2017 Australia Day Award winners

Published on 01 February 2017

It was my honour last week to announce the 2017 Fairfield City Australia Day Award winners at a special ceremony in the Council Chambers.

The awards recognise community members who dedicate their time to making our community a wonderful place to live. They are undoubtedly an inspiration to each of us to do our bit to make our community better.

Community achievers often go about their work quietly and without fuss to help others, so it was a pleasure to publicly praise them on our special national day.

Roy Hilton was named the 2017 Fairfield Citizen of The Year. He has single-handedly raised more than $500,000 for community projects as an integral member of the Rotary Club of Wetherill Park. Roy was presented with the Community's top Australia Day honour.

Fadi Aluboodi was awarded the Young Citizen of the Year. He is a young person who volunteers with a number of organisations, including the Salvation Army, Fairfield Relay for Life and recently became a White Ribbon Ambassador.

Robert Ward was awarded the Volunteer of the Year. He is a founding member of the Western Sydney Cycling Network and has volunteered continuously for 10 years. He also volunteers for the Flora Park and as a blacksmith at Fairfield City Museum and Gallery.

Elisabeth Kidane was awarded the Sports Achiever of the Year. She has placed in every competition she has taken part in since starting aerobics seven years ago. She is on course to attend the Youth Olympics next year.

I congratulate Roy, Fadi, Robert and Elisabeth on their achievements.

On the night we also recognised others for their outstanding achievements including Rowena Tran, Nelson Lim, Rose Baxter and Domenic Nascimben receiving special Australia Day Medallions. Alan La, Amy Melville, Skikye Alyce Smith, Antonio Mu, Jesse Nguyen, Kelvin Tran and Michael Tran were also recognised for their achievements.