an ABC-only affair, with the Australian national broadcaster picking up all three radio Awards.

New Zealand DownUnder& TUDownUnderInteractive Awards

The winners of the DownUnder& TUDownUnderInteractive Awards have been announced, recognising excellence in New Zealand interactive media design. The DownUnder& TUDownUnderInteractive Awards are in their sixth year, and the Awards were presented at a cocktail function at Te Papa, Wellington in November. The total number of Awards currently numbers 12. TUDownUnderis The Telecommunications Users Association of New Zealand.

The Awards had their share of controversy too, with the presentation ceremony turning into a rallying cry to save the Wanganui Community Polytechnic's computer graphic programme, threatened by a takeover by Palmerston North's Universal College of Learning.

The TUDownUnderorganisation also sponsors two other Award programs, including the TUDownUnderInnovation Awards in association with General Cable, and the TUDownUnderContact Awards. The TUDownUnderwebsite can be found at www.tuDownUnder.org.nz.

Below I have listed the online winners in the Interactive Awards (that I can track down), judged to be New Zealand's finest.

Education
Auckland University - Virtual Shopping Mall

Marketing Communication
AIM Proximity - Air New Zealand Virtual NPC

Recreation / Leisure
Morse Media Ltd - NZMusic.com

Information / Reference
Shift Limited - Tourism New Zealand website

Business to Consumer
The Web Ltd/DNA Design - Telecom New Zealand website

Community / Not for Profit
WINNER: Shift Ltd - Urge / Whakamanawa website