Dungog Australia Day Award nominations

They were placed second in the NSW School’s Cup state championships and then entered the final state cup as an open-aged team and won gold.

Seven of the girls made the Hunter representative team. Four represented Northern NSW and one represented NSW at the Australian championships where she was named most valuable player.

Their coach Tim Francey was named girls’ volleyball convenor/manager for the Hunter region.

The team consisted of Breanna Miller, Hayley Forbes, Kaitlyn Forbes, Tabatha Beisler, Maddisyn Fordham, Elyse Standing, Bethany McLoughlin and Bailea Smith.

The team has been nominated by the Rotary Club of Dungog.

From a very early age Ellie Wallace has shown aptitude for a variety of sports.

She represented Glen William Public School in 2009 for swimming, attending the state championships at Sydney’s Olympic Park. She went on to represent both Glen William and Clarence Town public schools in athletics and cross country at zone for five consecutive years.

Ellie also has a love for netball, playing with Dungog Netball Association since age 10, winning numerous grand finals and awarded players’ player most years. She then went on to represent Port Stephens region at state age championships for three years.

In 2013, 2014 and 2015 Ellie was awarded swimming age champion and in 2015 also earned cross country age champion at Dungog High School.

In 2014 and 2015 she attended regional competitions for athletics, zone and regional representation for swimming and zone and regional representation for netball.

In 2014 Ellie added to her achievements by representing Dungog in the regional championships for soccer.

In 2015 she was named Dungog High School’s sportswoman of the year.

2015 and 2016 saw Ellie’s passion for volleyball pay dividends with her being selected in the Hunter region volleyball team as captain and was named most valuable player at the state championships last year. She was a member of the team that won a gold medal in the NSW Schools’ Cup.

In September last year Ellie was awarded the prestigious Pierre De Coubertin Award from the Australian Olympic committee. The award recognised Ellie’s sport achievements and the demonstration of those endeavours consistent with the aims of the Olympic movement through participating in a range of sporting activities and made exemplary effort to achieve her personal best and displayed qualities of fair play which has inspired the involvement of others.

Ellie was also responsible for starting a recycling program at Dungog High and was awarded a $500 prize from Samsung to implement changes in the school.

Both on and off the field Ellie is known for her compassion, friendliness and respect for her peers and opponents.

Ellie has been nominated by the Williams Rivers Gardeners.

At the age of two Emma Haskins was suffering from muscle wastage of her left leg and it was recommended she take up dancing.

She has been dancing ever since and four years later starting competing in eisteddfods.

In 2012 Emma completed her British Ballet Organisation classical ballet exams in the top 5 per cent of Australia and was invited to audition in Sydney for the Simon Horril Award for gifted and talented dancers.

Despite missing out on the award her abilities were recognised and she was invited to audition for the BBO associates program for elite classical dancers. She was successful and travelled regularly to Sydney for specialised tuition.

In 2015 Emma travelled to Sydney for BBO dance where she was selected from children all over Australia and New Zealand as the BBO national junior scholar for that year.

She has auditioned for several productions and danced at the opening ceremony of the Special Olympics in 2013, the International Games in 2014 and has successfully gained a position in the ensemble cast for the production of Grease the Arena Spectacular to be held in Newcastle this year.

2016 has been a very busy year for Emma. She auditioned and successfully gained a position at the Hunter School of Performing Arts and successfully gained positions in the Classical Ballet Ensemble, the Year 7 Contemporary Ensemble and the year 7 dance ensemble.

She has had many eisteddfod wins and places last year including the Classical Ballet Championships, the Winter Dance Festival and Mattara and won all three titles.

Emma also won the Marie Walton junior classical ballet scholarship and was selected to dance a lead role at the PAE production of Shrek.

She has also represented her school at zone and regional level in cross country, athletics and swimming as well as hockey, cricket and touch football and has also started competing in endurance riding.

Emma has been nominated by Clarence Town and District Progress Association.

Adam is a well known local identity in the Paterson/Martins Creek area. He attended Paterson Preschool and Paterson Public School and regularly assists local people in the area. He is a reliable volunteer for many projects including:

* Paterson Public School’s vegetable garden

* Paterson’s Tucker Park picnic area and fence

* Corn saddle at Tucker Park which has been rebuilt

* Paterson Museum fencing

* Paterson Sportsground oval fencing, shower block, power cable trenchng and unisex toilet construction.

Adam owns a small flat-top truck and small excavator, along with many tools which he utilises for constructions. All are free of charge the community.

Adam exhibits the qualities of willingness and generosity for his time to carry out any volunteer work.

Adam has been nominated by Paterson Progress Association.

As a volunteer, Barrie Kingsford has looked after the gardens and pot plants at Paterson Railway Station for 30 years. He has brought his own plants from home to plant at the station.

Up until 2015, Barrie came up to Paterson twice a week to tend the plants but now is only able to make it on Saturdays.

If Barrie had not donated his plants and time, Paterson Railway Station would not have the colourful display to greet travellers.

