2007 Sydney Harbour Week Awards

Friday, 2 March 2007

Five individuals and three groups were tonight honoured for their exemplary commitment and contribution to Sydney Harbour.

Sydney Harbour Week Award Winners – in the categories of Artist, Community, Environment, Heritage, Indigenous, Tourism, Government and Lifetime Achievement - were honoured in an event heralding the start to Sydney Harbour Week aboard the historic three-masted barque James Craig.

The awards recognise a group or individual who has encouraged people to care for and share Sydney Harbour by informing, educating or engaging the community.

The fourth annual Sydney Harbour Week Awards winners received hand-chiselled trophies – replicas of the distinctive red and white Hornby Lighthouse, located at South Head, Sydney Harbour.

The 2007 Sydney Harbour Week Award winners are:

Artist – John Bennett of Marrickville

• John is a poet with a passion for the natural and cultural environment, and has written many poems about the Harbour, capturing the beauty, imagery and common experience. These have been published in Australia, the US and Britain, over 25 years.
• He was recently awarded a PhD for his thesis ‘A New Defence of Poetry’ which included poems about Sydney Harbour.

 

Community – Raymond Spinks of Strathfield

• Ray volunteered his time over 10 years  as member of the Australian Volunteer Coastal Group until the end of 2004, accumulating 5000 volunteer hours providing a listening watch and safety marine radio communications role for the Sydney boating community.
• In addition, Ray has contributed countless hours assisting with seamanship and training courses, guest speaker, maritime museum guide, meetings and on-water boat duties with the volunteer marine rescue group in support of the tens of thousands of people who go boating in and around Sydney Harbour.

 

Environment – National Parks Association of NSW (for the HarbourKeepers program)

• HarbourKeepers educate and involve the community in a broad range of regulation land-based and underwater conservation activities, including bush regeneration projects, clean ups, tree planting and weed removal as well as underwater regeneration and conservation.
• HarbourKeepers also has trained fish surveyors who gather data on the frequency, distribution and seasonal variation of 50 NSW marine fish. This data is forwarded to BioNet – an on-line biodiversity database which detects impacts and monitors trends in the waters of Sydney Harbour.

 

Government – City of Sydney (for Glebe foreshore ‘missing link’ project)

• The ‘missing link’ project builds on the existing open spaces of Bicentennial Park and Blackwattle Bay Park to create a continuous foreshore park network offering a broad variety of settings and waterfront recreational opportunities including water access (beach and stairs) boat mooring pontoons, boardwalks, rehabilitated wetland and beach areas, and picnic, barbecue and public toilet facilities.
• City of Sydney managed and funded the project – largely unaided – with consultation with local residents, interest groups and key government agencies.

 

Heritage - Tim Swales of Dee Why

• Captain Tim swales was appointed Commodore of the Sydney Heritage Fleet in 1990, after joining the fleet as a volunteer in 1981 shortly after he emigrated from the UK.
• During his time at the Heritage Fleet, Captain Swales’ has demonstrated leadership above and beyond that expected of volunteers with a range of supporting activity from  single-handedly rewritting the Fleet’s ‘Ship’s Standing Orders’ through to skippering fleet vessels on the Harbour.

 

Indigenous – ESORA (Eastern Suburbs Organisation for Reconciling Australia)

• ESORA was founded in 1997, as a community of people who are committed to building links between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people, via free community bush tucker walks along the Harbour area in the Woollahra Council area conducted by indigenous Australians.
• ESORA have quietly gone about this effort with modest financial support.

 

Tourism – John Boyce of Vaucluse

• In 1983, John, an avid sailer, used his sailing and marketing skills to begin a career in celebrating and promoting Sydney Harbour, including staging the zany Polystyrene Cup Fun Yacht Race in the 80s.
• John runs a successful yacht charter business in the new niche markets of backpacker sailing, singles sailing, weddings on the water.

 

Lifetime Achievement  - Bob Ross of Surry Hills

• For almost half a century, Bob – a boating photojournalist - has dedicated himself to the coverage and promotion of boating on Sydney Harbour.
• Bob is without peer in this field and has brought the harbour alive for countless thousands of people across Australia and around the world.
• A passionate sailor, from Olympic trials in dinghies to Sydney Hobart races in maxis, Bob has written and photographed boating on the Harbour and covered Sydney sailors at events around the world through his magazine, newspaper columns, books and electronic media.

 

NSW Maritime is a proud supporter of the Sydney Harbour Week Awards.