7 DAYS • ANALYSIS OF THE WEEK’S NEWS
Drive-in volunteer
VOLUNTEERING is meant to be as Aussie as a yabbie on the barbie but when it comes to the crunch, many people just don’t get involved.
For those who do, well done, and especially to those who won acclaim at the Orana Region Volunteer Awards this week at a ceremony held at the Dubbo RSL Club Resort.
The top award went to Heather Joy Beams from Dunedoo who received both the Adult 2017 Orana Region Volunteer of the Year Award and the overall regional winner’s award for her work with the Dunedoo Branch of the Country Women’s Association.
“Joy always has time to help those in need without asking for anything in return,” CEO of the Centre for Volunteering Gemma Rygate said.
For anyone who’s unaware of the incredible work done by Dunedoo CWA after the recent bushfires, you really need to crawl out from the rock you’re living under.
“In February this year, when fire raged through Warrumbungle Shire, Joy organised donations, clothing and fencing materials for farmers who lost fences and livestock,” Ms Rygate said.
“Volunteering is a mutual gift, delivering rewards to both the giver and the receiver. Volunteering contributes $290 billion to Australia’s economic and social good.”
Volunteerism is going strong in Dubbo with Young Volunteer of the Year being Dubbo’s Lee Hilder and Volunteer Team of the Year being the Dubbo Regional Council Youth Council with their Dubbo Westview Drive-in Youth Week 2017 event.
Senior Volunteer of the Year was Warrumbungle local, Sue Armstrong.
Well done all!
Phoenix rising from the ashes
GREAT to see the Westview Drivein crew get recognition as the Volunteer Team of the Year – that was a fantastic event.
Phoenix Aubusson-foley was a big part of that project and he’s not stopping there. In the next month he’s off to the Make it Happen NSW Youth Council Conference 2017 at Macquarie University, and he’s also been accepted onto the YMCA NSW-ACYP Children’s Week Youth Parliament which will be staged during late October. He’s also doing a Cert II in Volunteering with some of his Youth Council mates.
It’s great to see the volunteer leaders of tomorrow coming through the ranks.
Fish business
A LOCAL angler has called for a ban on keeping any fish caught at Lake Burrendong for an extended period.
Derryn Sunderland believes the short term pain would be worth the long term gain in increased native fish stocks.
“As a strict catch-and-releaseonly lure fisherman I would like a ban on all taking of native fish at Burrendong Dam for two to five years so the natives could have a chance to pump up in numbers and it could become a decent dam for fishing,” Derryn said.
“Dams like Copeton and Windemere are ridiculously good fishing dams and I just don’t bother with Burrendong because it just fishes too hard – a lot of people have the mindset that it’s okay to take a feed but it’s 1000 blokes per year taking the max bag limit or over.”
Given that many native fisheries along the coast have come back strongly after bans on fishing, this viewpoint should certainly stir up some robust debate around the issue.
Still truckin’
HUGE congratulations to my old mate John Morris who picked up a prestigious gong when he was awarded the National Road Transport Association (Natroad) award at the 2017 national conference at Hamilton Island.
He was awarded the prestigious Ted Pickering Memorial Award for his Outstanding contribution to the Australian Road Transport Industry.
John began advocating for the industry in 1972 and shows no sign of pulling the pin – well done mate, justly deserved.