With five ladies in the running, Rachael Bowering was thrilled to be chosen as the next Community Princess, while Jessikah McCarthy was blown away to be crowned Miss Wagga.

With a rich history beginning in 1948, the Miss Wagga Quest gives entrants the chance to build their confidence, learn new skills and develop their presentation and communication abilities in hopes of being crowned Miss Wagga.

Entrants are judged on their performance throughout the duration of the Quest, raising money for local charities and hosting community events in the process - with roughly $2 million raised in total since the Quest's inception.

The Quest has had a particularly rocky two years amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, unable to crown a Miss Wagga for this year.

2020 Miss Wagga Hannah Smith instead stepped up and became a 2021 representative for the Quest, acknowledging at Saturday's ceremony that "no one has had a Miss Wagga Wagga experience quite like my own".

She told the five entrants that the next 12 months would fly by, and to "grab hold of every opportunity you can and make it your own, no one else's".

Member for Wagga Joe McGirr thanked each entrant for their perseverance during their Quest process.

"Thank-you ... for demonstrating such resilience and community spirit, and showing us all how to get through what's been a really difficult year," he added.

Dr McGirr announced 23-year-old Ms Bowering as the 2022 Community Princess, who said she has learnt so much about Wagga, the community and herself over the past few months.

"Wagga Wagga is a place with many moving parts running like a machine to build ourself into a hub of events, nature, tourism and excitement," she said during her speech.

Riverina MP Michael McCormack announced 25-year-old Ms McCarthy as 2022 Miss Wagga to rapturous applause from the audience.

She said "nothing could have prepared her" for what she's learnt since first putting her name down in March, and thanked each of her fellow entrants - Ms Bowering, Molly Burley, Emi O'Brien and Georgie Spora.

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"Growing up as a local, just seeing people I had known [and] how much they'd developed over the course of the quest ... I wanted to do that and give back to the community at the same time," Ms McCarthy said after the ceremony.

Ms Bowering added that it felt "absolutely unbelievable" to be chosen as Community Princess.

The highlight of the process for her has been meeting the other entrants and developing friendships with each of them.

"I've grown so close to them and I care about them all so much, and getting to know them these past six months has just been absolutely amazing," Ms Bowering said.

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