Best photos of 2025: The Sydney Morning Herald’s year in pictures
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The year in photos selected by our award-winning staff photographers and regular contributing photographers at The Sydney Morning Herald.
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Hundreds pay tribute in December to the victims of the Bondi terrorist massacre that left 15 innocent victims dead.Credit:Kate Geraghty
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Big wave spectators almost get washed off the Brunswick Heads rockwall in March as Cyclone Alfred approaches.Credit:Nick Moir
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The body of pope Francis lies in state at St Peter’s Basilica in Rome in April. Francis, who died on April 21, was the first Jesuit pope, the first from Latin America and the first born or raised outside Europe since the 8th-century Syrian pope Gregory III. The photographer was visiting family in Rome when Francis died, so he grabbed his camera and covered the event.Credit:Flavio Brancaleone
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The casket of Bondi massacre victim Alex Kleytman is carried from the Sydney Chevra Kadisha Memorial Hall where the funeral was held in December.Credit:Kate Geraghty
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“Have you sold out your environmental credentials for a rotten, stinking extinction salmon?” Greens environment spokeswoman Senator Sarah Hanson-Young asks Senator Jenny McAllister, representing the environment minister, while holding up a farmed salmon during question time in March. Hanson-Young was drawing attention to the Tasmanian salmon farming industry.Credit:Alex Ellinghausen
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The National Socialist Network holding a rally outside parliament in Sydney in November. The Nazi story was on our front page for six days in a row. More than 60 men dressed in black, many with hats and sunglasses to obscure their identities, stood in formation outside NSW Parliament House before a banner that read: “Abolish the Jewish lobby.” At the end, they chanted “blood and honour”, a slogan of the Hitler Youth. Police decided not to challenge the rally, and it later emerged neither Premier Chris Minns nor Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon had been informed in advance. Both were swift to condemn the rally as antisemitic and said hate speech had no place in NSW.
Credit:Flavio Brancaleone
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More than 27,000 people visited the corpse flower, nicknamed Putricia after its sickening perfume, at the Royal Botanic Garden in January. Its inflorescence marked the first time in 15 years that the rare flower (Amorphophallus titanum) has bloomed at the Botanic Garden. The garden’s chief scientist Brett Summerell described the smell as akin to the rotting flesh of a possum, wet socks and cat vomit. The livestream became a global event, attracting more than 1.7 million views.Credit:Flavio Brancaleone
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Filomena Knerr hosted Prime Minister Anthony Albanese at her home in Canberra for morning tea in March during the first week of the election campaign at a media event to discuss supermarket pricing. Photographers Alex Ellinghausen and James Brickwood photographed all 35 days of the 2025 campaign for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, following then opposition leader Dutton and Albanese respectively as they made their case to voters.Credit:Alex Ellinghausen
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Julie Szabo in the bedroom of her 13-year-old son Arthur Haines, who was killed in a deliberately lit house fire in April 1998. Arthur’s killer, Gregory John Walker was sentenced in the NSW Supreme Court on December 23.Credit:Sitthixay Ditthavong
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Then opposition leader Peter Dutton and Energy Minister Chris Bowen in the electorate of Fowler during the election campaign in March.Credit:James Brickwood
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Friends from Germany strike a pose at the Sydney Opera House as the sun sets on a fine autumn day in April. Credit:Jessica Hromas
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Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is assisted back onto the stage after a stumble while trying to reposition for a group photo after delivering a speech at a Mining and Energy Union conference in the Hunter Valley during the 2025 federal election campaign. Photographers must always be ready to respond to unexpected moments, Alex Ellinghausen, who took the picture, said, adding: “You need to have eyes at the back of your head, be aware of your surroundings and listen to what is going on.”
