Australia Day Awards 2022 Winners Announced
Published on 27 January 2022
The winners of our Shire’s 2022 Australia Day Awards were announced at this year’s Australia day Awards Ceremony, which was held Wednesday 26 January 2022 at the Dorrigo Community Hall.
The awards ceremony, which was hosted by the Dorrigo Lions Club and supported by Council, featured a free BBQ breakfast and light refreshments, a Welcome to Country ceremony and award presentations presided over by our Shire’s newly elected Mayor, Cr Stephen Allan.
Cr Allan said the Dorrigo Lions Club’s Australia Day Awards Ceremony provided our Shire with a fantastic opportunity to acknowledge and celebrate our homegrown heroes, many of whom work tirelessly behind the scenes to ensure we remain a connected, sustainable, and creative community.
“Seven awards were presented to acknowledge our local farmers and volunteers’ efforts to protect our natural environment and to celebrate the achievements of our local artists and sports stars, and to thank the people in our community who are simply changing people’s lives for the better including our Shire’s medical and health professionals.”
“Many of these people give their time freely throughout our Shire to help others, and that’s why this year we have also added a new award category called the ‘Community Resilience Award’ to recognise the combined efforts of our local medical and health professionals who all worked tirelessly to establish our own COVID-19 Clinic, provided care, support and information to ensure that our community remained safe and healthy when we needed it most.”
‘Given the calibre of this year’s applicants, all nominees should feel extremely proud of their achievements, and I would personally like to thank and congratulate them all for their individual contributions towards making our community and our Shire so special.”
The individual category winners for our Shire’s 2022 Australia Day Awards are:
Active & Healthy Award:
Abby Raymond
Abby Raymond has been a member of the club for 12 years, from beginners through to National Level at Pony Club and her greatest achievement was in 2020 competing in Sydney for the Pony Club National event in Tetrathalon and Abby also helps run fundraising events and tutors her peers to help them perform at their best during competitions.
Arts Award:
Violet Preston
Violet Preston is a precious matriarch of our community, with a heart of gold and a pure desire to serve and help others. While selflessly giving of her time as a volunteer wherever possible, she often serves via her amazing creative skills. Her talent is undeniable, but it’s the love that goes into her art and crafts that make them so special.
Leading On The Land Award:
Georgina & Sam Baker (Levenvale Farm)
They apply innovative practices focussed on regenerative farming to sustainably farm and produce organic beef and nurture the land for our community, their children and our future by working with local chefs, abattoirs, retailers and butchers to improve their product.
Karma Award:
Bernard (Spot) Swales
Spot Swales works tirelessly as a volunteer for our community across a range of organisations. He is passionate about supporting veterans and families of veterans no longer alive and he is the Honorary Treasurer of the Bellinger River RSL Sub-Branch, a member of Legacy Coffs Coast and volunteers at the Veteran Centre Mid North Coast.
Environment Award
(Award Winner): Dorrigo Volunteer Environmental Groups
Dorrigo Volunteer Environmental Groups have cared for Bielsdown River Walk and revegetated the banks of the Bielsdown River and planted Arctic Beech Trees at Rocky Creek Reserve and cleaned up the Liquid Amber along Jubilee Avenue following severe weather events.
(Highly Commended): Bellingen Riverwatch Volunteers
Bellingen Riverwatch’s 40 Water Quality Management volunteers and five local schools work together to test the water quality of the Bellinger and Kalang catchments, which is the largest river health citizen science project in New South Wales.
Community Champion Award
(Award Winner): May Smith
May is a kind, selfless woman who gives tirelessly of herself to our community. From facilitating the ‘Bowl of Plenty’ movement where locals in need can go to have a nutritious meal, to co-ordinating all manner of local support, May Smith is truly an Angel here on earth, in our own little town.
(Highly Commended): Sri Popuri
Sri Popuri has been the Pharmacist at Dorrigo for several years and is known as a customer focussed and friendly pharmacist. Throughout the fires, floods and pandemic Sri has made the long journey from Coffs Harbour to Dorrigo six days a week to ensure our community is supported and protected.
Resilience Award: Our Shire’s Local Medical and Health Professionals
Representatives from our local medical and health professions worked tirelessly to establish our own COVID-19 Clinic and commence testing long before any State or Federal Government testing clinics were operational to reduce the risk of transmission and the closure of one of our local medical clinics.
* N.B: The group of individuals who played a role is extensive and representatives of those involved were invited to attend the Australia Day Awards Ceremony included the following:
GP Practices / Owners
Three Rivers Health – Trevor and Vicki Cheney
North Bellingen Medical Centre – Cain English
Bellingen Healing Centre – Andrew Heslop
Urunga Medical Centre – Jon Fergusson and Derek Bell
Dorrigo Health and Wellbeing Service – Matt Hansen
Pharmacies:
Bellingen Pharmacy – Scott Myers
Urunga Pharmacy – Lee Grundy
Dorrigo Pharmacy – Sri Popuri
Hospitals and Mid North Coast Local Health District:
Lydia Dennett, General Manager Coffs Harbour Health Campus
In recognition of the community support that the Neighbourhood Care Network (NCN) have provided our Shire, they too were acknowledged, with Kerry Pearce receiving the Resilience Award on behalf of the NCN for their efforts in activating as a community driven crisis response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Now an independent incorporated community organisation, the NCN:
- Sends reliable and timely information about local emergencies and the COVID pandemic to its members, usually through SMS.
- Supports new and existing local neighbourhood groups to make sure that everyone is in touch and can help each other when needed and,
- Links local groups that want to do more, to each other and to resources.