Citizen of the Year
Les Hunt
Les' community commitment spans 50 years, starting when the family moved to Boolarra in the mid 70’s. He joined the CFA and over the years moved up to the position of Captain. He was involved in the cricket club as a player and helped establish a second cricket ground. A member of Primary School Council, Mirboo North High School Council and Gippsland TAFE Council indicated a commitment to education. Other local projects included keeping the police Station open and improved TV reception for the town.
With Latrobe City Council he was instrumental in establishing the teacher exchange program and the Sister City relationship with Taizhou in China. He organised the first business delegation to China in 2000 and believes that our future is linked to international investment.
He is a current member of the Latrobe City International Relations Committee, a Board Member of Life Education Gippsland and Chair of Loy Yang Environmental Review Committee.
As a volunteer radio announcer on Gippsland FM he has highlighted over many years, the challenges facing the Latrobe Valley as a means of communication with the community. Les informs the public on all events, seeks guests who can answer the local questions, is respectful, informative, connected to, passionate about and proud of everything and everyone in the Valley.
Les is a very humble and friendly person who works tirelessly for the betterment of our community
Young Citizen of the Year
Joshua Szabo
Joshua Szabo, whilst a VCAL student at Lavalla Catholic Secondary College, chose for his careers enterprise and opportunity program, to raise awareness of the dumping of waste in his local waterways. He approached Council concerned at the increasing amounts of litter he was seeing at local fishing spots and camping reserves. The result was the creation of a litter prevention project: ‘Enjoy it. Don’t destroy it!’
He realised the issue wasn’t only confined to fishing spots, but many other local campsite and waterways such as the Tyers Pumping Stations, Sandbanks Reserve and Lake Narracan, which was the wort affected of these areas. Council’s Sustainability Education Officer and depot staff mentored and worked with Josh over a 12-week period to identify six local litter hotspots, and developed communications and signage.
‘Enjoy it’ Don’t destroy it!’ is the slogan and campaign that Josh, his fellow students and Council came up with – with the hope to have slogan signage distributed over around ten reserves and litter hotspots through Latrobe City.
The project was nominated for the 2017 Victorian VCAL ‘Community Link’ Award and Josh was the winner of the Young Achievers section of the 2017 Sustainable Cities Awards.
Community Event of the Year
2017 Traralgon Marathon and Running Festival
The 50th running of the Traralgon Marathon and Running Festival in June 2017 saw record competitors in the marathon and around 700 runners competing in the four events on offer. Besides the marathon, the events target people of different ages and abilities, including children. Participants were well supported by other family members and friends.
This successful event brought people to Latrobe City from other regions in the state, as well as from around Australia and overseas. Of the 152 marathon runners, 15% were from interstate and 40% from outside Latrobe City which provides economic value to the region by way of filling hotels and restaurants.
The event was organised and delivered by local volunteers, and included participants from Japan who were part of a Latrobe City Sports Exchange program. The feedback from participants and visitors was extremely positive with many taking the opportunity to enjoy the key tourism features of the area while in the region.
The running festival provides the community with a high-class event that very few regions have which inspires locals to plan for the event and give it a go!
Community Service of the Year
Co-Winner – Benjamin Bailey
Ben is a local athletics coach and athlete. He is passionate about athletics and identified a decrease in athletics participation locally which potentially aligned itself with the obesity epidemic. Ben took it upon himself to become a qualified coach, implemented free training sessions available to all members of the community, assisted with the implementation of parkrun, created the Churchill Walk, Jog, Run Group, became President of the Traralgon Harriers and became a Committee Member for Athletics Victoria to drive change.
Ben gives all his time and expertise to the community without a fee. His dedication has seen an increased interest in athletics resulting in increased community engagement which is subsequently changing lifestyles and attitudes for the positive. Ben's knowledge has also seen his athletes demonstrate significant development in their skills.
As President of the Traralgon Harriers, Ben promotes our sport with the community, fundraising for local organisations to help improve community health and wellbeing.
Major Award – Community Service of the Year Co-Winner – Julie Ann Basset Julie Bassett has been a member of the Morwell RSL Women’s Auxiliary since 1991 and treasurer since 1992, selling raffle tickets on Friday nights, tokens and memorabilia for ANZAC DAY and Remembrance Day.
Julie has been organiser and participant in raffles for Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, Christmas and Easter, fundraising with Biggest Morning Teas, fashion parades, craft markets and on occasion bingo. She also prepares and runs trivia nights and Member’s Day for Morwell RSL Sub Branch.
She has organised social events such as lunches, shopping trips, bus trips. All these activities are raising funds towards veteran welfare and local community welfare.
Apart from the above, Julie has been a member of Mitchell House Ladies Auxiliary for 28 years and secretary for 25 years. All of these endeavours have been undertaken whilst Julie was in full time employment
Adult Citizen of the Year
Joel & Sue Chapman
Sue and Joel Chapman are parents to three beautiful girls,– Kelly aged eight, and twins Katelyn and Emily aged six, who all suffer from GSD(Glycogen Storage Disease).
The girls require 24 hour care to monitor their health which means outside employment is impossible for the parents. The girls are home-schooled but join in community events and clubs such as the Boolarra Drama Group, which they all enthusiastically participate in and enjoy.
