Danckert joins McKenzie, Tozer and Ballinger in the business journalism category for her work on Stake.com, while Maley is a finalist in the commentary category.

Craig Butt and The Concussion Project team are finalists in the sports journalism category for their series, Concussion in sport. Heath Gilmore, Catherine Naylor, Alex Rowe and the Visual Stories Team are nominated in the coverage of a major issue, for “Hell on high water”, which examined the Lismore floods.

The Secret, a book by the Herald’s state political editor, Alexandra Smith, charting the Berejiklian premiership, has made the long list.

Matt Golding also has been nominated in the cartoon category, with his Voice to parliament.

Meanwhile, Justin McManus has won the Nikon portrait prize for Johnny and his dogs .

The Herald and The Age’s executive editor, Tory Maguire, said: “This wonderful list of Walkley nominations once again demonstrates these mastheads are the home of a lot of the best journalism Australia has to offer. The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald are continuing to invest in intensive, difficult and vital reporting, we are growing our newsrooms and we are continuing to find new ways to tell stories.

“I’m very proud of all our nominees, and the people across the mastheads who helped get their journalism published.”

A full list of finalists can be found here.