Australia Day celebrations
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A big thank you to everyone who contributed in organising the Australia Day celebrations held across the Macleay.
It was great to see the community support this special day in our national calendar as it’s our chance as a community to say “Thank you” and “Welcome’ to some special local Australians.
Even the weather couldn’t dampen spirits at the fabulous family breakfast events at South West Rocks and Crescent Head hosted by their local Lions Clubs.
I was delighted that our 2016 Australia Day Ambassador, children’s author, Christopher Cheng, enjoyed the local festivities and joined me in presenting this year’s awards both in Kempsey and at Crescent Head.
The Kempsey Shire’s official awards presentation and Australian Citizenship Ceremony was held for the first time at the Slim Dusty Centre on Australia Day eve.
It was fitting to celebrate all that is good about living in this lucky country and our beautiful valley in a place that symbolises the Australia we all love and admire.
The evening also gave many locals a chance to experience the Slim Dusty Centre for the first time.
A special thank you to those who took the time to nominate members of our community who contribute so much to enriching the lives of others in our valley.
Congratulations to all nominees and the winners of the three award categories: Citizen of the Year – Mark Morrison; Young Citizen of the Year – Mark Thurgood; and Community Group of the Year – Dhangatti Language Group.
The one message I hope we all took from this year’s Australia Day celebrations is that we take inspiration from the efforts of those in our Shire who go above and beyond to make our community a better place to live. Let’s challenge ourselves to make even a small positive gesture in making the Macleay somewhere we are proud to call home.
Stramit Surf Life Saving Championships
On behalf of the Kempsey Shire community, I warmly welcome all visitors to South West Rocks for the 2016 Stramit Country Surf Life Saving Championships this weekend.
The Country Championships are a welcome boost to our local economy, with the expected 1,400 visitors to this year’s carnival to inject around $3 million into the local area.
This is great for local businesses and tourism operators, and we’re keen to welcome all visitors back to our valley for next year’s event.
Life savers play a vital role in helping to keep swimmers safe while enjoying our beaches.
Our community is enormously proud of the dedicated volunteers who give of their time and expertise in supporting our Council lifeguards patrol our valley’s beaches to keep residents and visitors safe.
The Country Championships are a great spectator event and a chance to see high performance life saving teams in action.
Everyone is invited to come along and support our local competitors and enjoy a fabulous day at the beach while being entertained with a display of the skills and effort that goes into training our young life savers. I wish all competitors, coaches, officials, and support crews all the very best for the competition ah