Credit:Alex Ellinghausen
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Light beams are projected from Bondi Pavilion in December to mark seven days since the terrorist attack that killed 15 people.Credit:Sitthixay Ditthavong
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Olinda, 35, undergoes thermal ablation treatment in Dili, East Timor, after testing positive for HPV, performed by Dr Maria Jose (right) and assisted by midwife Filomena Mendonca Espirito Santo (left) at the Vera Cruz community health centre. Cervical cancer is a major public health issue in the Indo-Pacific, where, in some countries, women are up to 14 times more likely to die of the disease than in Australia. A tenacious team led by cancer-quelling experts is leveraging Australia’s elimination breakthroughs across the region.Credit:Kate Geraghty
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Storm season: Looking east from Kirribilli in November as a storm went out to sea.Credit:Louie Douvis
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Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Opposition Leader Sussan Ley during the opening of the 48th Parliament at Parliament House in Canberra in July.Credit:Alex Ellinghausen
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As many as eight Nationals from Tamworth branches sensationally quit the party in October to join One Nation. The most significant was former branch chairman Steven Coxhead, who resigned after a decade in the role to sign up to Pauline Hanson’s party.Credit:Janie Barrett
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Gumatj elders Balupalu Yunupingu and Djawa Yunupingu leave the High Court of Australia in March after a historic victory for Indigenous elders from Arnhem Land. The High Court found that Northern Territory native titleholders were entitled to fair compensation for property seizures in one of the most significant decisions since the Mabo case.Credit:Alex Ellinghausen
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A statue of Captain James Cook in Randwick is splattered with red paint ahead of Australia Day in January.Credit:Nick Moir
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Bangarra dancer Courtney Radford on top of one of the Opera House sails in full costume in June.Credit:James Brickwood
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Prime Minister Anthony Albanese during a visit to the New Century Chinese Language School at the key seat of Chisholm in April during this year’s federal election campaign.Credit:Alex Ellinghausen
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A wet Anzac Day service in Sydney. This year marked 80 years since the Second World War ended.Credit:Sitthixay Ditthavong
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Cooling off at Marrinawi Cove at Barangaroo Reserve during January’s heatwave. Credit:Jessica Hromas
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Former New South Wales policeman Kristian White avoided jail for killing 95-year-old Clare Nowland, whom he Tasered inside the Yallambee Lodge nursing home in Cooma in the early hours of May 17, 2023.Credit:Sam Mooy
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Parents commemorate their year 12 graduates at this Trinity Grammar pre-formal in Ashfield in November.Credit:Louise Kennerley
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Soprano Nicole Car was the lead in Opera Australia’s production Rusalka, inspired by Hans Christian Anderson’s The Little Mermaid, in July. Credit:Steven Siewert
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Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and his then fiancee, now wife, Jodie Haydon visit Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, in September on the last leg of the longest overseas trip of his prime ministership. Credit:Dominic Lorrimer
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Amelia Hamer (left) with Senator Jane Hume and then opposition leader Peter Dutton at a Liberal Party pub gathering for party faithful in Kooyong in April. The picture of Hamer looking out of place became one of the most memorable images of this year’s campaign, turned into a meme online and shared in political circles as the Coalition’s campaign was scrutinised in its final days.Credit:James Brickwood
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The Richies cricket fans on a hot day on day 2 of the January Test at the SCG in January. What began as an idea by two cricket fans with two simple loves – getting in costume and commentary icon Richie Benaud – was after 16 summers the last for the Richies.Credit:Steven Siewert
