Annual awards

Citizen of the Year — Meagan Ambrose

A Registered Nurse, Community Care Clinical Nurse, and Woundcare Clinical Nurse Consultant who is also actively involved in various community organisations.

In 2022, she opened a Dementia and Memory Loss Activity Centre to provide much-needed respite for loved ones and carers.

The centre has already provided over 3,739 hours of respite to 25 clients in its first year of operation, earning Meagan recognition from Dementia Australia for her passion and dedication to this important cause.

Young Citizen of the Year — Abby Keely

Abby is a remarkable young leader who continuously gives back to her community through her involvement in various organisations and charities.

As the Captain of Irrawang High School and a proactive member of the Council Youth Advisory Panel, Dance Xtreme, and Medowie Girl Guides, Abby is a true inspiration for those around her.

She’s also working towards her Queens Guide Award and will represent Girl Guides Australia at an International Leadership Program in India in January 2024.

Port Stephens Medals —

The Port Stephens Medal is awarded to individuals, organisations or groups for distinguished service to the community.

• Nelson Bay Cancer Patient Transport Group

This incredible group of more than 55 volunteers has been providing transport for cancer sufferers to Newcastle and Maitland metropolitan areas since 2012.

With 819 individual trips and over 88,380km driven, this group has been a lifeline for patients in need of treatment, scans, and medical appointments.

Not only do they provide essential transportation, but they also offer emotional support and social interactions, making the journey a little easier for those in need.

Sportsperson of the Year — Alice Mitchell

Alice is a young and accomplished athlete who has been a dedicated member of the Nelson Bay Touch Football Association for over a decade.

At just 15 years of age, she proudly represented the state of New South Wales in Touch Football.
Alice is also a valued member of the Nelson Bay Netball Association and currently coaches a touch football squad, where she instils important values such as teamwork, confidence, and healthy life choices in her athletes.

Cultural Endeavour — Jacob Ridgeway

Jacob Ridgeway is an award-winning singer, songwriter, and performing artist who has used his music as a powerful platform to share his experiences and observations of life as a proud Worimi and Gamilaroi man.

With his debut single 'Bullyman' winning the 2019 National Indigenous Story Award Grand Prize and charting in the iTunes Alternative Chart and All Genres Chart, Jacob has performed alongside some of Australia's biggest music names and earned critical acclaim.

Jacob also offers a unique creative writing course that uses music to foster creativity, emotional intelligence, critical thinking, and practical writing skills in his students.

Environmental Award — Nelson Bay Civic Pride Group

This group is led by Margaret Wilkinson and her dedicated team of volunteers, Rory Milne, Ian Spight, and Judy Washington, have been voluntarily maintaining the gardens in Nelson Bay CBD since 2018.

Initiated by the Tomaree Business Chamber, now Business Port Stephens, this group ensures that the gardens are beautifully planted and maintained, providing a positive and visually stunning feature for both tourists and locals in Port Stephens.

Citizen of the Year – Brooke Roach

Brooke Roach has dedicated his life to creating a better future for everyone in the local community, with a particular focus on young Aboriginal people.

Brooke works as the Aboriginal Liaison Officer at Hunter River High School and has volunteered his time to lead the Raymond Terrace Magpies Rugby League Football Club as its President, co-coach the premiership-winning C-Grade Men's team, work with community organisations, and introduce sports and the associated discipline to many people's lives. Brooke is an advocate for better access to services for Aboriginal people across our whole community, and continues to inspire.

Brooke is a Raymond Terrace legend, hard worker, a community leader and aspires to make life better for others. He has made a lasting impression through his passion to improve the wellbeing of people in Port Stephens.

Young Citizen of the Year – Emma Newcombe

Emma Newcombe is an outstanding student, contributing positively to the local community through a wide range of activities and volunteer work.

