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| A great turnout for the Australia Day Awards 2018 in Gunning |
Bright, beautiful and sunny - what a way to start Australia Day in the Gunning District.
The Australia Day awards kicked off at an early 8 am this morning with breakfast by the stalwarts of the district, the Lions Club.
Sports commentator and journalist, Gordon Bray AM, the 'voice of rugby' is the 2018 Australia Day Ambassador for the Awards and he gave a very nice speech to start proceedings off.
Upper Lachlan Shire Council Mayor Brian McCormack OAM was the host for the event and together with John Bell the General Manager of the ULSC they handed the awards to the recipients. It was lovely to see The Hon. Angus Taylor MP at the ceremony along with Upper Lachlan Shire's Deputy Mayor John Stafford, Councillors' Pam Kensit and John Searl supporting their community.
The seats were full and there were plenty more people standing around. Even had a group of motorcycle riders who decided to hang around for the event. Though I think the cheap and filling breakfast by the Lions Club might have had a bit to do with it.
We had some amazing people and events nominated for the Australia Day Awards this year.
Gunning & District Historical Society were nominated in the Events section for their Australian launch of the book about Samuel Clayton - Forger, Freemason, Freeman by Irish author Margaret Smith which tells the story of an Irish engraver, transported for forgery and his son Dr Benjamin Clayton. This Launch was the brainchild of Rosemary Spiller whom without all her hard work and efforts it would have never come together , congratulations Rosemary on this well deserved nomination.
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| Anchor Books launched this book in Australia from Gunning |
We didn't win unfortunately but it went to a well deserved event the Gunning Fish River Fire Brigade -85th Anniversary Event which was accepted by Captain Krystaal Hinds.
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| Australia Day Event Award accepted by Captain Krystaal Hinds for Gunning Fish River RFS, photo courtesy of NSW SES Collector Unit |
On the night, the Brigade was honoured to have NSW RFS Assistant Commissioner Stuart Midgley AFSM in attendance along with RFS Superintendent Peter Alley. The event honoured local volunteers with medals for their years of service with Brian & Neil Johnson having achieved 66 years of service respectively. There was over 500 years of service collectively at this event. It was also a very special night for their Group Officer Brett Lees who was presented with the National Medal for his enduring service to the RFS.
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| NSW RFS Assistant Commissioner Stuart Midgley AFSM, Group Officer Brett Lees and Superintendent Peter Alley |
The Young Citizens Award was won by Guy Southwell and Leigh Hickey who quite a few years ago started an iniatitive to have a skate park in Gunning. They started the 'political' lobbying, applying for funding, doing their own fundraising with the help of the community and especially their 'Mums' as Leigh made sure to mention, for which they were successful and Gunning showground now boasts a skate park in which the young of the district can enjoy and thank these two young men for.
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| Leigh Hickey and Guy Southwell with proud parents Ross & Di Hickey and Sammi & Craig Southwell |
It was fantastic to see both Ann Darbyshire and Keith Brown both members of Gunning & District Historical Society receive Citizen of the Year Awards. They have been active community members of not just this Society but other committees and endeavours throughout our District. Keith is the author of quite a few books on the local and wider Shire areas and I understand he has another in the 'works', can't keep a good man down as they say.
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| Keith Brown with his Citizen of the Year Award |
Ann is one of those people who just knows things, she has knowledge I don't believe we have even discovered yet, she is always willing to lend a helping hand doing whatever or for whomever the occasion. For many years she was our voice in the section 'Gunning Snippets' in the local papers. She is a rare jewel of a woman amongst so many gems in this community. Keith and Ann are both well loved and both so deserve the honour bestowed upon them today. We couldn't be prouder.
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| Guy Southwell, Ann Darbyshire and Leigh Hickey with their Awards |
Gunning & District Historical Society would like to congratulate all nominees and winners for the Australia Day Awards for 2018, and to all the unsung heroes in our community who day in and day out do all the work behind the scenes, the little things we take for granted but can take a lot of effort to make an event or a group come together. We salute you!
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| General Manager ULSC John Bell, Mayor Brian McCormack, Keith Brown and Ambassador for the Upper Lachlan Shire Australia Day 2018 Gordon Bray AM |
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