Australia Day Breakfast Draws Crowds

170 people shared in a delicious breakfast of fruit, bacon, egg, baked beans, sausages, tomatoes and toast all prepared by Shire Councillors and the CEO with some help from club members on the barbecue. Thank you to them for a magnificent spread - even as the queue kept getting longer, they coped admirably!

After the breakfast Shire President Ed Garner herded everybody out to the area outside the club for presentations. The flag was raised by Neville Woods and Reg Cole led in the singing of the national anthem. Presentations then followed.

Winners of the Christmas lights residential were Pat and Kevin Jones, a back to back win for them, while Wylie News and Gifts (owner Annette Petchell) won the business section, also for the second time.

The Premier's Australia Day Active Citizenship prizes were then awarded. Winner of the award for the under 25 age group was Hugh Trenorden. Hugh has been active in the Wyalkatchem Cricket Club and Football Club, he helped with centenary preparations and has been a part of the Tidy Town efforts in the past, to name just a few of his achievements. Jan and John Trenorden accepted the award for Hugh.

Winner of the over 25 was Beryl Jennings. Beryl has always been an active volunteer in Wyalkatchem, just three  of her contributions over the years being:

• a member of the Wyalkatchem bowling club, taking most positions of office over the years, also an umpire for Wyalkatchem and the association
• meals on wheels driver and taxi for patients visiting the hospital or going to Perth for medical appointments
• researched into the unknown graves at the Wyalkatchem Cemetery in association with Rotary - every grave at the cemetery now has a plaque - this is an enormous contribution to our town

Beryl gave a short but relevant speech mentioning that there were many people just as deserving as her, and saying she was proud to be an Australian. Well done!

The award for the event of the year was  easy to decide; this went to the Centenary Committee for their wonderful organisation of Wyalkatchem's Centenary in October 2005. Paul de Pierres, President of the Committee called up the rest of the committee, then made special thanks to Coral Ryan for her job as secretary and thanked everybody else who had been involved.

You can see more photos of the Australia Day Breakfast by pressing on the photo gallery link on the left of the page.