Melville Australia Day award winners Sydney Rowe, Kayla Ferraz, Mayor Russell Aubrey and Barry Mendalawitz representing Friends of Hatolia.
Camera IconMelville Australia Day award winners Sydney Rowe, Kayla Ferraz, Mayor Russell Aubrey and Barry Mendalawitz representing Friends of Hatolia. Credit: Supplied/Supplied

Inspirational Australians win

Headshot of Josh Zimmerman
Josh ZimmermanMelville Gazette

With more than 20 years of voluntary service as a justice of the peace during which time he has dealt with more than 20,000 documents, Sydney Rowe was unveiled as the Premier’s Australia Day Active Citizenship Award winner.

He shared the award with Barbara Dudding, a Melville History Society founder who has spent 35 years volunteering for the organisation and the past 10 as president.

The Active Citizenship Award for a person under 25 years went to Kayla Ferraz, a passionate advocate of community service who has worked with Yangebup Family Centre, St Vincent de Paul op shop in Hilton and the Red Cross Soup Patrol.

The community group winner was Melville Friends of Hatolia, established in 2005. The group works to raise funds for improvement of the lives of East Timorese people, especially young people, through scholarships and basic infrastructure such as toilets and libraries at schools.

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Melville Mayor Russell Aubrey congratulated the winners for their commitment and time to worthy causes that helped the community in numerous ways.

“The contributions of Sydney, Barbara, Kayla and those involved with the Melville Friends of Hatolia group are inspirational and give our community not only the benefit of their hard work, but leaders and role models for us to aspire to,” he said.