Meet the nominees for Gloucester's Australia Day 2024 awards

Each year, the Gloucester Australia Day committee asks the community to nominate all those community-minded people and organisations that contribute to the advancement and well being of the region.

All the nominees are invited to be celebrated an Australia Day event held on January 26.

The nominees for the 2024 Australia Day awards are:

Scott Chester

Scott is a valued member of the Gloucester community, both personally and also in his role as a local police officer.

Each year he has provided an extraordinary Christmas light display at his home, bringing joy to all of the residents of Gloucester.

He has gone above and beyond to create this magical display which involves months of setting up and taking down and involves climbing on ladders and the roof which is no mean feat.

The display attracts hundreds of residents and the joy the lights bring is greatly appreciated by everyone, both young and old.

His display makes residents feel like getting into the Christmas spirit and inspires other residents and businesses to decorate their homes and businesses.

Scott has proven to be a very community minded person and is very caring of the residents of Gloucester and always has a smile for everyone.

Chris Parker

Chris has been volunteering for the Bucketts Way Neighbourhood Centre and Bucketts Way Carers as a Community Transport driver for more than 30 years. This is a valuable and vital service to the community of Gloucester.

Chris goes above and beyond and will drive residents day or night and travels to Taree, Forster and Newcastle.

Her volunteering includes taking residents shopping, picking up prescriptions from the chemist, going to doctors appointments, paying bills, cleaning bird cages and putting their garbage bins out and bringing them back in the next day.

She is dedicated, kind and very caring and loves doing her job. She has provided support to residents who have lost loved ones, and gives the elderly a sense of self-worth and purpose, allowing them independence and freedom.

She has volunteered as well as looking after her husband who was badly injured when hit by a car but she always puts the needs of others before her own.

Chris is an inspiration to the residents of Gloucester and shows people how to achieve their goals and encourages others to help in the community.

Danny Martin

Danny has volunteered for the Gloucester Charities Book Sale for the past 25 years, usually three days per week but lately volunteering six days per week while installing the new shelving for the numerous books.

Gloucester Charities helps locals in financial distress and Danny has helped look after the gardens and repairs of the building.

The gardens look great and have received many compliments from locals and visitors and this has made a big difference in the sales for the bookshop.

Danny is a valuable member of the community and is well respected by his fellow volunteers and residents of Gloucester.

He has inspired other volunteers to come up with new ideas and suggestions for the benefit of the bookshop.

Tracey Murrell

Tracey has created the Gloucester Single Social Club, the Widows Art Community Group, and is the driving force for the establishment of the new Gloucester Creatives Co-op.

Tracey has devoted her time 24/7 to these projects as it is her passion to make a success of these projects to benefit Gloucester.

Her innovation of the Art Community Group has benefited residents of Gloucester improving their mental health because it provides an outlet for artists which will in turn attract tourism once they have set up a shop to sell their artwork.

Tracey's aim is to provide tourism, future employment for residents and town beautification.

Adam Johnson

Adam regularly rallies his team to cater for the train and car based market visitors each month. He provides breakfasts and lunches for touring motorcycle groups and seniors from the hospital and Mirrabooka.

Adam ensures that Nana's Homewares engages in local promotions, such as Christmas, Australia Day and the Gloucester Show. This active participation encourages other businesses to follow his lead.

Adam regularly employs young people to assist him with the shop stewarding and catering roles and guides and trains them. This provides great roles models and a framework for their success.

Over the past six years Adam has assisted more than 20 young people in gaining skills in hospitality, customer service and retail sales, with his positive and welcoming approach to training.

Adam is a quiet achiever with a modest disposition and goes above and beyond in his business and is a great example to other local businesses.

Debbie Hicks

Debbie is a very active member of the Gloucester community including the Garden Club, Treasure of Gloucester Patchwork Group Inc, Gloucester U3A, Gloucester Museum, Walking Barrington and Gloucester Tops Trails and Parks Group.

Her current passion after moving to Gloucester in 2020 is photography of headstones, plaques on the Columbarium Walls and unmarked graves, and uploading her findings on the Find a Grave Website so that anyone in the world can see and solve their ancestral questions.

She consults with MidCoast Council and Manning Wallamba Historical Society to ensure these details are included in their records.

Very few memorials had been added after 2010, but Gloucester General Cemetery is now 74 per cent photographed and she has added more than 4000 photographs to the Gloucester General Cemetery Find a Grave Website.

It is a solitary task that does not attract much attention but a process that Debbie finds very rewarding by honouring the deceased in their final resting place and provided a resource for family members to find their loved ones.

Taleah Higgins

Taleah is a very active and respected member of the Gloucester community.

She is a coach at Gloucester Gymnastics and works part-time at the Gloucester Pre-school and Early Years Learning Centre as an Early Childhood Education Trainee and makes the children feel valued and cared for.

