Meet our citizen of the year

A local hero who for many years has worked with Hilton residents to inspire, educate and inform them on how to create healthier and happier places to live, work and play has been named Fremantle Citizen of the Year for 2022.

Maureen Maher, co-convenor of the Hilton Precinct Group, was presented with the honour by Fremantle Mayor Hannah Fitzhardinge at an awards ceremony at the WA Maritime Museum on Wednesday 26 January.

Mayor Hannah described Maureen as an inspirational leader who had an innate ability to identify opportunities to bring people together and form positive relationships across diverse groups.

“Maureen has a passion for collaborating on creative projects that bring people together to enable a greater sense of wellbeing and belonging, and connect people to their local community in meaningful ways,” Hannah said.

“She values the power of sharing stories to help community understand each other, and to be informed and inspired.”

Maureen said she was overwhelmed by the community’s positive feedback since news broke out about her well-deserved accolade.

“I went to the awards ceremony just very happy to be nominated and was very surprised but honoured by the win,” she said. “It’s very humbling to be acknowledged in your community in such a public way.

I’m usually more comfortable flying under the radar but I am very grateful to those who chose me.”

Over the years, Maureen has been involved with the Hilton Primary School breakfast program, the Cooking from Home cross-cultural cooking program, the Hilton Magical Mystery Tram Tour, The Garden Party Collective, the creation of the Hilton Pocket Park and the Neighbourhood Connect program.

“I love the creative process of working with others and most of the projects I’ve been involved in have been real collaborations,” Maureen said.

“Along with Helena Cohen-Robertson we developed the Cooking from Home project that showcased Freo locals from different cultures and shared their home cooking at community dinners; the Magical Mystery Tram tour was a fun initiative of the Hilton Precinct team that got dozens of locals travelling through the streets of Hilton on the Fremantle tram to learn about its history and showcase local businesses.

“The neighbour group I started in my street has helped me get to know many more neighbours and do some fun activities together and most recently the Message in a Teacup project is inspiring people to spread kindness, hope and inspiration to neighbours and strangers.

“At the heart of all these initiatives is acting locally, promoting positive wellbeing building and community connections.

“I don’t see I have done anything that special except get involved in my local community.

“I hope others might consider how they could get involved too as there are lots of opportunities and plenty of creative people with great ideas and fun projects such waiting to be born.

We just need to get out and start meeting.”