By Derek Schlennstedt
There are some amazing people within our community and this year’s Australia Day Awards proves exactly that.
Dandenong Ranges residents representing both the passion of youth and decades of experience are among a select few in the Yarra Ranges whose contributions to their local and wider communities have been recognised with Australia Day awards.
Amongst those inspirational people were stand-outs Beverley McAllister OAM from The Patch, who received the Yarra Ranges Shire’s Mayor’s Lifetime achievement award in recognition of her dedication to the Dandenong Ranges Music Council, and Greg Boland, awarded with a Medal of the order of Australia for his substantial service to the community of Melbourne in community development.
The shire Australia Day awards held at Montrose Town Centre on Australia Day recognise and reward members of the community who have a consistent record of excellence, have made outstanding achievements in their field, and/or have contributed significantly to the growth and development of the region.
This year’s recipients are nothing short of inspirational and are among a diverse range of award winners from across the shire whose contributions to making their communities a better place in which to live has been a pervading desire.
For Beverly McAllister, the lifetime achievement award recognises nothing less than what can be described as a lifetime dedicated to improving access to music-based programs. It was Ms McAllister who in 1976 helped start a journey that’s trajectory would create opportunities to thousands of music lovers and result in the creation of the DRMC.
Upon receiving the Yarra Ranges Shire’s Mayor’s Lifetime achievement award, she said she was humbled and surprised and that it had made her reflect upon the past 42 years of the DRMC and all that they had accomplished.
“I had absolutely no idea; it’s not something you think about … It’s a lovely surprise,” she said.
“It’s made me think of all the people that have come through the DRMC, it’s like a cast of thousands over the years and some of them are quite famous now. “
“I’ve had a lot of pleasure by opening doors for people and creating pathways and you never know where kids are going to go, but if they can have these opportunities in their own community it’s much easier for them.”
Ms McAllister humbly dedicated the award to many of the people who she said helped guide her and gave her wonderful advice throughout the journey.
“No, I never in a million years though it would grow this big and it was really because so many amazing people helped along the way … I had wonderful people who guided me along the way and gave me wonderful advice and pointed me in the right direction,” she said.
Meanwhile, other major recipients include Healesville environmentalists Bob Anderson, founder and recently retired president of the Friends of the Helmeted Honeyeaters, who was honoured with the 2018 Citizen of the Year, and Peter Hannaford, founder of the Judith Eardley Save Wildlife Association, who received the 2018 Environmentalist of the Year.
Gruyere CFA volunteer, the late Don Bigham was recognised for his outstanding contribution across a number of organisations with the Ian De La Rue Award for Community Leadership.
At the younger end of the spectrum, 17 year-old Hannah Mahoney is Yarra Ranges Shire’s Young Citizen of the Year, recognised for her leadership and community work in Upper Yarra, and the Ken McIntosh Memorial Award for Young Environmental Achiever of the Year went to Brock and Ben from Belgrave for their involvement in the Environmental Education for Kids! (EEK!) program. The Mooroolbark Umbrella Group (MUG) which has worked to improve Mooroolbark for the past 15 years was also recognised as Community Group of the Year.
In addition, certificate recipients included Geoff Brown from Mount Evelyn, Ian Townsley from Mooroolbark, Maureen Halit, from Millgrove and Lyn Hannam from Warburton.
When honouring the awardees Mayor Len Cox commended the recipients for their efforts in helping to create a better Yarra Ranges.
“These inspirational people come from many different backgrounds and have different lifestyles, but are driven by the same goal – to make the Yarra Ranges an even better place to live,” Mayor Cox said.
“Between them, our recipients have given their communities more than 150 years of service.”
As founder of Friends of the Helmeted Honeyeater (FoHH) 28 years ago, and as president for 20 of those years Bob Anderson is certainly one of those recipients spoken about by Mayor Len Cox, and Bob has led and supported FoHH members in their work across the Yellingbo recreation reserve.
Bob, awarded the 2018 Citizen of the Year has been a driving force for the group, overseeing hundreds of volunteers, donating thousands of hours to the cause of improving habitat for the critically endangered Victorian bird emblem and raising awareness of the bird’s plight.
Though, he commented that there was a personal sense of achievement, he said overwhelmingly it was about what had been achieved as a collaboration of many people and groups.
“It’s great … but I would rather it was for the Friends,” Bob said when asked about the award.
“When I think about all the volunteers, all the groups and think about world-wide volunteers, it makes you feel a little better in this strange world of ours.
“When I look back and see what the organisation has been able to do, the wonderful nursery which now employs five people, our education program … one example of where we’re going, and what has happened over the years is that we have two pairs of birds that have produced lots of fledglings in an area where they have not been for many years, and where we have had no influence, such as supplementary feeding.
“That’s what we hope will happen across the Yellingbo Conservation Area – that the birds do it themselves and that we have protected the habitat to enable that to happen.”
One doesn’t need to look far from our own community to see the impressive individuals who have significantly improved many aspects of the Yarra Ranges ,and this year as part of the Australia Day awards at Montrose another ten people coming from England, the United States of America, India, South Africa and Zambia will become Australian citizens and part of this great community and call the Yarra Ranges home.
