Tenterfield’s Australia Day awardees for 2019 were drawn from a large pool of quality nominations, in fact the largest number of nominations for some years.
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Mayor Peter Petty announced another duo as Citizen(s) of the Year, citing Jann and Geoff Newman – nominated by Carmel Rose – for four decades of contribution to the community. The Newmans most recently retired from running Oracles of the Bush but they’ve also been involved in the Railway Museum, Vintage Car Club, Drama Group, Probus, Quota, Toastmasters, and various arts organisations.
Young Citizen of the Year is the multi-talented Ella Wishart, nominated by Tenterfield High School principal Sandra Rosner. Ella is a popular volunteer Ten FM radio announcer, swim coach and drama group participant. She’s also a school debater and swimming and athletics representative, and participated in NSW Education’s Secretary for a Day program last year.
There were no nominations for Sportsperson of the Year, but Isaac Jones (also nominated by Ms Rosner) was named Young Sportsperson of the Year. Isaac has a long list of sporting achievements including selections for rep teams in swimming, touch football, basketball, rugby league and athletics. He was Tenterfield High School’s cross country champion and also named its Junior Sportsperson of the Year for 2018.
Neal O’Reilly, nominated by Richard Dennison, was awarded Emergency Services Volunteer of the Year. Neal’s been an active member of the Tenterfield SES Unit for 40 years after being part of its formation committee. He is still the unit’s local controller and continues to be a leading figure with a huge wealth of experience not only in relation to incidents that the Tenterfield SES Unit has attended but also with a vast technical knowledge which he imparts to new and older members alike.
Finally the judges had an outstanding array of 2018 events from which to choose Community Event of the Year. The award went to the Centenary of Armistice Commemorations, nominated by Ray Holmes, John Brown and Harry Bolton. The commemorations were conducted by the Tenterfield RSL Sub-Branch assisted by the council’s Anzac Centenary Steering Committee. They included the Bruxner Park display of white crosses marking Tenterfield souls lost in WWI; the Wallangarra Dugout and Trench reconstruction in Memorial Hall which attracted 1764 visitors; the dining-in function with special guest Honour Auchinleck, grand-daughter of General Sir Harry Chauvel; launch of the Tenterfield WWI book Sometime We’ll Understand; and, of course, the Remembrance Day ceremony itself at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month.
