Far North

Sony Centre Arts Award

Winner – Illuminart

After several years interstate, Cindi Drennan decided to move back to the Flinders Ranges to start her own business, Illuminart, and use her skills to showcase new creative possibilities in regional areas and support local artists to make new work using some of these concepts.

The biggest and most spectacular projects have involved high powered video projection onto buildings and public spaces.

With the support of Country Arts SA, Festivals Australia and Arts SA , Cindi has been able to present projection art that has involved techniques and artistry more cutting edge than those seen on North Terrace during  Northern Lights. The Northern Lights projections are just a series of decorative slides, whereas the work Cindi has been presenting in the Flinders Ranges is fully animated and features work made about the region.

The Illuminart projections in regional South Australia were extraordinary as the majority of architectural projections around the world are decorative, with minimal community input. Cindi’s projects have been showcased in illumination magazines and referenced by peers internationally. They have led to the commissioning of two community engagement projection projects in Port Adelaide.

Elders Community Group Award

Winner – Farina Restoration Group Inc  

The Farina Restoration Group was formed three years ago with the aim of stabilising, and where possible, restoring aspects of the historic town of Farina, and encouraging the public at large to embrace the history of the Australian outback town.

Work has involved the stabilising of old stone buildings, remarking roads, erecting story boards at the old township and Railway precinct, and continuing to research the history of the town.

The volunteers come from locations across South Australia and Victoria and are mainly retirees and local community members, many of whom are indigenous youth. The retirees come from a variety of backgrounds ranging from professors to tradesmen who all add value to the project.

 

Elders Community Individual Award 

Winner – Joanne Culf

Joanne is employed by Country Health SA to manage the community support programs that are funded by BHP Billiton, including The Big Warm Welcome and Strengthening Our Families. She provides support, information and friendship to people to assist them in settling in to the area and establishing their own networks in the community. The role also allows her to provide assistance to families who need additional health services or support.

The second element of Joanne’s role is supporting families with young children or those with additional needs, and managing volunteer staff that can assist those families in a social support capacity. The families she supports are isolated from their traditional support networks and value the assistance of the social program.

Testament to the success of this model, Joanne has presented the concept at an SA Health conference and consequently had the presentation published in a Victorian social work journal.

 

Westpac Large Business Award

Winner – Gulf and Ranges Optometrists

Gulf and Ranges Optometrists is an independently owned and operated optometry practise based in Port Augusta. The business was established over six years ago in 2005 as a result of Mitch Hancock and family purchasing the existing independent optometry practise and building. Gulf and Ranges Optometrists provides the Port Augusta community and surrounds with the eye health care, vision care and eyewear of the highest quality to ensure the people of Port Augusta and surrounds can see their world clearly.

Gulf and Ranges Optometrists provides outreach services to Hawker, Peterborough, Coober Pedy and Roxby Downs.

The team at Gulf and Ranges Optometrists provide eye care and supply spectacles for immigration detainees and prisoners, as well as clients within the fields of Army, Trade, Mining and the Power Station with safety eyewear certified to Australian safety standards.

Mitch performs specialty contact lens fitting for the restoration of vision for clients with degenerative cornea conditions and corneal scarring.

 

Westpac Small Business Award

Winner – Cinema Augusta (2011 Telstra Hall of Fame inductee)

Michelle and Roger Coles took a small business that was turning over under $100,000 per year to the business it is now; currently employing 10 part time staff, opening five days per week, every public holiday, and every day during the school holidays.

They purchased Cinema Augusta nearly ten years ago and began to revolutionise the business, beginning with reeducating the community about opening times, improving the cinema experience, and to bringing more current release movies to Port Augusta. This was the pioneer of new release movies ever being shown north of Gawler.

Cinema Augusta has become an integral part of the community. Michelle and Roger work hard to ensure that their content is just as timely as any metropolitan cinema, and have recently invested in a system that will enable them to screen 3D films.

 

Department of Trade and Economic Development Innovation Award

Winner – Regional Indigenous Training Program

The Regional Indigenous Training Program caters to men who reside in the Far North region of South Australia, and provides them with a clear pathway to employment opportunities.

Several important and unique elements have created a program that provides a culturally appropriate and focussed training course. The program was developed in partnership with an identified traditional owner group, and is held on Aboriginal land outside the usual training locations within Coober Pedy.

