Australia Day honours for community's finest

The Gympie Regional Council crowned their Australia Award Winners for 2023 on Thursday, including the first recipient of the new Resilience Award, created this year to honour the work of Roxanne MacGregor.

“The Resilience Award is a new Australia Day Award being introduced in 2023 to specifically acknowledge community members of the Gympie region who demonstrated great resilience in facing personal or community challenges during the year,” said Gympie Mayor Glen Hartwig.

“This award has been created in memory of Roxanne MacGregor who showed tremendous resilience in her approach to life.”

Winner of the Resilience Award this year is Racheal Lehmann.

She was nominated because of the amount of time and resources she contributed to the Tansey and Booubyjan flood recovery effort after devastating floods swept through the area in January last year, all in addition to being an active member of the local community.

Mrs Lehmann worked with government departments and Agforce to bring them together with local landholders, and ignored her own farm’s clean up to coordinate the clean-up at the Tansey Tennis club.

She helped organise fundraising events and distribute donated goods all while performing her duties as a wife and mother to three children.

Mrs Lehmann works hard in the community all year long as President of the Tansey Tennis Association, is a very active member of the Murgon Mustangs Junior Rugby League Club and serves on the Committee of the Kilkivan Swimming Club.

Mrs Lehmann is also part of the Kilkivan Kindy fundraising Committee.

Joint Winners of the Citizen of the Year for 2023 were Bernadette O’Neill and Bev Goodall.

Mrs O’Neill’s endless support to numerous sporting clubs and schools in and around the region was the primary reason for her nomination.

She is also heavily involved in her church, supporting both young and old in the community.

After the devastating floods and storms, she supported and guided a lot of the area’s residents through her work to access assistance to help them and their families.

Mrs O’Neill has devoted more than 40 years to the support of the Gympie Rugby League, first as sponsors, with her husband Kevin when they managed the Empire Hotel, and later as coaches and committee members.

She continues to serve the Gympie Junior and Senior Rugby League, spending her weekends during footy season scoring games and fundraising for both juniors, seniors and schoolboys competitions and travelling to games down the coast and also to North and South Burnett.

There are numerous other activities involving the community that Mrs O’Neill has supported.

Mrs Goodall is one of the driving forces behind the Gympie Medical Transport service.

She leads a team of volunteers who allow residents seeking medical appointments north and south of Gympie can do so easily and with little fuss and stress.

Mrs Goodall started the service in her own home before moving to an office and making it accessible to all.

GMT continues to grow and goes from strength to strength.

Her initial vision of helping the local community has ensured the elderly in the area, along with those who are unable to drive, can remain living locally without the need to move closer to much-needed medical care.

Mrs Goodall is the driving force behind what is now a successful volunteer-driven organisation and her time is given freely.

The Young Citizen of the Year was won by 16-year-old Austin Van Twest.

Austin keenly participated within the Gympie community, including reciting a speech at the Vietnam’s Veteran Remembrance Day and volunteering his free time on weekends and during School holidays at Little Haven Market Place.

From greeting and helping to unload donations, to visiting customers and travelling around the region to collect and load donations with other volunteers, Austin was always willing to lend a hand.

Austin has also received various academic awards with his studies, as well as a Cultural Award and Gympie Rotary Club Senior All-rounder for the senior level, at his school.

Austin was also entered into the 2022 Lions Club Youth of the Year awards, and although unsuccessful was grateful for the opportunity to represent the Clubs.

The Sports Award for 2023 went to 15-year-old Xander Jacobi.

Xander races in his chosen sport, 4SS senior light and Supermaxx light in Go Karting at Cooloola Coast Kart Club.

In 2022 he attended 25 race meetings between Ipswich to Townsville, he competed in 3 championships and placed first at Cooloola Coast Kart Club, Bundaberg Kart Club and at Auskart in the SEQ Championships and holds 4 lap records – 3 at Bundaberg and 1 at Ipswich.

He placed third in the state in the Senior light category in 2021 and in 2022 he again placed third in the Supermaxx light devision.

In addition to training to become a level 4 official for Karting Australia, he also volunteers his time with general maintenance at Cooloola Coast Kart Club.

Xander enjoys being a role model to the younger drivers, and is keen to learn as much as he can to achieve his goals.

In addition to racing, Xander is starting a small engine course at Tafe while he is in year 10 and hopes to be able to build his own racing motors in the future, with the ultimate goal to one-day work in the motorsports field as a Super car driver or as part of the pit crew.

Xander works part time at Domino’s Pizza in Gympie and for Small Acreage Mowing and Slashing with lawn maintenance.

Taking out the Creative Award for 2023 was 13-year-old Hayley James.

A talented musician, she plays double bass and bass guitar, representing James Nash State School in the concert band, stage band and jazz ensemble.

She also plays with the Cooloola Community Orchestra and was accepted to be part of the State Honours Ensemble Program for the second year through Griffith University.

Last year she performed solos and duets at the Gympie Eisteddfod and as part of the Simply Classical concert series and she also participated in the Academy of Creative Arts Visual Arts program where she assisted in designing and creating props for the JNSHS production of Matilda.

The winner of the Community Group/Event Organisation of the Year for 2023 is the Little Kids Day Out.

This organisation received two nominations for this award for its work bringing the community together in a free fun event for children and their parents.

Around 300 volunteers contribute to the event, providing activities, performances, info booths, donations, sponsorship and helping with the sausage sizzle and fund raising.

LKO aims to help parents improve outcomes for their children by connecting them to schools, early learning centres, sports clubs, creative dance studios and businesses.

The effort that goes into this very special event is enormous and the huge continuing commitment and dedication by community groups, schools and education centres and individuals who see value in this annual event is a credit to the people of the region.