Emma has been a driving force in the development of the Café Alesco, becoming an integral part of its operation and management. If you’ve ever visited Café Alesco in the Raymond Terrace Library you might recognise Emma from front of house operations and her excellent customer service skills.

Alesco aims to reduce barriers to accessing education, so students are able to engage and participate in education to the best of their abilities, whilst gently challenging their potential.

Emma upholds Alesco’s values, is respectful and is always willing to help her teachers, peers, local community and encompasses the Alesco spirit in all she does – overall she’s an outstanding young lady.

Freeman of Port Stephens – Darrell Dawson

Darrell has been prominent in protecting native wildlife and habitat for the benefit of the Port Stephens community. Through his involvement in numerous committees, he’s been instrumental in the development of some of the most iconic environmental features of Port Stephens. This includes the protection of the Tomaree National Park and working towards protecting the waters of Port Stephens from pollution and large scale commercial aquaculture development. He was also instrumental in the protection of the Mambo Wetlands and large areas of local Koala habitat.

Darrell successfully established the grassroots organisation EcoNetwork Port Stephens Inc. in 1993 that now represents 30 affiliated community groups, and businesses and has a membership of approximately 3000 individuals in Port Stephens.

This has all been done with the aim of bringing together the various active environmental and sustainability groups in the LGA, under one network.

Sportsperson of the Year — Jodi Cassar

Jodi Cassar has been an active role model for netball in Port Stephens for over 3 decades now and is the current President of Port Stephens Netball Association.

Jodi spends many hours of her time ensuring that grassroots participation in the game of netball is provided for girls and boys, young and old across our community.

Accessibility and inclusion is an important role of the game that Jodi promotes with all programs offered under Netball NSW, being offered at Port Stephens Netball Association. This includes the recently introduced Inclusive Netball Uniforms policy introduced by Netball Australia and the growth in boys and mens pathways. She’s also helped to instigate the inclusion of Acknowledgement of Country prior to all meetings and at the commencement of each playing day.

Jodi is a Life Member of Medowie Netball Club and also Port Stephens Netball Association and was awarded the Netball NSW Dot McHugh OAM Administrators Award in late 2022 in recognition of the outstanding leadership and management of the administration of netball in the Port Stephens community.

Cultural Endeavour — Gabrielle Carrick

For the last 2 years, Gabrielle Carrick has been the graphic designer for all Tomaree Museum Association (TMA) exhibitions and artistic presentations. Gabrielle leads the design exhibition team for TMA pop up museums, such as D'albora Nelson Bay, Port Stephens Art Competition and the exhibition at the Nelson Bay Visitor Information Centre.

Gabrielle has volunteered her time and used her considerable expertise gained through a lifetime of work in this area to produce very professional results for the TMA and the Port Stephens Community.

Her contribution and passion towards the preservation and promotion of Port Stephens cultural and artistic heritage is outstanding.

Environmental Award — Casey Freeman

Casey Freeman is a young mother to 3 girls and is a passionate Koala carer, volunteering with the Koala rescue team at Port Stephens Koala Hospital. With her work, she actively contributes to the Conservation of the Port Stephens Koala population.

Not only is Casey an active volunteer, she’s passionate about making a difference in Koala conservation and, with her daughters, she developed, manufactured and installed Koala signage across the LGA to help drive Koala awareness. These signs were recognised and supported across the LGA.

Casey is now working with council staff on a new program of Koala awareness signage.

Port Stephens Medals

The Port Stephens Medal is awarded to individuals, organisations or groups for distinguished service to the community.

• Heather Buckingham

For the last 30 years, Heather Buckingham has played a major role at the St John's Parish Pantry. Heather is a continual force, collecting donations and volunteering every week to provide food and kindness to needy families. For most of her 30 years with the pantry, Heather has coordinated Christmas Hampers for families who can’t afford to buy gifts.

Heather has dedicated decades of work to our local community including welcoming and supporting families by helping with employment and study, providing guidance with life in a new country, celebrating birthdays, including them in family Christmas celebrations and even attending school grandparent days.

