Whyalla and Eyre Peninsula

Sony Centre Arts Award

Winner – David Wade

David Wade is a self-taught filmmaker who has been working as a writer and director in the Australian film industry for six years. In 2010 David received funding from the South Australia Film Corporation (SAFC) for a short film script he had written called Cropped. The SAFC issued David with $50,000 to make the film.

David was able to recruit AFI award winning actor Tony Martin (TV’s Wildside, Blue Murder, E Street), and Logie nominee Alyce Platt (Sons and Daughters, Sale of the Century) to star in the film. They, with a band of other industry identities (Reece Horner, McLeods Daughters, Jacqy Phillips , Home and Away etc.) made up the entire cast. 

Cropped was shot on location in Whyalla in 2010 the project was completed in early 2011.

Since then, the film has been selected to be screened at the highly regarded St Kilda Film Festival (Australia's top 100 short films), The Dungog Film Festival (the world’s largest festival for Australian films), and the Academy Award accredited Sydney Film Festival. Cropped was selected for competition out of over 400 short films entered having been chosen as one of the top seven best live action short films made in Australia in the last 12 months. It was a finalist for the highly acclaimed ‘Dendy Award’, where David was also nominated for Best Director, and was screened in front of two sell out crowds tallying over 1000 people.Cropped also recently won the best comedy award at the South Australian Screen awards, and has been pre-selected for three highly acclaimed international film festivals (TBA).

 

Elders Community Group Award

Winner – The Lower Eyre Peninsula Young Tradespeople and Professionals

The Lower Eyre Peninsula Young Tradespeople and Professionals group aims to promote the recruitment and retention of a young skilled workforce on the Lower Eyre Peninsula by developing a social network for all young tradespeople or professionals living and working in the area.

Everyone who interacts with the Lower Eyre Peninsula Young Tradespeople and Professionals group has their own story, but often it sounds the same. They moved to Port Lincoln not knowing a single person in town and felt isolated and alone. They shyly attended their first Lower Eyre Peninsula Young Tradespeople and Professionals group event and are instantly met with a group of like-minded people they can form friendships with.

Beyond the positives for the individual members of the Lower Eyre Peninsula Young Tradespeople and Professionals group, the group is supporting the future of the Port Lincoln community both financially and socially by ensuring the retention of a young skilled workforce.

Elders Community Individual Award

Winner – Ian and Cheryl Rae          

Ian and Cheryl Rae have been uniformed members of St John Ambulance Volunteers since 1998, when they joined to support the local cadet division in Whyalla, of which their children were members.

Between them they have completed nearly 10,000 hours of voluntary service to the community, delivering first aid at events.

Cheryl Rae is currently the Superintendent of the Whyalla cadet division, a position she has held for five years. Ian Rae is currently the Regional Superintendent, a position he has held for four years. Between the two of them they have contributed immeasurably to the Whyalla and Eyre Peninsula region.

 

Westpac Large Business Award

Winner – The Port Lincoln Hotel

Since opening in December 2007, the Port Lincoln Hotel has secured its position as the premier destination for national and international tourists and corporate travellers, by providing 4 star hotel accommodation, function facilities and venues for social and private events.

The Port Lincoln Hotel is located 645km west of Adelaide on the tip of Eyre Peninsula. They offer 111 rooms, including luxury ocean view balcony suites, an a-la-carte restaurant, two large bars, a gym and solar heated pool with courtyard overlooking Boston Bay, plus five fully equipped function rooms with state-of-the-art audio visual equipment on a self contained function floor of the hotel.

As well as a leader in Port Lincoln's accommodation and dining options, the Port Lincoln Hotel's function rooms and facilities are in high demand with local, intrastate and interstate clients.

 

Westpac Small Business Award

Winner – Xtreme Kites & Paddle

Xtreme Kites & Paddle is an Eyre Peninsula based mobile Kite boarding and Stand up Paddle boarding (SUP) school, offering the highest quality lessons with IKO Instructors available year round. They are the only school on the Eyre Peninsula that not only offers Kite boarding and SUP, but also kids kite making workshops, power kite flying, festival decoration hire including 40ft large display kites, Sky Dancers and a huge colourful range of Ball wind banners.

