Tireless community members win Rise & Shine 32nd Awards

A Windang community member who selflessly works to clean up around Windang Bridge and a Mt Ousley resident who works to revegetate an public reserve have been named as winners at the 2018 Rise and Shine Environment Awards.

This year’s 2018 Basil Ryan Award winner is Dave Williamson (Scooter Dave) for his work around Windang Bridge. While Merrilee Swan is the Gold Award Citizen winner for her work in restoring the public reserve off Sunninghill Circuit, Mt Ousley.

Local church group Wesley Church Wildcats and Cringila Public School were also recognised for their environmental works at the 2018 Rise & Shine awards.

Wollongong City Lord Mayor Councillor Gordon Bradbery AM presented the 32nd Rise and Shine Environment Awards on Thursday, 6 December 2018 at The Salvation Army Function Centre, Burelli Wollongong.

“The spirit of the Rise & Shine Awards began 32 years ago after a local West Wollongong man, the late Basil Ryan, who in 1986 aged 70, collected 110 bags of rubbish from a ‘black spot’ near his home in West Wollongong.

“The award winners in 2018 carry on the spirit of Basil’s actions. They have worked in various parts of the city to make the place enjoyable, cooler, cleaner, and safer.

“I encourage all people who are interested in their local environment either near the bush or the beach, to seek out a volunteer group and join in the work that these teams are doing every week. They are actively making the city a great place to live.”

Gold Awards were presented in the following categories:

Commercial Property – Soilco Community Group – Wesley Church Wildcats Citizen – Merrilee Swan School – Cringila Public School

Background

The 2018 Rise & Shine Basil Ryan award winner – Dave Williamson (Scooter Dave)

Dave gets up at 4am each morning to begin work on cleaning the Windang Bridge and surrounds. It takes Dave about half an hour to get from his place to the bridge on his scooter. Dave arrives at the bridge at 5am to begin his work. Dave cleans both walkways of the bridge including foreshores and wharfs, he then continues back across the bridge to pick up the rubbish around Reddall Parade Kiosk and Reserve. Then on his way home, a 10 km trip, he ducks up side streets to pick up what’s been left on the ground and in gutters before this rubbish is washed down the storm water system and into the Lake.

The 2018 Rise & Shine Citizen Award winner – Merrilee Swan.

Merrilee has been working in the reserve off Sunninghill Circuit Mt Ousley for more than 30 years. Initially she started removing Lantana in the reserve to create a track for her children and other local kids to walk to school. Once the track was established Merrilee began working on the remainder of the reserve, removing weeds to allow for native plants to regenerate. In 2004 a Fire Ready [fiReady] team was formed with Council. The group met monthly to reduce bushfire risk which assisted the work Merrilee had achieved unaccompanied over the previous years.

To this day Merrilee is still the driving force behind the Sunninghill Circuit Fire Ready team. Her enthusiasm and knowledge of the site is unparalleled.

2018 Gold award for a business for outstanding contributions to environmental enhancement – Soilco.

Soilco create a range of soil, compost and mulch products to regenerate your environment for dynamic growth. Soilco is a horticulturally focussed business, designing products for the regeneration of soil. Since starting in 1974 as a family company – and with a background in farming – Soilco has developed a deep and first-hand understanding of issues such as soil fertility and water management.

As a pioneer in eco-friendly gardening, Soilco has worked with both industry and government, developing products that set benchmarks in terms of creating recycled organics that are free from pathogens and weeds, and blended in an economically viable way.

Winner of the 2018 Award for a Community Group – Wesley Church Wildcats.

Wesley Church Wildcats are winners of the 2019 best New Group. They joined the Rise & Shine program for the first time in 2018. Their church group goes into the community to clean up litter as part of their community bonding program.

Winner of the 2018 School Award – Cringila Public School

Cringila’s whole school community has demonstrated a positive commitment to improving their environment by recycling, planting native trees, shrubs and grasses, growing, preparing and eating sustainable organic food using permaculture methods. They have increased community awareness of their projects by establishing links with; Wollongong City Council, Illawarra and South East Area Health Network, NSW Seed saver Network, University of Wollongong and many more.

Cringila Public School’s excellent education project “The Living Classroom” has created and instilled environmental care and concern in the entire school community. Children who are not actively involved in the three training programs are invited to work with the teachers during recess and lunch and take part in activities such as mulching, watering, planting and harvesting crops.

The outdoor kitchen has added an exciting dimension to their already thriving living classroom set up. All children from K-6 are involved in selecting fresh produce from the garden and working together to prepare food.

The awards acknowledge the partnership between the community and council to improve the local environment. The presentation evening allows Council to express its thanks for the work undertaken by volunteers throughout the City over the past year.

For more information contact our Customer Service Centre on (02) 4227 7111 or visit our website, www.wollongong.nsw.gov.au

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