The senior citizen of the year also happens have a firefighting background. Ken Burke (pictured left) could not attend due to his health, but tells us that he was deputy fire captain and it was mentioned at the ceremony that he worked on the bush fire management committee.

He said he also helped found the surf life saving club at Narooma. He was instrumental is setting up Narooma’s permanent ambulance station and was a community ambulance driver. He was also a councillor and a shire president and was called the “volunteers’ volunteer”. His son, Russell, said Ken as a teenager rode down to Narooma, apparently on old Indian police bike, and never went back to Sydney.

The Narooma Community Event of the Year award went to the Red Poppy Ball and campaign, which was collected by Paul Naylor, of the Narooma RSL sub-branch and also Trevor Bennett, Gilly Kearney and Jess Crosier, of Narooma Golf Club. The other nominees were the AWL Tailwaggers Walk, the Narooma Renewable Energy Expo and Summer Safety Expo, all worthy nominees and great events. Now we just need the Narooma Oyster Festival to come back.

The Narooma Community Group of the Year award went to the Narooma, North Narooma, Kianga and Dalmeny Landcare Group and was picked up by Heather McMillan. Other nominees were Riding for the Disabled Eurobodalla. Heather encouraged everyone to pick up a couple pieces of rubbish on their next walk to the beach or bush, which is a great sentiment.

The inaugural Narooma Sporting Hero award went to Wade Mongta, who recently ran the New York City Marathon with the Indigenous Marathon Project. Wade could not attend due to a recent death in the family, but Australia Day coordinator Gilly Kearney dropped off the award this week and let us know that he was most grateful.

Finally, well done to Gilly and all the Australia Day committee for doing such a great job.