Photojournalist Edwina Pickles won the Best Photojournalism award for her depiction of life at Dadaab, the world's biggest refugee camp. The desert Kenyan settlement is home to more than 350,000 refugees, most of them Somali and more than half under the age of 18.
Pickles' photographs highlighted "the resilience of women and children" living in this harshest of environments, the judges said.
Adam Morton was also awarded a special commendation in the Climate Change Issues category for his report, "The Road to Paris", in The Sunday Age.
In total, seven finalists from Fairfax Media were acknowledged at the awards, which were presented at The Pavilion arts centre in Melbourne on Friday night.
Fairfax Media