Over the past 12 months the program has seen 25 indigenous males receive extensive training, with 12 of them now working in full time positions within the South Australian mining sector.

 

Viterra Sports Award 

Winner – Malcolm Hewett and the Vincent Racing Team

Malcolm Hewett and the Vincent Racing Team participate in Salt Lake Land Speed Racing, held at Lake Gairdner each year. Initially they ran a vintage 1950 street registered Vincent Rapide motorcycle in modified vintage gas, and modified partially streamlined vintage gas classes.

When Malcolm commenced racing in 2000, the ultimate aim was to run the bike in excess of 150mph (240kph). In the first year he set the Australian record at 121mph (195kph) and over the next two years lifted the Australian record to 140mph (225kph). With the original bike at its top limit without modifications, it was decided to construct a purpose built racing bike. This bike was completed in 2009 and within three runs at Lake Gairdner it had set the Australian record for its class at 151mph (243kph). Malcolm Hewett and the Vincent Racing Team had achieved their original aim of reaching 150mph after ten years of trying.

The Vincent Racing Team is made up of Malcolm Hewett and a core group of four dedicated people; Al Fischer, Colin Kranz, Mark Hamilton and Will Lockwood; who have made the journey with Malcolm.

The team has achieved four World Land Speed Records recognised on the world stage to add to their two Australian records and brought a huge amount of attention to Australia at both race meetings.

 

Hames Sharley Sustainability Award

Winner – Willow Springs Station 

Willow Springs Station, a pastoral lease of 28,300 hectares is run as a family partnership and has a maximum carrying capacity of 4,500 sheep and up to 40 breeding cows. Currently the owners are running 2,500 sheep and 150 head of cattle. Willow Springs Station is one of the early pastoral leases in the Flinders Ranges and was purchased by the Reynolds family in 1956. The Reynolds Family have been in the area for five generations and on Willow Springs for four generations.

In 1985 Carmel and Brendan joined Brendan’s parents in a partnership to obtain the ownership of Willow Springs, and diversified into the tourism industry by developing the Shearers Quarters as an alternative accommodation facility in the Flinders Ranges.

Willow Springs has been identified as a model for successful income diversification on pastoral lands. In less than ten years Willow Springs Station has created a tourism product that delivers an equitable income share with traditional wool production. Tourism has been showing a steady growth and now provides an important component of farm business income.

 

StatewideSuper Tourism Award

 Winner – Flinders and Outback Water Cruises and Day Tours

Flinders and Outback Water Cruises and Day Tours is a boutique, award winning, ecotourism experience driven by passion for the region and fuelled by the obsession for discovery. Critically acclaimed as one of South Australia’s best Eco operators they explore the little known scenic waterway north of Port Augusta by boat, then by 4WD we travel further north into the rarely seen western plain of the Finders Ranges on Wilkatana Station. All our tours and cruises have feature elements of seemingly impossible contrasts such as Flinders Ranges, outback and coastal experiences. It is this unique combination that makes Flinders and Outback Water Cruises and Day Tours one of South Australia’s most unique operators.

Christine and Aaron Morgan started the business in 2003 by doing eco cruises north of Port Augusta to the very top of Spencer Gulf, an area that has never been used for pure eco cruising. ln 2009 they added a 4WD component to explore the land where the gulf ends & the outback begins, which has proved popular and goes into an area that has never been used for tourism before.

 

Adelaide Event & Exhibition Centre Youth Award

Winner – Shane Hough

Shane originally planned a three month stint in Roxby Downs. That has expanded to well over a year as he accepted a promotion from Youth Activities Officer to the new position of Youth and Social Services Coordinator through Roxby Leisure, a business unit of Roxby Down Council.  Roxby Leisure agreed to support the completion of Shane’s degrees in Social Work and Social Planning through Flinders University.

As a leader in the young community, Shane’s philosophy for engaging the youth is to offer support, counselling and guidance, along with events and activities in a drop-in environment.

Shane has become a very resourceful person due to remoteness of the town and has shown young people how to get what they need despite the very limited funding and resources available to them. Through Shane’s work, and the work of others, Roxby Downs has learnt to grow with its high percentage of young people instead of viewing them as a ‘problem’.