The new $10 banknote has a range of innovative new security features designed to keep the banknote secure from counterfeiting. Each denomination in the new series of banknotes will feature a different species of Australian wattle and a native bird within a number of the security features. On the $10 banknote, these are the Bramble Wattle (Acacia victoriae) and the Sulphur-crested Cockatoo (Cacatua galerita).

The new $10 banknote retains the portraits of Dame Mary Gilmore and AB ‘Banjo’ Paterson, which are drawn from the same source photographs represented on the first polymer $10 banknote.

The banknote also depicts images from the era of Gilmore and Paterson's works. The homestead used in the design of the Reversing 10 is representative of the type of homestead referenced in Gilmore and Paterson's works. The hut on the Gilmore side of the banknote references life in the Australian bushland as described in her poetry. The image of the horseman on the other side of the banknote is the designer's interpretation of a horseman from the era of Paterson's writing.

The pseudonym under which Paterson wrote – ‘The Banjo’ – was the name of his favourite horse.

The wattle flowers on the new $10 banknote are paler than those on the new $5 banknote – just like the two wattles in real life.

The microprint features excerpts from Gilmore and Paterson's poems No Foe Shall Gather Our Harvest and The Man from Snowy River.