Residents, friends, family and visitors celebrated everything that's great about living in Australia at this year's Federation Council Australia Day celebrations.
The Federation community were joined by Australia Day Ambassador Anupam Sharma and Council officials to celebrate Australia Day at the Paradise Palladium Theatre in Morundah, where community members were treated to Dylan Forge's fantastic rendition of our Australian Anthem. The ceremony was followed by a free community lunch catered by the Morundah Bush Entertainment Committee Inc. and musical entertainment from the Moodemere String Quartet.
Anupam Sharma delivered an inspirational address at the ceremony, speaking about his experiences in the filmmaking industry.
Mr Sharma is a filmmaker, speaker and author who was named as one of the fifty most powerful & influential Australian film professionals by Encore magazine. Anupam is the founding head of films & casting TEMPLE, a prolific and award-winning international production & consultancy firm based out of Fox-Studios, Sydney. Anupam has led a team of film professionals, line producing, co-producing, and executive producing international films, festivals, and TV in Australia, mainly from India and few from China, USA, and Denmark on over 290 projects in the last 21 years. With feature films as his forte, Anupam directed multimillion dollar indie Australian romantic comedy unINDIAN starring Australian cricketer Brett Lee and internationally acclaimed actress Tannishtha Chatterjee. David Stratton, Australia's most respected film critic said "The film is engaging in its cheerful celebration of community".
In his welcome address, Federation Council Mayor Pat Bourke said each year Australia Day provides us with a day to reflect on what it means to be Australian, to celebrate contemporary Australia and to acknowledge our history.
"On Australia Day we celebrate all the things we love about Australia; land, sense of fair go, lifestyle, democracy, the freedoms we enjoy, and particularly our people," he said.
"Today we celebrate our people, the people of Federation Council who go above and beyond in their respective areas to ensure our communities thrive and grow. Our nominees are very special people, whose donation of time and effort warrants this type of special celebration. The commitment to our communities shown by our nominees is truly heart-warming, and these people along with many others throughout the Federation Council region make me so proud to be Mayor of this great region."
Council would like to congratulate all the award recipients and nominees for the 2024 Federation Council Australia Day Awards.
2024 Australia Day Awards
Citizen of the Year Nominees: Leo Anic, the late Marj Saines and Sam O'Donoghue.
Citizen of the Year Winner: Leo Anic.
Leo Anic has been pivotal in the establishment of two initiatives, Friday Night @The Station and The Men's Table. He has also provided emergency and crisis support through his work as the first Amaranth Ambassador. Leo exemplifies community pride through promoting local businesses. Leo and his camera can always be found at community events, recording them for posterity and posting them on various social media platforms to showcase the wonderful community we live in.
Earlier this year Leo travelled to Snowy Valleys bushfire recovery area with Amaranth Foundation to film the efforts of a Corowa NFP working in bushfire recovery remotely. Leo's video resulted in Amaranth Foundation being nominated for the MPHN 2023 Primary Healthcare Awards under the 'Promoting Healthy Communities' category. Leo recently took on the role of Town Crier as part of festive season celebrations.
Young Citizen of the Year Winner: Dylan Forge.
Performer Dylan Forge was the Inaugural Federation Council Youth Mayor which led him to oversee several community projects including the Memorial Plaza Interactive Mural, Colour Run, Howlong Lowe's Square ping pong table and the Sanger Street Piano.
Dylan has represented our region overseas in Scotland, Ireland, Malaysia and Singapore with Bagpipe playing. Dylan was successful in 2023 in becoming a world champion bagpipe player with his former school, The Scots School Albury Pipe Band. They were the aggregate winner of the competition in Grade 4B, receiving the title "Champion of Champions". Dylan was a bagpiper in The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo this year, which involved him playing 25 shows in front of 9,000 people each night.
Other committees and groups Dylan has been involved in include the Skate Park Advisory Committee, Corowa Pool Advisory Committee, Corowa Leos and St. Mary's Corowa Altar Servers.
Community Group of the Year Nominees: Corowa Country Women's Association, Corowa Rescue Squad – VRA NSW, Corowa Sing Australia Group, Friends of River Street Wetlands, Howlong Community Progress Association Inc., Howlong Playgroup, Tunzafun Community Volunteer Group and Country Women's association of NSW Oaklands Branch.
Community Group of the Year Joint Winners: Howlong Community Progress Association Inc and Country Women's Association of NSW Oaklands Branch.
The Howlong Community Progress Association Inc (HCPA) has been in existence for three and half years. All projects undertaken are for the benefit of the Howlong community.
The development of a Community Emergency Response Team instigated by the HCPA was a significant development for the community. A number of volunteers rostered on 24/7, addressing the need for quick response to health emergencies. This response time has now been significantly reduced from over 25 minutes to under 10 minutes.
HCPA has a volunteer committee which meets monthly to deliver a wide range of outcomes. The HCPA has undertaken the following activities: Annual Cleanup Australia Day, functions with a BBQ, have been guest speakers at public meetings which have included Greg Page the founder of Heart of the Nation. Their short-term goals are to assist with the Christmas Festival, light up the Main Street for Christmas and fundraising to build a toilet facility at the Howlong Cemetery.
The Oaklands branch of the CWA was formed in 1949. They currently have ten members who help in all community events and projects, catering events at their rooms, hosting the Women's Dinner and working with Oaklands Central School.
One of their key initiatives has been the preservation and protection of the endangered Oaklands Diuris orchid. In 2012 they instigated the building and erection of a steel sculpture in the gardens of the CWA Rooms in the town centre to highlight the endangered species. Over many months, assisted by the 'save and protect' team, many tasks towards the preservation of the orchid were achieved. Many hours of work went into updating information on signage to promote the orchid, providing the latest progress in planting thousands of orchids in the Southern Riverina.
On the 12th October 2023, the Oaklands Branch's efforts were rewarded in NSW Parliament by the Legislative Assembly Hansard. They were thanked for their dedication and efforts to the save the Oaklands Diuris orchid.
Local Achiever Award Nominees: Leo Anic, the late Marj Saines, Sam O'Donoghue and Dylan Forge.
Local Achiever Award Winner - Dylan Forge.
Student Achievement Awards:
Boree Creek Public School: Cooper Patey & Geoffrey Strong
Corowa High School: James Frazer & Tamir Richardson
Corowa South Public School: Ashton Powzyk & Stella Patten
St Mary's Primary School, Corowa: Oliver Mathews & Cienna Dickins
Howlong Public School: Kylah Matthews & Kai Mount
Mulwala Public School: Finn Angwin & Nevaeh Rosmulder
Oaklands Central School: Aurora Butler & Melissa Smith
Rand Public School: Cooper Kuhne & Lexi McCall
Urana Public School: Alexis Finch & Max Fealy
The 2024 Federation Council Australia Day Awards and Ceremony was assisted by the National Australia Day Council.
