MORE than 550 entries flooded in for our 100 Stories of Hope photo competition. But there could be only one winner.
Lindy Hick, Hughenden, Queensland, sent in the stunning winning photo of her daughter Frankie, 3, running towards dark clouds with the quote caption "we can't always choose the music life plays for us, but we can choose how we dance to it".
Ms Hick said as a photographer she was always taking photos on the farm and this snap was taken about a month ago.
"If there is a lot of drama in the sky we grab whatever (we need) and go and take photos and one afternoon we headed up there and happened to get that one."
On that occasion though the clouds didn't hold any rain.
In fact, the Hicks have been in drought on their 19,424 hectare (48,000 acre) cattle property, Antrim, for eight years.
But, this year they've managed to pick up a few drops - 28 millimetres on Monday night this week.
On being told she'd won the competition Ms Hick said "that's the best news ever, 28 millimetres and the competition, that's awesome".
"I'm so excited."
The win gave her, husband Tony, and sons Jack and Hugh, along with daughter Frankie, something else to celebrate.
"We've had a few little falls and 28mm is still pretty small too, but for us, well we had a five millimetres fall yesterday so my husband and I cracked open a drink and celebrated and we were like 'we are ridiculous, we are celebrating five mils' but that's what it's like."
Ms Hick wins a cash prize of $5000 for first place, while five finalists will receive $500 each.
The five finalists are Cameron Moon, St George, Qld; Margot Hughes, Baldry, NSW; Jypsie Cronan, Lockhart, NSW; Rich Paine, Warren, NSW, and Camilla French, Einasleigh, Qld.
The three judges, The Land's deputy editor Daniel Pedersen, livestock editor Lucy Kinbacher and Westpac relationship director, agribusiness, commercial banking John Bourke, faced a hard task selecting the winners.
Mr Bourke said it was a "wonderful array of photos depicting the story of hope across the nation" and thanked all those that submitted photos.
"The emotion and joy that can be depicted in a single photo and the story that is told is simply uplifting.
"To the winner and finalists, congratulations and thank you for sharing your story," Mr Bourke said.
The photo competition was run as part of the 100 Stories of Hope initiative, a collaboration between Queensland Country Life, The Land, Stock & Land and Farmonline, in partnership with Westpac.