Two other important family members who play a large part in the family are younger brother Ben and medical assistance dog Merlin who helps detect the girls’ medical emergencies.
The love and devotion, not to mention the sheer hard work, that Sue and Joel both dedicate to their beautiful little family surely does deserve the community’s recognition through the Australia Day Awards.
Latrobe City Award – Adult Citizen of the Year Joel Dinsdale Joel Dinsdale has touched the lives of many and is always doing what he can to help others. As a personal trainer and in his personal life he is always encouraging people to be the best they can be and to reach their goals and make their dreams come true.
The reason I am voting for him today is for the outstanding charity work he did for a young girl, who is sadly no longer with us after losing her battle with cancer. Joel auctioned off ten hours of his time to people who got to choose any exercise for Joel to complete. He raised over $30,000 for the family and captured the hearts of many in our community.
Joel was also part of a team who helped renovate a house of a person who was battling cancer.
Joel is the first person to lend a helping hand to whoever needs it and he is loved and admired by many people in our community.
Adult Citizen of the Year
Adam Rogers
Adam has self-trained, entered and been placed successfully in fitness and body building competitions in Melbourne -The Arnolds - where he was also selected to be in Mr Schwarzenegger’s own bodyguard team .
He runs personal training sessions and healthy eating and dietary programs for people throughout Gippsland to help them reach their personal goals.
He has done health training and educational talks at schools. He now manages the ASN (Australian Sports Nutrition) shop in Franklin Street Traralgon and posts videos on social media to show the change people can achieve in themselves. And it is all self-taught.
Young Citizen of the Year
Alana Gibson-Wilson
Alana Gibson-Williamson has a commitment to the sport of athletics and she is a real trier. Alana showed great promise in all aspects of athletics, but her greatest ability is hurdles and high jump.
She is now 13 years old and competes against older children in the Victorian Championships and Australian Championships.
She qualified for the Australian Championships in Sydney in March 2017 after winning the U14 high jump and U14 80 metres hurdle at the Victorian Championships. Alana came 6th in the Australian Championships and was ranked 10th overall in Australia in hurdles and high jump.
At the age of six, Alana started training locally at Joe Carmody Athletics Track in competing for Moe. She is very dedicated to her sport and is trained by David Green. Her intense training requires her travelling regularly to Leongatha, Cranbourne and Albert Park, Melbourne.
We are very proud of her dedication to the sport.
Event of the Year
Gippsland Sculpture Prize - Yinnar
If art is all about engagement then the 55 sculptures delivered by 45 local and international artists, installed throughout the township of Yinnar have accomplished that goal. The works range from figurative artwork through to abstract formations and are made from the likes of steel, stone, ceramic, bronze, wood, glass and concrete.
The Gippsland Sculpture Exhibition, located in the township of Yinnar, is a successful collaboration between artists, ARC Yinnar the auspicing organisation, local businesses and the Lions Club.
From the opening on 1 April 2017 at the ARC gardens to the conclusion of the event in May 2017 the Yinnar and wider community embraced the exhibition.
We transformed the town for a couple of months and gave our community a sense of pride and interest in sculpture. We also put Yinnar on the state and national sculpture map and calendar. We gave others within the region a reason to visit Yinnar.
Event of the Year
2017 Youth National Archery Championships
Twin City Archers Gippsland Inc hosted this event, which had 170 entries - one of the biggest youth Nationals ever. The massive amount of work by volunteers with huge support from the local community enabled the club to make this event not only a great competitive competition but a social event too.
Entries for this event came from all over Australia and New Zealand. All the competitors and family members had a fantastic experience, with all feedback saying they would be back next year. This event brought over $600,000 in direct spending to the local community during this time.
Community Service of the Year
Safer Communities Group Neighbourhood Watch Latrobe Valley Morwell
The Safer Communities Group Neighbourhood Watch Latrobe City/Morwell is a community minded group of volunteers who help make Latrobe City a better, safer place. The group assists Council, Victoria Police, other community groups and individuals with awareness events and safety issues within Latrobe City. They are a mix of people from different backgrounds who work together for the betterment of our community. Though the group does not act as a policing arm, they are vocal in their support of crime prevention through awareness.
The Safer Communities Group Neighbourhood Watch Latrobe City/Morwell volunteers can be seen at many events around Latrobe City performing various tasks such as traffic control/management, assisting other community groups with cooking and set up of events such as Morwell Lions and the Australia Day Breakfast. The group has assisted Latrobe City Council with several events such as the Firmins Lane Wetlands opening and the Barry Sheene Tribute Ride. The Morwell Primary Schools Art Project was the group’s main project for the year where the four primary schools within Morwell created a mural to be installed in the subway leading from Morwell Train Station into the Morwell CBD.
You can find the Safer Communities Group Neighbourhood Watch Latrobe City/Morwell every month doing a sausage sizzle at Bunnings Morwell raising funds for their numerous events and projects; or you may see volunteers walking around town doing community audits or delivering letter box drops. The Safer Communities Group Neighbourhood Watch Latrobe City/Morwell prides itself on the motto: Community giving back to the Community.