Guest speaker Jessica Watson OAM (right), now 22, was the youngest person to complete a Southern Hemisphere solo circumnavigation of the world by sailboat when she was 16. She answers a few questions from MC, Catriona Rowntree.

(L-R) Cycling adventurer Kate Leeming who has travelled the equivalent of twice around the globe at the equator by pedal power; AG editor-in-chief Chrissie Goldrick; adventurers Chris and Jess Bray, who most recently were the youngest couple to sail the legendary Northwest Passage in a wooden junk rig.

Guest of honour Jessica Watson entertains the crowd with her story of solo sailing across the turbulent seas of the Southern Ocean. 

Lifetime of Adventure awardee and Australia’s foremost polar guide Eric Philips with Louise Tandy of APT who sponsored the award. Eric is the only person to have skied across the Earth’s four largest icecaps: Antarctica, Greenland, South Patagonia and Ellesmere Island. 

(L-R)Jessica Watson, Chrissie Goldrick and Catriona Rowntree.

(L-R) Young Adventurer of the Year Danielle Murdoch with Larissa Kalnins of World Expeditions, the sponsor of the award. In 2010 Danielle became the first recipient of the AGS Nancy Bird Walton grant for female adventurers and went on a nearly five year motorcycle journey from Australia to Africa, which finished 70,000km and 24 countries later. 

One of the four Adventurer of the Year recipients, Andrew Maffett, along with Michelle Reidy-Crofts. Andrew and his team circumnavigated the sub-Antarctic island of South Georgia in January.

Catriona Rowntree next to Dr Brian Spencer (centre) from award-sponsor Odyssey Travel. They are flanked on either side by the four-man team that won the Adventurer of the Year award for their 500km paddle around sub-Antarctic South Georgia island, 1500km north-east of the Antarctic peninsula (from left: Jim Bucirde, John Jacoby, Andrew Maffett and Chris Porter). 

Lifetime of Conservation awardee Robert Purves AM (left) founded the Purves Environmental Fund, which donates $2 million annually to champion environmental sustainability and biodiversity. He is also president of WWF Australia, a founding member of The Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists and a director of Earth Hour Global. Presenting his award is former Adventurer of the Year Tim Jarvis, who in 2013 retraced the route of Antarctic explorer Ernest Shackleton. 

Australian Geographic founder Dick Smith presents Amelia Telford with her Young Conservationist of the Year award. The 21-year-old founded Seed, an indigenous youth environmental network, in 2014, in partnership with the Australian Youth Climate Coalition. 

Another guest of honour at the awards was June, a koala joey from the Australian Reptile Park near Gosford, NSW, which is managed by Conservationist of the Year Tim Faulkner. 

AG designer Kate McKinnon with a Tassie devil joey.

(L-R) Kristen Downie, head of marketing and communications at Australian Museum, with AG education editor Lauren Smith and designer Mike Rossi.

Giles English (left), of sponsor Bremont Watches, presents the Spirit of Adventure award to Huw Kingston, who completed a 14,000km circumnavigation of the Mediterranean Sea by foot, kayak, ocean rowboat and bicycle. 

AG Society administrator Nicola Conti and AG editor-in-chief Chrissie Goldrick. 

AG publisher Jo Runciman with Conservationist of the Year Tim Faulkner. Tim has reached a global TV audience of 180 million through his show The Wild Life of Tim Faulkner. He also spearheads an initiative to captive breed and reintroduce Tasmanian devils to the Australian mainland, at the Australian Reptile Park and Devil Ark, which he manages in central New South Wales.