2025 a year in review
It was difficult to pick just a handful of highlights from 2025 to share - there were too many to choose from! Thank you to our tireless community of volunteers and members, our enthusiastic partners, and the dedicated Board and staff who have helped shape 2025 and made it all possible. We have captured a few of the highlights below.
In 2025 we achieved:
- 72 engagement programs
- 1,464 participants across our programs
- 722 new editors trained
- 4.53 million words added to Wiki projects
- 15,008 references added
- 31.4 million Wikipedia article views
- 1,017 articles created and
- 14,000 articles improved
- 5,004 images added to Wikimedia Commons
- 166 volunteer hours
January
We kick off 2025 by celebrating 17 Inspiring Australian Women on Australia Day and announcing the successful 2025 Partner Project recipients.
February
A total of 15 image collections from the Alice Springs Library are made available on Wikimedia Commons, comprising over 1,000 images that link to numerous Wikipedia pages and Wikidata entries. We also celebrate the first OAM Awarded for being a Wikipedia Editor.
March
We celebrate International Women’s Day with editathons at Artbank, the Womens Art Register, National Gallery of Australia and other regional galleries to help tell the stories of Australian women artists and creators.
April
In April the Wikimedia community gathers across the country and online. We host an Online Community Meeting, Drop in and Wikidata and Drop in and Wiki sessions, as well as at several in-person events across the country, including Perth and Adelaide. Wikimedians in Residence are also hard at work behind the scenes at the State Library Victoria in Melbourne, APNIC in Brisbane and Sydney Educational Radio (2SER FM) in Sydney.
May
This month, we do some big work on strategy as we attend the International ESEAP Strategy Summit, and the WMAU Board share a new 10 Year Strategic Plan – a forward-looking and ambitious roadmap to guide our work through to 2035.
June
We join the Attorney-General’s Department Copyright and AI Reference Group (CAIRG), representing the voice of Australian Wikimedians and bringing a perspective grounded in open knowledge, digital access, and community collaboration. We also collaborate with Wikimedia Aotearoa New Zealand for the annual #1Lib1Ref campaign, resulting in a boost of over 1.8K references added to Wikipedia.
July
Planning is now underway for a jam-packed second half of the year! AGM preparations are coming together, project meetings are happening with Aotearoa New Zealand for the Wiki Science Competition, the Art Gallery of South Australia guide training and editathons, UNSW University's Diversity Week, Adelaide College of the Arts (ACARTS) presentations and preparing for Wikimania in Nairobi, Kenya.
August
The State Library Victoria hosts WikiFest, which brings Australian GLAM professionals to the SLV LAB to gain hands-on experience with Wikidata.
September
At the 2025 AGM, WikiClubWest was awarded the Craig Franklin Award in recognition of the group's long-term positive impact on the Wikimedia movement in Australia.
October
Wikimedia Australia (WMAU) proudly signs the Open Heritage Statement (OHS), joining organisations worldwide in calling for equitable access to public-domain cultural heritage in the digital environment.
November
Partner Projects for 2025-2026 are announced, with funding awarded to three worthy organisations and individuals including Barayamal for Regional Mentor Blaze on-Wiki, Pengo for Refresh Threatened Species Lists and Create an Australia-specific Threatened Species List, and the Australian Museums Archives and Gallieries Association for Building Digital Skills, Sharing Stories, Sustaining Culture.
December
The ICIP and IDSov project is now well underway, with WMAU staff attending an online Q&A session with participants at WikiCon Netherlands and presenting a video featuring Terri Janke discussing the project.
We look forward to continuing our mission and building on our achievements to date in Australia and the wider Wikimedia movement.
Banner image by Rob Chandler, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
