The Tarrangower Australia Day Committee has made the difficult decision to disband. In recent years, committee numbers have been dwindling, and efforts to recruit new members have had little or no results. The three remaining members have made the difficult decision to cease operations.

Secretary and Treasurer of the Tarrangower Australia Day Committee, Peter Matic said, “This committee has, over many years, been able to coordinate and manage the successful Tarrangower Community Awards, recognising volunteers in our community and successfully managing the presentation of the awards at a celebratory breakfast in the Maldon town gardens on Australia Day each year.

“In recent years, there has been a severe lack of community nominations across the award categories, and it is only through the dedicated efforts of individual committee members that nominees have been identified and recognised.”

The first Citizen of the Year was awarded to SG Rewell in 1981 by the Shire of Maldon. After the amalgamation of the shires in 1996, the Maldon community took on the task of presenting their Citizen of the Year Award.

The Community Award was introduced in 2008 to recognise the work done by community groups, and in 2012, the Life Member award was introduced to recognise individuals who had contributed to the community over long periods of time. Other awards introduced over the years were:  the Young Citizen of the Year, the Sportsperson of the Year and the Environment Award.

Chairman of the committee, John Naismith, told the Times, “It’s disappointing that it’s finishing. There are people who deserve the recognition but won’t necessarily get it.

We’ve spent a lot of time and energy documenting processes, so it would be easy for new people to take it up, but it is believed that a minimum of eight committed members are required for there to be any viable option to continue.”

The Tarrangower Australia Day Committee currently holds substantial funds that have been raised by the committee over the years to support the ongoing success of the event and have decided the money should be returned to the community.

The committee is seeking expressions of interest from community groups for funds supporting broad, but purposefully targeted community activity.

Community groups wanting to submit an expression of interest to the Tarrangower Australia Day Committee for funding, please email or post to John Naismith: at john@naismithenterprises.com.au or to 38 Morris Street Maldon 3463 up until 12 September.

This article appeared in the Tarrangower Times, 19 August 2022.