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Taronga Zoo’s expert Wildlife Hospital team, together with a specialist in animal dentistry, perform a successful root canal procedure on Pemenah, an adult male critically endangered Sumatran tiger in July.Credit:Steven Siewert
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Luis Pereira at home in Dili, is one of few living witnesses of the events surrounding the murder of five young journalists, etched into the Australian consciousness as the “Balibo Five”. He shared his story for the first time in October, and recounted being enslaved by the Indonesian military.Credit:Kate Geraghty
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Beneath the city is a giant cavern created to serve as the Hunter Street station, the last stop to be completed on the 24-kilometre Sydney Metro Line. It will be the biggest station on the service when it opens in 2032.Credit:Steven Siewert
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The fire at Koolewong burning into the night over Brisbane Water in December. The devastating bushfire swept through Koolewong, Phegans Bay and Woy Woy Bay, burning more than 129 hectares. Over 16 homes were destroyed and many others were damaged.Credit:Sitthixay Ditthavong
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An anti-immigration protest, March for Australia, was attended by more than 50,000 people in Sydney in August. It was organised by a disparate collection of online groups. Neo-Nazi leadership used far-right influencers to sell the rallies as a “spontaneous” groundswell of “everyday Australians”, while they stacked crowds with plain-clothes Nazis and sent key members interstate to headline rallies. Credit:Max Mason-Hubers
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Pro-Palestine protesters marched across the Sydney Harbour Bridge in August.Credit:Janie Barrett
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Senator Pauline Hanson wore a burqa in the Senate in November, recycling her 2017 performance. Both stunts drew wide condemnation.Credit:Dominic Lorrimer
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Former Australian of the Year Professor Richard Scolyer, who has been going through experimental treatment for a highly aggressive and incurable brain tumour, won the social impact book of the year award for Brainstorm, written with Herald journalist Garry Maddox.Credit:James Brickwood
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Cardinals seated at the inauguration Mass of Pope Leo XIV, on May 18. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen
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Thousands of people lined Long Reef Beach for a paddle out in memory of shark attack victim Mercury Psillakis in September. Credit:Max Mason-Hubers
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One of Sydney’s lesser known novelty surf spots is inside Botany Bay between Ramsgate and Dolls Point, seen here during large swells in April. Credit:Dean Sewell
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Emily Morgan inside her flooded home in Harwood, NSW, during the clean-up following Cyclone Alfred in early March. Credit:Louise Kennerley
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Pianist Nick Pollock busking in George Street In Sydney in October following an email from the City of Sydney saying busking would be restricted to six street corners on George Street effective immediately. In these sites, known as “special pitches”, buskers can perform an hour a day each between 11am and 10pm.Credit:Flavio Brancaleone
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Craig Gill and Sarra Saxon-Gill return to their home destroyed by the Koolewong bushfire on the Central Coast just north of Sydney. At least a dozen homes were lost to a raging bushfire in early December. Credit:Sitthixay Ditthavong
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Monster swells at Thirroul beach near Wollongong, rising to four metres, battered the NSW coastline over the Easter long weekend, Credit:Nick Moir
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Designer Silvana Azzi Heras, founder of House of Heras, translates the drama of theatre and film wardrobe for everyday use.Credit:Steven Siewert
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Vernetar and Rayeleene O’Hehir both suffered horrific physical and psychological abuse at Mater Dei orphanage in Narellan during the 1950s.
