From Section 44, to Barnaby Joyce’s love life, marriage equality, climate change, and the federal government leadership spill, and the constant presence of Tony Abbott, there was enough to fill papers across the land.

And now those cartoons fill the halls of the Museum of Democracy at Old Parliament House, with the opening of Behind the Lines: The year’s best political cartoons 2018 exhibition.

Fairfax cartoonist Matt Golding was named as the exhibition’s cartoonist of the year on Friday at the launch.

“Matt has delighted fans for years with his work for Fairfax publications, where he excels at the pocket cartoon style,” said Daryl Karp, director of MOAD.

“He skilfully sums up complex issues within one frame, enabling readers to understand the issues more easily and to appreciate the humour that he brings to them.”

Ms Karp said at a time when Australia has had seven prime ministers in 10 years and more than a 50 per cent drop in satisfaction with democracy since 2007, “it’s reassuring that our political cartoonists haven’t lost the ability to make us laugh.”

Mr Golding said it has been a good year for political satire, “that’s the sad reality”, he said after Friday’s announcement.

“You wake up every morning and something has happened …. Tony Abbott does his 2GB spot and that sets off the week of sniping and his attempts to bring down the government.

“Donald Trump is tweeting overnight … but with Trump it’s getting harder and harder … how do you make a clown look funny, how do you send up someone who seems to send himself up without trying?”

Mr Golding said growing up in rural Victoria, his family rarely discussed politics around the dinner table.

“My father was a minister of the Uniting Church, my mother worked with handicapped kids, what there was was a sense of social responsibility.”

Is that how he sees cartooning?

“To a certain extent,” he says. “You're the voice of the every man and woman, you're observing the people in power, holding them to check, questioning what they're doing, questioning their motives, a lot of the time their motives aren't pure.”

More than 80 cartoons are on exhibit, with more than 30 cartoonists featured: David Pope, Pat Campbell, John Shakespeare, David Rowe, Cathy Wilcox and Mark Knight - whose cartoon of Serena Williams caused a controversy mid year. For the first time Jason Chatfield, an Australian cartooning for The New Yorker has also been included.

The exhibition takes its inspiration from Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland. There’s a dedicated space for children with dress ups and crazy mirrors, board games and cards. There is also a cartooning trail for older children, following clues and learning about the art of political cartooning.

2018 certainly has been a year when we’ve all felt we’ve fallen down the rabbit hole into some alternative reality. Curiouser and Curiouser indeed.

Behind the Lines: The year’s best political cartoons 2018 is on display at MOAD until November 2019.