To satisfy their customers, Xtreme Kites & Paddle offer competitive retail sales in all aspects of their business.

 

Department of Trade and Economic Development Innovation Award 

Winner – Mrs K’s Mobile Tutoring Service 

Annette Kurovec, known as Mrs K to her students, is a teacher and who has worked in Catholic Schools for 31 years. 20 of those years were spent at St Joseph's School Port Lincoln.

After having breast cancer it became clearer to her that she should be doing the things she wanted to do, what she was gifted in and what she believed in.

Annette works with children living with cancer on the Ronald McDonald learning programme and the CCA Childhood Cancer Association.

Now she is tutoring full time, working with 24 children on a one-on-one basis. The time spent with each child is determined by their concentration span ranging, and tends to range from 40min to 1 hour. 

 

Viterra Sports Award

Winner – Port Lincoln Hockey Association

The goal of the Port Lincoln Hockey Association is to promote enjoyment and participation in hockey in Port Lincoln. The Association has over 400 members in a community of 14,000 people and a long history of committed passionate players and members in the community.

The Association has hosted international and national competitions in recent times, including the International Women's Australia versus Japan series in 2007.

The Association is committed to growing their sport through changes to the junior competition this year, which sees teams playing half field to build skills and increase the capacity for larger numbers prior to the split into different genders.

 

 

Hames Sharley Sustainability Award

Winner – Adventure Bay Charters (2011 Telstra Hall of Fame inductee) 

Adventure Bay Charters is a sustainable tourism operator from Port Lincoln, who have recently introduced a ‘Swim with the Great Whites’ tour, which is their biggest achievement in sustainable and eco tourism to date.

Adventure Bay Charters’ ‘Swim with Great Whites’ is the first shark cage diving tour that has found a responsible way to attract the shark without the use of berley (blood and offal). It addressed the ongoing local community's concerns about berleying sharks.

After overwhelming success and the help of AC/DC's ‘Back in Black’ album, Adventure Bay Charters created the only berley free and advanced eco certified shark cage diving experience in Australia.

Adventure Bay Charters is not only an operator that displays a responsible image it has had several achievements that have given the company a drive to carry these goals of sustainability into the future.

StatewideSuper Tourism Award

Winner – ‘Swim with the Tuna’

‘Swim with the Tuna’ is an exciting new interactive tourism experience that was launched in Port Lincoln, South Australia in December 2010. Owned and operated by Port Lincoln brother and sister team Robert and Emma Forster, Swim with the Tuna is a young and energised partnership that is committed to providing an exciting, safe, affordable and environmentally sustainable experience that enables visitors to interact with and learn about South Australian marine life.

Swim with the Tuna is committed to continuously meeting and exceeding their guests expectations by delivering a memorable, unique, safe, and enjoyable experience.

Swim with the Tuna is an active member of the Port Lincoln community, providing economic benefits to the town, generating extensive media exposure and supporting local businesses.

 

Adelaide Event & Exhibition Centre Youth Award

Winner – Jessica Webb 

Jessica Webb has been a member of the Port Lincoln Youth Advisory Committee (YAC) for the past four years. The Port Lincoln Youth Advisory Committee arranges events and activities for the youth in the community, such as leadership camps to further develop local youth, and different activities in line with Youth Week events. The Committee also facilitates, in conjunction with West Coast Youth Services, drug and alcohol awareness educational events.

Jessica has been on the Youthoria Management Committee for the past two years, since its inception. The Youthoria Management Committee has branched off from the Port Lincoln YAC, when it took on the local cinema.

Youthoria was developed from its vision, as part of the Port Lincoln YAC, to have a venue youth can call their own. Somewhere they can display artwork, poetry, music, hold events and feel comfortable in would have been unique in Port Lincoln. Their idea was to open a youth café, run by youth for youth.

Jessica is proud to say that Youthoria has had many success stories and has given many young people an opportunity for training and employment, and these people have now moved on to other part time and full time employment.