Nominees
Citizen of the Year Award: Jeff Underhill, Donald Seccombe; Kay Ross
Young Citizen of the Year Award: Angela Black
Senior Citizen of the Year Award: John Smallwood; Earl Klease
Community Organisation Award: Here’s to Life Redlands Inc; Bayside Walkers and Runners Club; Donald Simpson Community Centre
Local Hero Award: Peter Tunstall; Sheryl Kounakoff; Peter Souvlis
Cultural Award: RedArts; Madison Ayton; Michelle Worthington
Environment Award: Dr John Moss.
Sports Award: Cameron Carr; Phoebe Coleman;Redlands Hockey Association
Redland City Council’s Australia Day Awards 2013 Category Winners
Citizen of the Year Award: Jeff Underhill (Capalaba)
Since moving to the Redlands in 2003, Jeff has committed himself to the betterment of our community in an unprecedented way.
Jeff has made many significant contributions to a number of community groups as well as donating his time and energy to important local causes.
Jeff became involved with Capalaba Meals on Wheels in 2003 and to this day he still devotes five days a week to lend a hand – from driving to doing minor repairs. He also joined the Capalaba Lions Club in 2007.
Jeff donated two boats for Sailability, a program that gives people with disability the experience of being on the water.
He has also made contributions to the Lion’s Drug and Alcohol Awareness Campaign; to Angel Flight, a service that provides free air travel to patients needing medical treatment at distant hospitals; as well as providing ID Mates (portable talking bar code scanners) for people with visual impairment.
In addition, Jeff financed the new day respite and community centre at Degen Road, Capalaba.
Young Citizen of the Year Award : Angela Black (Birkdale)
Since overcoming a severe bout of clinical depression in 2010, Angela has made it her mission to help other Redland teenagers who are experiencing depression and other mental health conditions. Angela really wants to help other young people experiencing mental illness to seek help and to know that they are not alone.
Through her Facebook page – Teens Fighting Against Depression – Angela writes posts about her own journey with depressions, chats with other young people and posts links to helpful resources and services. More than 300 people have viewed this page.
Angela has also shared her story with other young people through forums held as part of the 2011 Mental Health Week Expo in Capalaba. In addition, she gave a presentation to a local Child and Youth Mental Health Team in May 2012 and to Year 12 students at Capalaba State High School in August last year.
Angela has been volunteering as a youth representative at the Bayside Child and Youth Mental Health Service. She has helped run community education stalls and formed a ‘Youth Advising Professionals’ group to provide feedback to the service on how they improve their activities. Angela achieved all of this while finishing her high school certificate and studying childcare at TAFE.
Senior Citizen of the Year Award John Smallwood (Wellington Point)
In recent years John has taken up long distance cycling and used his skill, determination and experiences to fundraise for Maison Chance, a Vietnamese hostel and day workshop for the seriously disabled and orphans.
In 2009, at the age of 65, John completed a gruelling 230km ride in just one day through the Great Dividing Range and raised $20,000 for the organisation. In the same year, John played an integral role in coordinating an extension at the Redlands Multi Sports Club, Birkdale.
Then in 2011, John rode across the United States of America (West Coast to East Coast) while towing a trailer with his belongings to fundraise. This 6300km adventure took him 44 days. He endured storms, rain, fog, freezing cold weather and was even hit by a car on the second last day of the ride.
John remains a devoted community member and volunteer. He is a Life Member of the Muddies Cricket Club and a member of Wynnum and Redlands Cycling.
John still fundraises for junior cricket at the Redlands Multi Sports Club as well as Vision Australia. He has also purchased a tandem pushbike and takes vision impaired people for bike rides throughout the Redlands.
Community Organisation Award: Here’s To Life Redlands Inc
Here’s to Life Redlands is a not-for-profit health and wellbeing organisation that is all about “fun, friendship and fitness”. Founded in 2003 by Tony and Stephanie Meggitt of Redland Bay, thousands of hours have gone into making their passion reality.
