Nowland has performed his duties as an ambassador sharing meaningful stories and connecting with communities at many locations in NSW and the Northern Territory for nearly two decades.

This will be his first trip to the Nambucca Valley, but the former motorsport star is looking forward to the experience.

"After the troubles of COVID, I wanted to make January a fun time for our children, Aston 12 and Ethan 6," Nowland said.

"I planned to combine a holiday with Australia Day, so I asked the Australia Day Council if we could visit somewhere beautiful and they replied with Nambucca Heads.

"This will be my first time visiting The Valley but I'm looking forward to exploring the area and meeting the locals."

Before taking on the role of an Australia Day Ambassador, Nowland grew up in Quirindi, 60 kilometres south of Tamworth.

From a very early age he loved motorcycles but wasn't allowed to race them until much later.

He started his working life in an apprenticeship after school, however, to complete it a move to Sydney was necessary.

Once in Sydney, the course of his life changed forever after he found his way to the Oran Park Raceway and was immediately hooked on racing.

From his humble beginnings he would go on to forge a career that saw him race motorcycles all over the world, compete in the Endurance World Championship, win two World Championships and finish in the top three of the world several times.

Nowland returned to Australia at the end of 2008 after being based in London for 12 years, and officially retired from active participation in motorsports at the end of 2011.

After retiring, he ran his own British Superbike Championship team and covered racing as a commentator for Eurosport and the BBC, but it would be a surprise email that would see Nowland take on a new challenge back in Australia.

"Someone nominated me to be an ambassador 18 years ago, and to be honest, it could not have been better timing as my career and personal life was in turmoil," he said.

"It was an easy decision to become an ambassador because even though I lived on the other side of the world, Australia was always home and I was becoming appreciative of my circumstances and upbringing.

"For me, Australia Day is the joy of spending our day together, the challenges we all face as a nation and maybe as of late, separately, the complexities of life and our well-known image of resilience in overcoming such situations, our weak points, our responsibilities and our future."

Related Content:

Warwick Nowland will be conducting his duties as an Australia Day Ambassador at the Nambucca Valley Celebration in the Unkya Reserve at Eungai Creek on January 26.

From Olympians, Paralympians, environmentalists and foodies to humanitarians and local heroes over 100 ambassador's will participate in Australia Day 2022 activities around the state.

For more than 30 years extraordinary individuals from all walks of life have travelled to local council events across NSW sharing insights from their varied experiences.

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