Australia Day 2024

Official Program: 

8AM: Breakfast by Dungog Rotary Club

9AM: Official Ceremony featuring:

Welcome by Mayor, Cr John Connors

Performances by Megan Edwards

Address by Australia Day Ambassador, Paralympian and wheelchair tennis player Mr David Hall OAM, 

Presentation of Australia Day Awards

Citizenship Ceremony

 

After the official ceremony morning tea will be provided.

 

 

2024 Nominees:

CITIZEN OF THE YEAR AWARD - 25 YEARS AND OVER

David Colefax

David is an invaluable member of the Clarence Town community who epitomises dedication and service through his role as a Courier driver at Hawks Transport. His unwavering commitment to ensuring exceptional service for the local district has left an indelible mark. David's remarkable work ethic extends beyond delivering packages; he embodies the spirit of community, ensuring everyone's needs are a priority. His conscientious approach to his job is a testament to his character, consistently going above and beyond to accommodate and assist those he serves. David's selflessness and unwavering dedication undoubtedly merit recognition through the Citizen Award, symbolizing his immeasurable contributions and impact within the community.

Erin Fitzgibbon and David Neilson

David Neilson & Erin Fitzgibbon are very well known for the annual Christmas lights display that they have been providing at their home each year. This began over 15 years ago but it has been expanded every year to the point where they now extend the display into neighbouring properties, and it takes them about three months to set up the display, which now has over 300,000 LEDs. While this is remarkable and entertaining for the whole community, each year they use the display to raise a substantial amount of funds to support families with very sick children undergoing treatment such as chemo/radiation therapy or palliative care. In doing so they attract substantial support for these families, which also unites the entire community.

Maddison Louise Jones-Tickle

Maddison has been nominated for her improvement to young families and the youth of the shire, an important factor with the growing population of the shire. Maddison purchased The Barn Dungog (Formally Dead Dog Cafe) in October 2022 and transformed the business into the only family friendly eatery in the shire, with the addition of a kid’s playroom, activates, and book area. As a mother of young children herself, it was a clear to her the lacking service in the shire catering to this demographic. Having a place for families to go and let their children play in a safe controlled area while they relax and enjoy the hospitality has only improved the services the shire can offer young families. Maddison also routinely holds family events, adding much needed youth entertainment options to the community, such as her Halloween pumpkin carving events that are always a sell-out. Maddison has recently launched a book club for other mothers in the shire, aimed at building support and social options for mothers in the shire.

 

YOUNG CITIZEN OF THE YEAR AWARD - 25 YEARS AND UNDER

James Ryan

James is a fantastic young ambassador for the museum. His enthusiasm and willingness to be involved in the museum and local history is a credit to his love of the shire and commitment to ensuring our history is preserved – which is remarkable given James is only 12 years old. James volunteers to conduct tours of the museum, loves to make presentations and complete research, and is certainly a valued friend of Clarence Town Courthouse Museum!

Claire Harvey

Claire is 18 years old and was the Vice President of Dungog High School in 2023, where she display exemplary leadership skills in driving improvements for the students of the school – despite losing two close people to her throughout the year. Notwithstanding 2-3 months away from school, Claire was able to continue her student meetings, presentations and gatherings online, and upon her return, completed her HSC exams and topping three of her classes (Maths, Biology and Primary Industries). Claire's success in her Business Studies and Primary Industries classes at school is reflected in her dedication to the family farm, whose survival was highly dependent on her ability to quickly step up and perform duties that her parents could no longer carry out (for varying reasons), such as operating the tractor and managing the animals. Despite the challenges that held her back this year, Claire has also been a crucial member of the community, as seen in her voluntary position within the NSW Stroud SES Branch since July 2022, and next year plans on progressing her skills by taking a first aid course, chainsaw training, and roof safety training so that she can broaden her skills to better enable her to serve others in the community.

 

ENVIRONMENTAL CITIZEN OF THE YEAR

Sheri Thomas

Sheri Thomas teaches science at Clarence Town Public School. Her passion for the environment is infectious and she is inspiring a generation of environmental champions in her work every day at school. Sheri has been successful in receiving several grants for the school this year, including the Sustainable Schools Grant, Hunter Water Grant, Woolworths Junior Landcare Grant and a Planet Ark grant. These grants have enables Sheri to undertake numerous projects throughout the year, including engaging the entire school and community on National Tree Planting Day, introducing recycling bins into the school playground, with separate bins for organic waste, paper waste and bottle waste, as well as the existing worm farms. For students in Years 3 to 6, Sheri has worked tirelessly to deliver an OzHarvest's FEAST program. As part of this program, students address food waste prevention and healthy eating while educating and engaging with the community.  Throughout the year, Sheri has maintained an extremely productive school vegetable garden, and worked with students from year 6 to bring the world of bees and their environmental benefits into the classrooms. Students create their own hives, which they can watch via live feed, while simultaneously learning about the critical role bees play in our ecosystem.

