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2025 Regional Victoria Debating Competitions

The Debaters Association of Victoria runs Regional Debating Competitions in a number of regional centres across Victoria (and occasionally a competition across the border in NSW). We provide both training and debate opportunities for students residing across Victoria, with experienced adjudicators and trainers. For more information about this program, please download our information sheet.

Why Debate?

Debating is an invaluable skill for students:

• it promotes confidence and effective public presentation
• it encourages logical and critical thinking, social awareness and an interest in current affairs
• it is multi-disciplinary: debating techniques can be used in all subject areas
• its benefits extend through all aspects of the school curriculum
• It is well directed to the "Communication" and "Thinking" domains of VELS. More specifically, it addresses the "Speaking and Listening", "Listening, Viewing and Responding", Presenting", "Reasoning, Process and Inquiry" dimensions of VELS and VCE English

If your school would like to host a regional debating competition, please contact us at debater@dav.com.au for more details.

Regions:

In 2025, the program will be run in the following regions;

Region	Host School	Training Date	Competition Date	Registration
Alpine	Myrtleford P-12 College, Prince St, Myrtleford	TBC	TBC	Registration Closed
Beechworth	Beechworth SC, 85 Balaclava Rd, Beechworth	N/A	Friday 8th August, 9:45am-2pm	Register via this form by Friday 25th July.
Border	Wodonga Middle Years College, Felltimber Campus - 8 Hedgerow Ct, West Wodonga	TBC	TBC	Registration Closed
Churchill	Kurnai College, cnr Monash Way and Northways Rd, Churchill	TBC	TBC	Registration Closed
Echuca / Moama	TBC	TBC	TBC	Registration Closed
Gippsland	Warragul Regional College, 55 Burke St, Warragul VIC 3820	TBC	TBC	Registration Closed
Three Rivers	St. Mary of the Angels, Chapel St, Nathalia	TBC	TBC	Registration Closed
Hamilton	Baimbridge College, Hamilton (Training Day) Hamilton and Alexandra College - 1 Chaucer St, Hamilton (Debating Day)	TBC	TBC	Registration Closed
Horsham	St Brigid's College, 97 Robinson Street, Horsham	TBC	TBC	Registration Closed
Mallee	Trinity Lutheran College, 920 Fifteenth St, Mildura VIC	TBC	TBC	Registration Closed
Wangaratta	Cathedral College - 344 Wangaratta-Whitfield Rd, Wangaratta	TBC	TBC	Registration Closed
Warrnambool	Emmanuel College (Ardlie St, Warrnambool)	TBC	TBC	Registration Closed

What's involved? :

The program is run over two days. The first is an optional half-day training session for students who have little or no experience of debating. The training session introduces students to debating and covers topics such as the rules and format of debating Australian 3-on-3 debating, methods of preparation and effective debating strategies. Students are also given a opportunities to practice their skills in the lead-up to the competition day, while receiving expert advice from DAV trainers and adjudicators.

The second day is a competition day. Each team will debate in three rounds. In both divisions, two of the topics will be prepared topic (released with the draw several weeks before the day). The Year 7 and 8 division will include an advised topic, where the subject area of the topic will be released with the draw, but the exact wording of the topic will not be released until an hour before the debate. The Year 9 and 10 division will include a secret topic.

Style:

Australian 3-on-3 style (See the Australasian Debating Guide in the "Resources") - three speakers debate for each team.

How much will it cost?

$40 DAV membership fee (if the school has not yet participated in any other DAV activities this year), and $190 per team (between 4-7 students). This fee covers one training session and one competition day.

If you would like your students to attend only the training session, or a second training session, the cost is $80 per 7 students as well as the $40 DAV membership fee (if not previously paid).

Due to a generous grant from the federal Department of Education, the Mallee Regional Debating Competition is free for all participating schools.