Students from Wauchope Public School and Hastings Secondary College's Port Macquarie campus were the winning entries in the Minecraft Schools Challenge to design a town of the future.

Each winning entry received $1000 each towards technology or STEM resources.

Sustainability, energy efficient transport and community spaces were priorities for these young thinkers.

Not only did the Hastings Secondary College team entry put forward ideas about outdoor spaces, the sustainable use of resources and creative, fun places to live to win the $1000, they also donated their book prize Big Ideas for Curious Minds - an Introduction to Philosophy to the library.

Watch their winning entry here:

The Port Macquarie-Hastings Council and Charles Sturt University competition invited students to shape their own ideal town of the future using the Minecraft sandbox video game series.

Entries were shown to primary and high school students, local government staff, university and education representatives during a live-streamed presentation on November 13.

Lord Howe Island Central School students were honored for their creativity and Innovation, while Lake Cathie Public School and Laurieton Public School were highly commended.

Port Macquarie-Hastings Council group manager of community, Lucilla Marshall said students from years five, six, seven and eight collaborated in the competition.

"We really wanted to engage with our younger generations and what better way than getting them to help build the city of the future," Ms Marshall said.

"They have been building for three or four months and today is looking at all winning entries from the schools. We had six winning entries and nearly 100 entries developed through the process.

"What the kids have done is amazing. The cities they have built are impressive, but the thinking behind it for the future in sustainability are really amazing.

"Common themes across the designs were energy efficient transport, they all had food preservation and production, and they all had community spaces for culture.

"From here they do get considered for the Council's Think 2050 strategic planning and they are going to influence what we do."

Ms Marshall said judges were surprised and impressed with several concepts including buses powered by waste, underwater structures and a plan to harness lightning for electrical use.

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