• Robert Bull

Robert Bull was a founding member of the Raymond Terrace Men’s shed in 2010, and has been president of the shed 9 times. He’s now an active and lifetime member in Raymond Terrace and also a member of Australian Men’s Shed Association.

As initiator of the Raymond Terrace men's shed band, Robert has been responsible for the shed performing at many external public functions and nursing homes within the community.

He works closely with the Raymond Terrace RSL in planning Anzac Day ceremonies and instigated the men’s shed contributions at the Back to King Street Heritage Festival.

Robert’s contribution to the Port Stephens community doesn’t end there – he’s also a major contributor in providing meals at a local cafe for members of the community in need.

Citizen of the Year – November Sheehan

November Sheehan is the founder of Heart Letter Pen, an online initiative created during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic to assist people feeling lonely, anxious and isolated. Humble, but infinitely encouraging, November donates significant time to manage the group’s Facebook page, coordinate drop-off and collection of boxes across the local community, and individually check, sort and mail card batches.

Young Citizen of the Year – Brigid Douglas

Brigid Douglas is a volunteer gymnastics coach at PCYC Port Stephens, generously volunteering an estimated 350 hours a year to support programs for young people. Brigid has built wonderful relationships with her students and the community, and is an example of hard work and dedication to the sport of gymnastics. Brigid also helps with the club’s school holiday programs and works closely with NSW Police on the Fit for Life program.

Sportsgroup of the Year – Clontarf Foundation

The Clontarf Foundation helps to improve the education, discipline, life-skills, self-esteem and employment prospects of young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander men. The Foundation has helped to make a difference in the lives of young people in Port Stephens by running programs with students at Hunter River High and Irrawang High School.

Cultural Endeavour – Madeline Crockett

Madeline Crockett gives back to her community by volunteering her time at the Twilight markets in Fingal Bay. Among her many duties, Madeline helps to organise signs and COVID-19 updates, filling market spots, advertising via social media and providing updates to the community. Previously Madeline spent time volunteering to assist her fellow students with their school assignments.

Environmental Award – Leonie Bryson

Leonie Bryson is the vice-president and a key member of Climate Action Port Stephens. Leonie has been actively involved in educating the Port Stephens community about climate change and sustainability and has worked on events such as School Strike for Climate. Through her dedication and hard work, Leonie secured grant funding to install renewable street furniture in Raymond Terrace – known as a Smart Solar Bench – that uses energy from the sun to enable users to charge their phones and connect to Wi-Fi.

Freeman of Port Stephens –

• Kevin Stokes

Kevin Stokes is a founding member of the Hunter Region Botanic Gardens. A passionate advocate for the environment, Kevin has spent more than 36 years volunteering at the Gardens. He has worked tirelessly to develop and maintain the Gardens’ traditions, its volunteer basis and its focus on displaying and conserving Australian plants.

• John Nell

As a former Councillor, John Nell contributed 34 years to Port Stephens Council both as an East Ward Councillor and Mayor. He is the second longest-serving Councillor on Port Stephens Council. John is passionate about the Port Stephens environment and was a long-standing member of many committees including the Marine Park Committee, Estuary Management Committee and Tomaree Sports Council. During his tenure, he was a strong advocate for the environment and oversaw improvements to Nelson Bay town centre, more shared paths and new sporting infrastructure.

• Ken Jordan

Ken Jordan was first elected to Port Stephens Council in 2004 and represented the West Ward community for 17 years. He served as Deputy Mayor from 2011 to 2012 and was an active community group member. Ken was passionate about creating greater job opportunities for local young people.
During his tenure, he helped to reshape the developer contributions plan to increase funding for local projects and was a strong advocate for the Men’s Shed movement locally. He was also a passionate member of the Seaham Park & Wetlands Committee and West Ward Sports Council.