Each week, Here’s to Life conducts 11 preventative and regenerative health programs at Redlands Memorial Hall in Smith Street, Cleveland for women over 40 and for community members with special needs. Their programs are so popular that women and people with special needs travel from Manly, Carina, Kingston and other suburbs in the greater Brisbane area to participate. Here’s to Life have even been invited to take their special Dancercise program to Logan and the north and south sides of Brisbane.
Here’s to Life Redlands receives support and referrals from Medicare Local (the peak body for GPs in the region) and many other medical practitioners and service providers in the local area. The organisation has also formed close relationships with special schools and disability organisations throughout the Redlands including a community partnership with Redlands Special School.
Here’s to Life does an important job helping community members exercise their way to holistic fitness through dance, singing and laughter in the Redlands.
Local Hero Award Peter Tunstall (Sheldon)
Peter is a valued volunteer with the Redlands Wildlife Care Network and has been a member of the Redlands Wildlife Rescue Service since 2008.
He is well known among the City’s community of wildlife carers. Peter is generous with his knowledge of wildlife and is always there to help other volunteers with tricky calls and often covers the phones and attends to rescue calls if others can’t make their roster or if no one is available to rescue an animal during the day.
Peter has an obvious passion for wildlife – he wants to achieve the best outcomes for both animals and the community. He built a ‘soft release’ cage for a wildlife group to use when releasing rehabilitated possums back into the wild. Peter also helped the group with a grant application to make more cages.
In addition, Peter has been a member of the Land for Wildlife program since 1999 and his Sheldon property is now listed as a release site for rehabilitated wildlife.
Cultural Award: RedArts (Cleveland)
RedArts has supported and promoted arts and cultural activities in the Redlands for the benefit of the whole community since its establishment in 1991.
Over the past 21 years, RedArts has arranged workshops, exhibitions, performances and a number of cultural community events. The volunteer organisation has also collaborated with Redland City Council on a many arts related projects.
These include the Ba-Lonn Community Arts Festival; the popular ‘Classics Close Up’ concert series from 2005; the RAC Jazz Tent, gallery and artist workshops at the Redland Redfest Spring Festival; and a ten-year project for Senior Citizens Week – a Seniors Photographic Tribute Exhibition.
RedArts has also provided opportunities for young people in the Arts through the Youth Development Bursary Fund. This has helped young musicians, dancers, painters, poets, writers and photographers with their studies in Australia and overseas.
Environment Award: Dr John Moss (Capalaba)
Dr Moss is an invaluable volunteer at IndigiScapes who continually goes above and beyond to assist Council and the community. He has been involved with the IndigiScapes Centres since its inception, conducting flora surveys before the centre was built.
Dr Moss frequently joins volunteer groups on field trips and shares his vast knowledge of plants and insects readily with the other volunteers.
His diverse scientific knowledge has made a lasting impact on many Redlands residents and his dedication and enthusiasm to enhance biodiversity is inspiring.
Dr Moss is Vice President of both the Butterflies and Other Invertebrates Club and the Eprapah Creek Catchment Land Care Association. He is also a member of many other environment-focused groups including the Naturalist Club and the Richmond Birdwing Conservation Network as well as being heavily involved with the Entomological Society. A species of cicada has even been named after him.
In addition, Dr Moss is an author – his book Butterfly Host Plants is now into a third edition – and he contributes to scientific publications.
Sports Award: Cameron Carr
Wellington Point resident and athlete Cameron Carr is a member of Australia’s wheelchair rugby team ‘The Steelers’ and a veteran of two Paralympic Games.
Cameron’s career highlights include wining silver at the 2008 Beijing Paralympics, silver at the 2010 World Championships as well as co-captaining the Australian team to win gold at the 2012 London Paralympics.
Cameron is a strong advocate for living a healthy lifestyle. He loves to cook and is studying a Bachelor of Health Science (Nutrition) at the Queensland University of Technology. Cameron hopes to become a nutritionist after graduation.
