Locals attended the official launch of the exhibition on Thursday night.

Coordinator economic development and tourism Marilyn Breen said they were amazed at the number of entrants into the month-long competition.

"When we saw all of the photos coming in, we knew we needed to exhibit them," she said.

"We thought we would get a few people sending in photos but we were bowled over by the amount that we got."

There were 264 entries with the judges having a tough time narrowing it down to the three winners.

"It was very difficult, there were five of us looking at the photos and we had to take a lot of aspects into consideration," Mark Townsend from Kempsey Macleay RSL Photographic Club said.

The three winning photographs by Cheridyn Bennett, Alan Rouse and Jane Walsh along with 100 others will be on display at the Slim Dusty Centre until June 16.

Ms Breen said they wanted the competition to showcase what the Kempsey Shire has to offer.

"We wanted to show the whole Macleay and the diversity we have here and all of the photos have done just that," she said.

As well as launching the photography exhibition, local Indigenous artist Elwyn Toby was the special guest on the evening and welcomed Nulla Nulla Koala back to Kempsey as part of the multi award-winning Hello Koalas Sculptures Trail.

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