NSW is the only Australian state that has not held an inquiry into the treatment of children in state institutions, and the only state that does not compensate those who suffered psychological and physical abuse in its care.Credit:Louise Kennerley
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Jacarandas in full bloom in Rhodes in early November. Lots of rain and some hot days this year resulted in trees showing their first flush of flowers earlier than usual.Credit:Steven Siewert
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In September, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese declared he would not let the US dictate Australian policy on the Israel-Palestinian conflict as his government broke with Washington by recognising a Palestinian state. On the historic day a man places his hand on the Scottie Marsh Free Palestinian mural on Cairo Takeaway restaurant in Enmore, Sydney.Credit:Kate Geraghty
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Former Greens candidate Hannah Thomas’ eye was severely injured in a tussle with police at a protest linked to the Israel-Gaza war.Credit:Max Mason-Hubers
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Joanne Cockle worries constantly about paying for medical appointments for herself and her two children with autism during the cost-of-living crisis. According to a report by the NSW Mental Health Commission in January more than half of people in NSW said their mental health was worse due to their financial situation.Credit:Rhett Wyman
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Olga Gutteres, 42, in the gynaecology unit ward in October, where she has been diagnosed with advanced cervical cancer.Credit:Kate Geraghty
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Emergency workers survey the damage to an apartment building that was hit by an Iranian ballistic missile that killed four people in Beersheba, Israel, in June.Credit:Kate Geraghty
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Darcy Clifton and family depart Darlinghurst District Court in August after he was found not guilty of raping a University of Sydney student. He had pleaded not guilty.Credit:Wolter Peeters
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In May, crowds gather in St Peter’s Square, waiting for smoke from the Sistine Chapel chimney to reveal the result of the papal vote. Credit: Flavio Brancaleone
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In occupied East Jerusalem’s Silwan neighbourhood, Najah al-Rajabi tenderly cares for her grandson Awad, who has lived in a coma for six years. The family has been told that they either have to vacate their home by November 14 or be forced to leave by Israeli authorities. The 69-year-old widow worries about who will look after Awad when she dies, and the looming threat of homelessness for the 18 family members in the home terrifies her. His bedroom is covered in yellow and orange flowers, part of a neighbourhood project by pro-Palestinian artists called “I witness Silwan”. Credit:Kate Geraghty
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Antoinette Lattouf outside the Federal Court in Sydney. The ABC has been ordered to pay a penalty of $150,000 to Lattouf for unlawfully terminating her Sydney radio contract after a judge found it “let down the Australian public badly” by capitulating to pro-Israel campaigners.Credit:James Brickwood
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Thanh Whittam with her three children at her home in Matraville. She went back to work full-time in February last year after spending more than a decade employed part-time after having her three children. Most days she works at home, which allows her to be at the Matraville Public School gate for pick-up by 3pm, making up for missed hours by logging on again to work between 9pm and 11pm.Credit:Wolter Peeters
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This is the moment Sriaradhya found out she had made it into selective high school Girraween High School. The high-stakes selective schools test was held online and at mega-centres for the first time and was marred by controversy. Credit:Steven Siewert
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UNSW underwater rugby team trains at Leichhardt Park Aquatic Centre in Sydney in February. The Inner West Council is redeveloping the centre and the team will lose their training pool because the new development will not include a deep enough pool for the sport. Credit:Janie Barrett
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Western Sydney Solar Challenge driver Andrew Grima with the WS team and their Solar Car “Unlimited 6.0” at Pyrmont Bridge in Sydney in July. They competed in the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge from Darwin to Adelaide.Credit:Sam Mooy
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An Olympic hopeful talent search hosted by the NSW Institute of Sport tested the next generation of potential Olympians. Boys and girls aged 8-14 – including gymnasts, acrobats, dancers and strong athletes — took on the challenge under the watchful eyes of expert coaches in Sydney Olympic Park in November.Credit:Flabio Brancaleone
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Then opposition leader Peter Dutton in Darwin during the federal election campaign in April with opposition defence spokesman Andrew Hastie and Northern Territory Liberal Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price.
