The City of Cockburn has welcomed five new recipients to its coveted list of Australia Day Community Citizen of the Year Award winners, including two joint winners of the youth category.
The awards for 2018 were presented by Mayor Logan Howlett at the City’s annual Australia Day Citizenship Ceremony.
Mayor Howlett said the awards celebrated the contribution active people made to the community.
“These contributions can come in many forms and the awards recognise ordinary people who make an extraordinary difference to our community and foster Australian pride and spirit through active citizenship,” Mayor Howlett said.
This year’s winners are:
- Community Citizen of the Year – Overall: Christine Cooper
- Community Citizen of the Year – Youth: Lisa Hume and Joe Waters
- Community Citizen of the Year – Senior: Norm Dale, Friends of the Community President
- Active Citizenship Award – Community Group/Event: Cockburn Community Wildlife Corridor Group
Christine Cooper worked tirelessly to research the remains of a WWII Australian Women’s Army Service Camp discovered in 2015 at Beeliar Regional Park in the former Roe 8 corridor.
The site has since been included on the City of Cockburn Local Government Inventory as a Category B heritage site, largely due to Ms Cooper’s hard work.
The Bibra Lake Residents Association President was committed to preserving the camp and her research uncovered many facts, stories and photographs of the camp.
She hopes to continue her work on the project and plans to develop the site for visitors and make information available online.
Lisa Hume and
Joe Waters are both inspiring and respected role models to people of all ages.
Ms Hume, who has applied for a cadetship with WA Police, is a valued team member at a local gym while completing Certificate III in Sport and Recreation.
She has been supporting and mentoring women’s football team members competing in the Kirby Bentley Cup, umpires and coaches netball and volunteers at Cockburn Youth Centre camps and recreational activities.
After participating in Emmanuel College’s Immersion Program to Warmun in the East Kimberley, Mr Waters was inspired to establish his own charity called Boots for Boys.
The collaboration between Emmanuel College, St Jerome’s and Mater Christi and the Cockburn football community collected, cleaned and provided more than 100 football pairs of boots to Aboriginal communities in Newman and the Western Desert areas.
He achieved this while completing his Year 12 ATAR and hopes to continue developing the project in coming years.
He was inspired to help the wider community, particularly Aboriginal Australians, after helping an Aboriginal foster child learn to play guitar.
Norm Dale is President of Friends of the Community, a not-for-profit organisation that focuses on raising money by selling food at events and returning the profits to local community projects.
He volunteers most days running and growing the organisation, attending to office and administration duties, taking bookings, maintaining equipment, and mentoring other volunteers.
Norm is passionate about the community, bringing the community together by fostering relationships between groups, local producers, and tirelessly looks for solutions and funding options to make it all work.
Cockburn Community Wildlife Corridor Group, formed in 2016 to develop a park connecting Beeliar Wetlands with the Indian Ocean, has united 20 community stakeholders, representing 2,500 group members, to create an interactive map.
The map uses drone footage and high quality photography to create a virtual tour of the proposed bushland corridor.
It is an asset to the local community and others wanting to know more about the area.
Project stakeholders included environmental groups, resident associations, cultural, sporting and children’s groups. The project strengthened connections between the groups to foster new community networks.