She has the ability to connect with young members of the Gymnastics Club and has helped and encouraged them to participate in and enjoy the sport and plays a very important part in helping the members gain confidence in their abilities.

Taleah has a positive and caring attitude and is confident and hard working, making her a great role model for the young people of Gloucester.

Kaitlin Perry

Kaitlin has been a very active member of the Gloucester community as part of the Starlight Super Swim fundraising through the year by swimming laps for the month of February over the past four years. She has done this both individually and as part of a team, raising money for the Starlight Foundation while being sponsored by community members.

This foundation helps support sick kids in hospital.

Kaitlin swam an average of 75 kilometres and has raised almost $4000 individually, and as part of the team that has raised $10,000.

In 2023 she participated in Ronald McDonald Swim for Sick Kids, swimming laps for the month of November after being inspired by a local girl who used the facilities. Kaitlin swam 37 kilometres in one month and raised $1875.

The money she has raised has helped raise awareness in the community about the charities and how they have helped local children, while ensuring these programs are available to children in Gloucester in the future.

Kaitlin has been an active member of the Gloucester Swimming Club and encourages the younger generation to participate.

Kaitlin swam at the Swimming Australia National Swim on the Gold Coast which has inspired other young swimmers to aim for this achievement.

Kaitlin recently received a Certificate of Leadership from Member for Lyne, Dr David Gillespie for her fundraising efforts for the Starlight Super Swim.

Kaitlin is a valued and respected member of the community and by her peers.

Gloucester Single Social Club

This club was created by Tracey Murrell after losing her partner. She realised there were many other residents of Gloucester who were alone for different reasons so she created the group.

Club members meet once a month for dinner, providing an outing and the chance to meet people in a similar, relatable situation, while generally assisting their mental health.

The club has been operating for just over a year and has 54 members. This also provides a boost to the local economy as they have dinner at local venues.

The success of this group has inspired Tracey to create a Widows Art Community Group and soon to be up and running the Gloucester Creatives Co-op.

The club is very beneficial to the community and helps residents create new friendships leading to more engagements in the community.

Food With Friends/Gloucester Charities

Every Wednesday, Food With Friends provides a free lunch at the SDA Hall which is sponsored by Gloucester Charities with a food voucher for $125 each week. Supermarkets also donate food for the luncheon.

This service provides food to residents who need it in a non-judgemental way.

Currently there are 14 volunteers and some in reserve and they rotate. Each week there are four volunteers in the kitchen to prepare meals.

It has been running for several years and had to restart in 2022 after COVID.

The service provides 20 to 30 meals that are prepared and provided as a take-away meal for those who are unable to attend due to illness.

This service provides an option for residents wanting to volunteer and it improves the mental health of lonely residents of the town.

Connect Gloucester 2023

The Connect Gloucester event started in 2022 and, due to its success, ran again in 2023.

It was the first time a careers and education expo had been run with local industry; employers, education organisations and community/volunteer groups were invited. The expo ended up with more than 30 exhibitors and 300 students from years 7 to 12, teachers and community members in attendance.

The event is a collaboration between Regional Industry Education Partnerships and the Gloucester Business Chamber, providing an opportunity to showcase opportunities on offer within the local community.

Many of the exhibitors brought interactive displays to provide hands on experiences for students to engage and ask questions. It also provided parents and carers the opportunity to ask questions and gather information on what careers could be available for their children.

The aim is to broaden their knowledge of local employment and training opportunities and top provide exhibitors the opportunity to network and create links to the local community.

The event will continue to grow in 2024 and aims to include the primary school students in the future.

Gloucester Post Office

The Gloucester Post Office provides an amazing and vital service to the Gloucester community, providing employment, training and skills for staff comprised of local residents.

They have helped Gloucester Charities to make savings on their postage.

The staff are always very helpful and friendly and are always more than happy to assist residents with their postage or other queries.

Nanna's Homewares has been operating for six years. The owners have sought to establish an old-fashioned general store that provides the community with a simple solution to almost every need, providing emergency products for the whole family.

The business employs four regular shop assistants and has had a stabilising effect for the surrounding businesses, ensuring significant foot traffic from the large numbers of visitors at the northern end of town are stopping and spending time in the main street.

The business offers training for young people who gain skills in hospitality and retail experience and use these skills to further their careers.

The business has created tourism for Gloucester due to providing food and retail items, the benefits of this then flows onto other local businesses.

The business regularly supports local promotions and trades for extended hours on the weekend and they have generated sustainable business opportunities within the retail sector In the Gloucester CBD.

The 2024 Australia Day celebrations will take place at Gloucester Showground on January 26 from 8am. For more information, go to gloucesteraustraliaday.com.