Credit:James Brickwood
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A flock of birds fly overhead as children play in the sandunes in Cronulla in August. Credit:Sam Mooy
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Lara Bowden, 10, plays in the mud at Skennars Head, NSW, after Cyclone Alfred affected the community in March. Credit:Danielle Smith
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Former soldier Ben Roberts-Smith outside the Federal Court in May during his years-long defamation case.Credit:Sam Mooy
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January 28 was a day of extremes in Sydney as the city recorded over 40 degrees before a southerly buster and thunderstorms slashed temperatures and drenched beachgoers. James Brickwood recorded the afternoon southerly change at South Curl Curl pool .Credit:James Brickwood
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John Stewart and students from the Living School in Lismore pack away items in preparation for Cyclone Alfred in March. Alfred originated from a tropical low in the Coral Sea in February.Credit:Danielle Smith
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Northern NSW resident Rod cleans up his flooded home in Harwood after Cyclone Alfred in March.Credit:Louise Kennerley
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Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and then opposition leader Peter Dutton cross paths at the Blacktown Workers’ Club in April during the federal election campaign.Credit:James Brickwood
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Former school principal Tom Mehigan, 93, (left) and retired roof tiler Jeffrey “Jethro” Brookes, 60 (and his lorikeet, Rosie), live in an inner-Sydney boarding house. They meet daily at a local cafe before heading to the park for a snooze.Credit:James Brickwood
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Yulia Navalnaya, widow of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who died in a Russian prison in February 2024. Navalnaya was in Australia with a blunt message about Russian President Vladimir Putin, whom she blames for murdering her husband.Credit:James Brickwood
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Australian architect Glenn Murcutt, almost 90, has recently started to wind back how many projects he is working on. He was photographed at a house he designed in the Sydney suburb of St Ives for Judith and Brian Preston, chief judge of the Land and Environment Court, which was completed in 1992.Credit:Max Mason-Hubers
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Mourners embrace at the Bondi memorial after the terrorist attacks in December. Credit:Oscar Colman
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Dutton during his visit to the Sydney Royal Easter Show in Homebush.Credit:James Brickwood
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Large numbers of people join a paddle out at Bondi Beach, five days after a terrorist attack in which 15 innocent victims were killed and many more were wounded. Credit:Janie Barrett
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For years, details around the millions of dollars in mining royalties paid to the Adnyamathanha people were shrouded in secrecy. Charlie Jackson, a prominent Adnyamathanha elder who was last year named SA’s senior Australian of the Year, has fought for transparency and pushed for government intervention in the management of the mining royalties for more than a decade.Credit:Asher Milgate
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Isabellea Knight, pictured in June, first started using AI chatbots in 2022. She finds she can speak to them for hours.Credit:Wolter Peeters
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Australian actor and new Hollywood star Geraldine Viswanathan moved to Los Angeles after struggling to get roles in Australia.Credit:Louie Douvis
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Coastal storms form over Middle Harbour in April. Photographer Nick Moir has specialised in environmental and meteorological events, such as storms, for 20 years.Credit:Nick Moir
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Jo Haylen resigns as NSW transport minister in February over a taxpayer-funded driver scandal Credit:Nick Moir
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Five decades after toddler Cheryl Grimmer vanished from a Wollongong beach, her brother Paul Grimmer breaks down following the joint press conference with NSW MP Jeremy Buckingham in October. Buckingham used parliamentary privilege to move a motion to name the three year old’s alleged killer. Credit:Sam Mooy
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Crowds gather to see King Charles III and Queen Camilla on their visit to the Sydney Opera House in October.
Credit:Steven Siewert
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People embrace in front of a floral tribute at Bondi Beach seven days after a terrorist attack that killed 15 people.Credit:Sitthixay Ditthavong
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Whales dancing of the coast of Lennox Head in July. The “Humpback Highway” is normally flush with whales migrating along the Australian east coast.Credit:Danielle Smith
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Sheila Bailey feeds a sleepy orphaned eight-month-old koala who was found wandering alone in the region of the future Great Koala National Park in NSW.Credit:Janie Barrett
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Members of Sydney’s Jewish community hold a vigil for the victims and survivors of the Bondi massacre at Bondi Beach, one week on.Credit:Edwina Pickles
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A group of men from Pu Lu Palaw village in Myanmar cross the Moei River, on the Thailand-Myanmar border, in March. Many civilians from the village have sought sanctuary in Thailand’s Noh Bo village on several occasions to avoid the violence during the civil war against the Myanmar military junta. Credit:Kate Geraghty
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Australian Navy serviceman Joel Minichiello with his children Alessia and Matter after the Anzac Day Dawn Service at Dee Why Beach.Credit:Steven Siewert
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