Ken Rubeli

Ken has been a champion for the environment in and around Dungog for many years. He was the original owner of the Wangat Lodge (the current owner won the environment award in 2022) and identified many of the environmental assets that are now much appreciated by the many visitors to this ‘gem’ of the Barrington Tops. At the same time, Ken has been a long-term member (34 years) of the Bendolba-Salisbury Rural Fire Brigade (RFB) and has an intimate understanding of the important role that fire can play in the re-generation, preservation and prevention of conflagration in the fragile hinterland. Ken lives and breathes environmental responsibility and is an exemplar of how humans can best interact with their natural surroundings to ensure its future survival. Ken has even successfully fought a 100-metre figure, extinguishing it without the use of water – such is his knowledge of dry and traditional firefighting.

 

SENIOR SPORTS AWARD - OVER 18 YEARS

Andre Stengl

Andre has been nominated for the significant contribution he makes in promoting and sustaining soccer in the Dungog community. He is currently the Vice President of Dungog Soccer Club and a passionate player, who is committed to maintaining a club in Dungog so that younger generations can play the sport he loves in their hometown. In addition to being Vice President, Andre has taken on the role of Coaching, Linesman and Referee Coordinator, and is the Coach for two Dungog teams. Andre also plays in the All-Age Men's team, and in early 2023 gained his referee accreditation. Andre is dedicated to the development of younger players and has coached various Mini Roos and junior competition teams over the years, and in 2023 he took on the management of the game leader training and mentoring program where junior competition team players are trained to referee Mini Roos games, with the intention of moving into competition refereeing in the future. He also coaches the U12’s team and is constantly striving for ways to develop all the younger players to be the best they can be. Andre's commitment to his club and the community also saw him selling raffle tickets and promoting the club at the 2023 Dungog Rumble, working the club's kiosk annually at the Dungog Show, and regularly building and nurturing relationships with sponsors and supporters to ensure the long-term viability of Dungog Soccer club.

Hannah Van Hoof

Hannah has danced her entire life. As soon as the local dance academy became available for purchase, she knew it was for her. Young, willing, and armed with a big dream to bring dance to life in Dungog, Hannah purchased the business, and it has grown substantially thanks to her dedication and commitment to the arts in the region. The time and effort she puts into every single lesson to ensure her students receive individual attention and high standard tuition, plus the hours of communications, choreography preparation and knowing each of the students as individuals is truly admirable. Many of her students, parents and fellow teachers are grateful to Hannah for the standard of the dance academy, and that someone of her calibre and commitment provides an exceptional dance culture in the Dungog shire.

 

VOLUNTEER SERVICE TO THE COMMUNITY

Rita Garland

Rita is the widow of a veteran and as such, has been a Legacy beneficiary in the past. However, quite uniquely, she is also a volunteer for Legacy and has been an active badge seller in the carpark behind Dungog IGA for almost 20 years. In this regard, Rita stoically and steadfastly completed six days volunteering every year during Legacy week, selling badges to people who are happy to see her each year. Rita has raised in the vicinity of $2000 each year (that’s close to $40,000 since she started), with the funds going directly to support the social activities organised for the Dungog Legacy widows throughout the year, of which she also contributes to the organisation of. Rita is seen as a ‘Volunteer Battler’ with the community who has seen more ‘rough’ times than ‘smooth’ which is even more testament to her outstanding character and commitment to the welfare of people within her community.

Thomas Banister

Thomas is being posthumously honoured and nominated as the Volunteer Service to the Community, having passed away in October 2023 at the age of 76. Thomas was the Secretary of the Dungog RSL sub-branch for 18 years – a position he continued to hold at the time of his passing. In addition to this, Thomas also represented the sub-branch at Hunter Valley District Council and at State Congress throughout this period. His extreme dedication to his position was such that two people have now taken over his duties. In addition to his RSL duties, Thomas was a long-term member of the RSL Club Board of Directors and Clarence Town Senior Citizens. He is sadly missed by all members of the organisations he was a member of.

Maddison Louise Jones-Tickle

Using her previous studies (Bachelor of early education and primary teaching, with honours) and experience from her career as an early educator then primary school teacher, Maddison has been volunteering and serving the community as the Dungog community preschool Vice-President. The preschool recently purchased a second location on Dowling Street, Dungog and intends to operate this as a second preschool and community space -safekeeping the history this property holds within the shire. This is a much-needed service for the growing demographic of young families and children to the shire, which can only be possible if services grow to meet their needs. Maddison’s commitment to improving the shire for young families and children is commendable and has resulted in the addition of services the shire can offer the above demographic, that will in turn continue to grow as more service become available.

 

 

When

Location

The James Theatre, Brown Street, Dungog, View Map