Barrie Kingsford has been nominated by Virginia Daniels.

Colleen Duffy has given so much to the Dungog Shire.

She is the president of the Clarence Town School of Arts and has brought this hall alive with her efforts, creating events, fundraising and promoting it tirelessly.

Colleen is an integral part of the Clarence Town Progress Association giving time and energy to create great spaces and events for the town. She not only does this but also volunteers for the Dungog Festival.

She writes for the local Spotlight magazine to keep locals informed on events for the shire and is on the Dungog District Chamber of Commerce committee promoting business and tourism to our shire.

She is always behind the scenes and I would like her to get recognition for all she puts in to making our shire what it is today.

Colleen has been nominated by Lisa Lambert-Smith.

Dungog Anglican Church op shop is a volunteer organisation with many regular customers. At times customers help in whichever way they can.

Garry Cross is one such customer.

On a regular basis he goes above and beyond in many ways to assist the smooth functioning of the op shop and has done so for many years.

After finishing work at his place of employment in the morning, Garry arrives to assist in setting up the op shop for the day’s trading. There are always many, many items that need to be moved outdoors in the morning to enable a safe working place to trade indoors. This procedure can be very arduous for the few who open.

Garry enables this procedure to happen without much fuss – thus saving the workers much heavy lifting.

At closing time he quite often returns and assists with putting everything back inside.

Garry is always willing to unload goods that arrive as donations, quite often a ute load, and is happy to deliver any large items for customers they have purchased.

When the op shop opens on a Saturday he is always there to lend a hand in whichever way he can. The op shop operates because of the generosity of many and we consider it a blessing to the people of the Dungog area.

Garry has always been a very willing contributor and we at the op shop recognise and are very grateful for his input.

He has been nominated by the Dungog Anglican Church op shop.

Ian has been nominated for the huge amount of time and effort he has put into the farm yard and animal nursery and piglet racing for the Dungog Show.

Since Ian has been working in this area, it has increased numbers and enthusiasm of the school children who love the opportunity to get close to the animals such as sheep, goats, calves, geese, lambs, llamas, birds, rabbits and chickens just to name a few.

On behalf of the Dungog A&H, we feel he is very worthy to be considered for this award.

Ian has been nominated by Dungog A&H Association.

 Kim has a history of being involved in the Dungog Shire community as a volunteer for many years of her residence in Dungog.

She was very committed to St Joseph’s Primary School, the school’s centenary committee and was a local and regional Scout leader for many years.

She joined the volunteer team at Dungog Shire Community Centre in November 2015. She has become an integral part of the volunteer team and has been tireless in her volunteer efforts and ours.

Kim has volunteered well over 300 hours in 2016, spanned over the varied services and programs offered by the centre.

She commenced with the Project Bounce Forward team assisting with any kind of administration work required, the preparation and distribution of flyers also including client surveys that sometimes turned into accidental counselling sessions.

She also volunteered her time at the masked ball which is a community college fundraiser, the community centre’s connect fun day, Sam Cawthorne event, Wrapped with Love day at Dungog High School as well as assisting and setting up of events which involved communications, promotion, catering and engaging with participants to ensure their involvement and wellbeing.

Kim has also become a volunteer for the youth services facilitator Lisa Dyer and has shown great rapport with the students she is involved with and a talent for mentoring young people.

She has shown such a great talent, diversity and ability to relate with clients and members of the community no matter where the situation that the centre has encouraged her to complete a Diploma in Youth, Family and Early Intervention which she commenced last year and will complete this year.

Kim has been nominated by Charmaine Dickson from the Dungog Shire Community Centre.

Kristine has been volunteering at the Dungog Shire Community Centre for one year.

She has undertaken many different roles and supported many varied community programs and has undertaken all her work with passion, dignity and a willingness to help others.

The main focus of her work has been through Project Bounce Forward which was implemented after the April 2015 superstorm.

Kristine was the chief photographer for the Reflections of Resilience first anniversary exhibition.

She was involved in working with many groups across the Dungog Shire to reflect on their experiences and draw strength from their recovery journey to find a word that reflected their resilience.

The result was over 30 photos involving over 200 people from across the Dungog and Stroud areas in a series of amazing images that truly showed what a courageous and strong community we live in.

Kristine supported individuals to find their own strength in their recovery all the while undertaking her own recovery journey.

She has also been involved in the years 11 and 12 motivational day at Dungog High School, an evening with Sam Cawthorne who created the concept of Bounce Forward and assisted 150 school students ice and decorate arrowroot biscuits so they had something to enter in Dungog Show.

Kristine has also supported and assisted other centre programs including Doug the Reading Bug, child minding at Train for School sessions, masked ball photographer, community Christmas program with the preparation and distribution of hampers to those less fortunate and Dungog Community Garden.

Kristine inspires the staff of the community centre with her grace and humility and her belief that you can make a difference.

Kristine has been nominated by Sarah U’Brien from the Dungog Shire Community Centre.