Tweed citizens recognised at Australia Day Awards Ceremony

By Sarah Waters

A number of community members were recognised at the Tweed Shire’s official Australia Day Awards Ceremony held at the Tweed Heads Civic Centre and Auditorium last Thursday.

The 2023 awards are given out to recipients based on their achievements from last year.

Tweed Shire Council’s acting general manager Naomi Searle was the MC for the awards which saw community members honoured in six categories, other than Citizen of the Year which went to Kingscliff resident Julie Lowe.

Joining the presentation was Federal Member for Richmond Justine Elliot, State Member for Tweed Geoff Provest, Tweed Shire Mayor Chris Cherry, Deputy Mayor Meredith Dennis and councillors Rhiannon Brinsmead, Reece Byrnes, Nola Firth, James Owen and Warren Polglase.

Last year’s Tweed Shire Citizen of the Year Joan Henderson also joined in the ceremony as this year’s Australia Day Ambassador for the Tweed.

The 2023 winners were:

• Arts and

Culture award: Murwilllumbah Festival of Performing Arts.

• Community Event of the Year: Shepherd’s Purse Theatre Company for their production of Shakespeare in Love.

• Senior Ambassador inaugural award winner: Recently retired therapist and published author on trauma therapy, Heather McLelland.

• Sporting AchievementIndividual category: Professional tennis player Brendon Moore

• Sporting AchievementIndividual category: Bowls Australia Jackaroos Para Squad member Damien Delgado.

• Sporting AchievementIndividual category: Honourable Mention of Liam Gregoraci

• Sporting AchievementGroup category: Centaur Primary School Netball team

• Sporting AchievementGroup category: Murwillumbah Rowing Club

• Volunteer of the Year - Individual category: Cofounder of Fingal Head Coastcare Kate McKenzie

• Volunteer of the Year - Individual category: Honourable Mention went to Kalindi Godden

• Volunteer of the Year - Group category: Chinderah Community Hub

• Volunteer of the Year - Group category: Honourable Mention to Support for New Mums

• Young Achiever in Community Service: Tomas Bowie

• Young Achiever in

Community Service: Honourable mention went to seven-yearold Chilli Mae Powell.

The Northern Rivers Times will profile the winners of each of the categories in the weeks to come.

A Citizenship Ceremony Hosted by Mayor Chris Cherry followed the awards ceremony.

The citizenship ceremony saw 31 residents from 13 countries across all continents become the Tweed’s newest Australians.