National Water Week poster competition

A national celebration of water

2025 poster competition - now open

We celebrate National Water Week each year by running a poster competition for young students within our service area.

Early learning children through to Year 6 students were encouraged to design, draw or paint a poster that inspires people to become water heroes and save precious water. 

Entries must be submitted online. (Please do not mail physical copies to us).

Enter now

2025 theme: 'Water Heroes: Save Every Drop'

Your mission is to create a poster that inspires our community to reduce their use and help save Gippsland’s precious water. Remember, every little drop counts! 

Water Hero tips

Some simple tips to help you reduce your use and become a water saving hero:

  • Take 4-minute showers
  • Keep the water level low when having a bath
  • Turn off taps while brushing your teeth
  • Carefully turn off taps all the way, making sure there are no drips
  • Let an adult know if you spot a leaking tap
  • Save the full flush for number twos. Use the half-flush when you pee
  • Scrape food scraps rather than rinse dishes
  • Fill up your dishwasher and washing machine before switching them on
  • Use a bucket and sponge when washing the car
  • Plant natives and put mulch in the garden. 

Find out more

Key dates

  • Entries open: 28 April 2025
  • Entries close: 5pm on Friday 12 September 2025
  • Winners will be announced during National Water Week, 20 - 26 October 2025.

Age group categories

  • Early Learning/Kindergarten (both individual entries and collaborative entries will be accepted)
  • Foundation (individual entries)
  • Years 1 – 2 (individual entries)
  • Years 3 – 4 (individual entries)
  • Years 5 – 6 (individual entries)

Prizes

Early learning / Kindergarten 

  • 1st prize (individual) = $50 local voucher* + prize pack**
  • 1st prize (collaborative) = $50 local voucher*
Primary School
Individual prize awarded for each age category 
  • 1st prize = $100 local voucher* + prize pack**

Early learning / Kindergarten / School Prize

  • $500 to put towards a sustainability project or STEM resources. All centres/schools with at least one entry will be placed into a random draw. 

*Local vouchers - Winners will be given a choice of a voucher from a sports shop or book shop within our service area.

**Prize packs - Will include a Gippsland Water bag, Gippsland Water drink bottle, colouring pencils, trigger nozzle and native seed pack.

Entry conditions

  • Poster size must be A4 or A3
  • Any medium, from paper to digital, can be used
  • Any art material and digital technology can be used, including paint, textas, crayons, coloured pencils, collage materials, original photographs and digital graphics
  • Uploaded files are limited to 20MB
  • Image files should be in .JPG, .PDF or .PNG formats
  • For primary school aged children, group artwork will NOT be accepted (only one child per artwork)
  • For early learning/kindergarten both individual entries and collaborative entries will be accepted
  • Each child/student/collaborative group can only enter once.

Full terms and conditions

Judging

Winners will be chosen by:

  • how well the poster communicates the National Water Week poster competition theme, ‘Water Heroes: Save Every Drop’ and/or relevant water-related issues
  • how attractive it looks from a distance
  • how effectively art materials have been used 
  • whether the poster use innovative imagery, design or concepts
  • First prize winners in each category from all participating Victorian water corporations are automatically entered into the state level of competition.

Tips for uploading a poster

  • Please ensure only high resolution, high quality images are submitted
  • Image files should be in .JPG, .PDF or .PNG formats
  • Uploaded files are limited to 20MB
  • Original posters can either be scanned or photographed
  • Remember if taking a photo, please ensure a clear, non-blurred image is taken. Think about:
    • good lighting
    • ensuring the poster fills the entire screen, an overhead shot is often best as you are standing above the poster, looking down
    • avoiding flash, as if a glossy poster, you will get glare.

Resources

To help introduce this year’s National Water Week theme to children/students, we’ve created an Educator’s Guide. Designed to support learning in both early childhood and primary classrooms, this resource includes background information, discussion prompts, and activity ideas — all aligned with the 2025 theme, Water Heroes: Save Every Drop.

Whether you're kicking off a water unit or supporting students in creating their posters, these resources will make it easy to bring the message of water conservation into your classroom in a fun, engaging and meaningful way.

Inspiration - winning posters from 2024

Check our last year’s winning posters for inspiration. The theme for 2024 was "Water for all, inspiring action".

Artwork titled "We are Water Savers" featuring a large collage water drop in the centre surrounded by blue drops with water conservation messages from the children
Artwork by Yellow Group, Glassford Street Kindergarten Maffra - 2024 Kindergarten/Early Learning winner (collaborative). Equal third in Victoria.
Artwork of a sun and rain with a blue background in water colour. Text says "Water for all"
Artwork by Godric - 2024 Kindergarten/Early Learning winner (individual). Equal third in Victoria.
A colourful poster with the message "Keep the water clean"
Artwork by Ayla - 2024 Foundation winner
Artwork titled "Save our water!" featuring fish, a turtle and octopus on a colourful blue, purple and green background
Artwork by Sophie - 2024 Year 1-2 winner
A poster with the title "Save our water" featuring a girl and a boy and messages about why we must save water
Artwork by Amy - 2024 Year 3-4 winner
A detailed artwork showing the inside of a house and how we can save water in the kitchen, bathroom, laundry and the garden
Artwork by Ruby - 2024 Year 5-6 winner
Proudly supported by Proudly supported by the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action and the Schools Water Efficiency Program.DEECA logo and SWEP logo
Proudly supported by DEECA and SWEP