Australia Day Awards
The City of Clarence 2013 Australia Day Award Recipients are:
Citizen of the Year - Joanne Maddock
Jo, from South Arm, is a nurse, a mother of three, and volunteers her time to the community at many levels.
Joanne donates many hours to the local school and is involved in a program to get kids walking to school to help combat childhood obesity.
She is the local Scout group leader – Joanne is putting the OUT back into Scout, by reaching kids and getting them active in the community, and helping them with life lessons of mateship and respect.
Jo is also a local Community Emergency Response Team officer (formally known as volunteer ambulance officers) a role that involves significant responsibility and commitment to training. CERT teams operate in rural and remote communities, such as South Arm, to provide life-saving first aid and ongoing patient care until additional ambulance crews and other emergency services arrive.
Young Citizen of the Year - Maggie Smith
Maggie’s achievements for a 15 year old are wide and varied. In 2012 she was part of a team of students who worked in Borneo for one month helping to teach English and labouring on a building project. She is an accredited wildlife volunteer and donates her time to Bonorong Wildlife Park and the Dogs Home regularly. In 2011 she was ranked 14th in Australia in Table Tennis, and is currently training for the Slalom Canoeing Championships.
Maggie has been on the Student Representative Council at Rose Bay High for 3 years in a row, and she plays saxophone in the high school band.
Senior Citizen of the Year (Joint winners)
Graeme Rainbow
Graeme has been the driving force behind the Bellerive Bluff Land and Coast Care Group since it began in 2001. He has been its secretary for the past 10 years and coordinator of working bees – during 2012 the group coordinated 37 working bees on the Bluff involving school groups, local residents, Conservation Volunteers and Corporate Volunteers. The Bellerive Group won the 2011 Tasmanian Landcare Award and Graeme represented it at the 2012 at the National Landcare Conference and Awards Ceremony in Sydney in 2012. The Bellerive group was an integral contributor towards Clarence being awarded the 2011 Best Tasmanian Beach at the Keep Australia Beautiful awards.
Graeme also had had a long association with the St Vincent de Paul Society and was awarded the its 2012 Volunteer of the Year Award and its 2012 Loiu’s Van Volunteer of the Year.
Graeme worked at St Virgil’s College for 30 years and continues his association in his retirement as an archivist. He was inducted onto its Heritage Roll of Honour in 2011 for services to the College and to the community. During his latter years in teaching, he worked at MacKillop College – in 2009 he was the recipient of the Mary Mackillop Award. The award is presented annually “to someone who lives up to the ideals for which Mary MacKillop was renowned of never seeing a need without attempting to respond to it.”
Rowena MacKean
In 2007, Rowena was awarded the Order of Australia Medal for services to adult and community education. Rowena co-founded the University of the 3rd Age in Clarence and later founded Seniors Action Group Eastern Shore (known as SAGES). She also co-founded the Third Age Learning Network of Tasmania and is an active committee member of Council’s Positive Ageing Advisory Committee.
Rowena is a PhD student at the University of Tasmania.
Community Event of the Year - Clarence Plains Festival
In 2012 around 2,000 people attended this annual event, which celebrates the life of the Clarence Plains community. The organising committee uses a very limited budget to create a free event that entertains all ages, offering market stalls and showcasing the great things happening in the Rokeby/Clarendon Vale area.