The trophies for the Australian of the Year Awards are made right here in Canberra, at the Australian National University’s Glass Workshop.

The trophies will be handed out to the 2025 winners on 25 January at 7:30pm.

It takes months to put the trophy together with the process repeated to make 36.

Australian of the Year Awards lead fabricator and ANU alumni Louis Grant said the trophies are developed at the workshop, in association with the university’s physics department.

“[We use] computer modelling and three-dimensional (3D) printing to get that really angular, really perfect shape,” Grant said.

“Then from the 3D prints we take a silicone mould.

“There are two parts of the silicone – there’s getting the negative of the 3D print and then flipping it over and taking the positive from that silicone to another silicone, which we then make a plaster silicone mould.

“We then fill the glass with a lead crystal from Germany. “

He said after the trophy is shaped, they spend about 10 hours on each trophy hand grinding and polishing almost all the surfaces.

That means it takes weeks to polish all 36 trophies.

“You have to be careful because the glass is quite soft, so you have to do it in stages and be really careful because they can get scratched,” Grant said.

The names are then engraved up to two weeks before the award ceremony by Capital Trophies and Sportswear.

The trophies are then handed back to the workshop.

“Once they’re engraved, we clean them and double check to make sure all the names are exactly correct in their titles and everything,” Grant said.

“Then we glue on the little metal base and give it a bit of a finishing up, clean and seal the back. Then they get boxed by us as well.”

The boxes, emblazoned with the words Australian of the Year Awards and ANU, are handmade in South Australia.

ANU Head of Glass Dr Jeffrey Sarmiento said the blue crystal colour represented the Australian sky, and the geometric design represented the values shaping the Australian society.

He said it also includes the points of the Southern Cross, with the faceted surface bearing the Star of Federation.

Project manager and ANU School of Art and Design technical officer Catherine Newton said it is a surreal honour to be part of such an important national event.

“It is a privilege to be able to make such a special award for these people who have done so much for Australia…” she said.

The university department first became involved in making the trophies in 2017. ANU School of Music students, led by Professor Adrian Walter AM, are also involved, contributing the music for the State Awards, the university’s Vice-Chancellor and President Genevieve Bell said.

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