Angus and Julia Stone have taken out the top gongs at the 2011 APRA Music Awards, winning both the Songwriter of the Year award and Song of the Year for Big Jet Plane.

Angus and Julia Stone have taken out the top gongs at the 2011 APRA Music Awards, winning both the Songwriter of the Year award and Song of the Year for Big Jet Plane.

Angus and Julia Stone have taken out the top gongs at the 2011 APRA Music Awards, winning both the Songwriter of the Year award and Song of the Year for Big Jet Plane.

The nods continue an amazing run for the sibling duo who had already taken out Triple J's Hottest 100 competition and won an ARIA with Big Jet Plane.

Rock 'n' rollers Jet were the other big winners on the night, picking up the Most Performed Australian Work and Rock Work of the Year for their single Seventeen, from their Shaka Rock album.

The Chaser's Chris Taylor and Andrew Hanson hosted the awards night at CarriageWorks in Sydney, where the audience was treated to special performances from artists putting their spin on work by the acts nominated for Song of the Year.

Darren Hayes of Savage Garden fame performed Plans by Birds of Tokyo, while singer-songwriter Kimbra performed Silverchair's Across the Night as special tribute to the rock trio, who announced their split earlier this year.

Andrew Denton was on hand to present Paul Kelly with the Ted Albert Award for Outstanding Services to Australian Music.

Kelly rose to fame in the 80s with his folk rock tunes and has since cemented his place as one of Australia's premier songwriters.

Kelly accepted the award before later closing the night with his 2010 track One More Tune.

Indie pop artist Megan Washington was named Breakthrough Songwriter of the Year for the achievements on her debut album, I Believe You Liar.

Washington's album was "crammed with heavenly pop hits, and wordy, twisty, clever pop lyrics that have garnered her high praise from songwriters of the calibre of Paul Kelly and Tim Finn," according to APRA.

"This original troubadour is destined to have a long and illustrious career," it added.

Another winner was John Butler, who was not in attendance to accept his gong for Blues and Roots Work of the Year for his song Close To You.

"Songwriting is a bit of a ... she's a mysterious woman in my life," Butler said via a video interview.

"[The] song has a universal quality to it. Even thought you have not lived the story of the song, you somehow can relate to it, you somehow feel it's you."

Kasey Chambers picked up Country Work of the Year for her tune Little Bird, which she described as a "strong, secure version" of her smash hit Pretty Enough.

The award means Chambers is now tied with Savage Garden for the most overall APRA awards won by any artist.

Patrick Monahan and songwriting duo Amund Bjorklund and Espen Lin won the award for International Work of the Year with their hit single Hey, Soul Sister as performed by Train.

Hard rockers AC/DC also made the awards list for their rock classic Highway to Hell.

Despite being released all the way back in 1979, the tune picked up the award for the Most Played Australian Song Overseas.

The Australasian Performing Right Association Awards were established in 1982, and aims to celebrate the achievements of performers in the Australian music industry.