Echo, 27 January 2022:
Ballina Shire Citizen of the Year 2022 Maria Matthes with Ballina Mayor Sharon Cadwallader. Photo supplied.
Koala conservationist Maria Matthes was named Ballina’s Citizen of the Year in yesterday’s Australia Day Awards, which were closed to the public but livestreamed from the Lennox Head Cultural Centre.
MC Sandra Jackson joined special guest Liz Ellis in presenting the awards, along with nominees, guests, and local councillors, led by new Ballina Mayor Sharon Cadwallader.
The two new Greens councillors were not present. Cr Simon Chate told The Echo, ‘While we congratulate those people who attained Australian citizenship today, Councillor Dicker and I chose not to attend today’s Australia Day ceremony as January 26 has become a day of loss and mourning for our indigenous community and we feel it is inappropriate to celebrate this date.’
In all, thirty nominations were acknowledged across the award categories of Sports, Young Citizen, Senior Citizen, Environmental, Community Event, Arts/Cultural and Volunteer of the Year.
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| Koala. Photo Tree Faerie. |
Citizen of the Year Maria Matthes has been a threatened species ecologist for more thirty years, with a particular interest in koalas, ecological communities including koala habitat and fire ecology, recovery planning and education.
In 2016 she became a koala rescuer with Friends of the Koala. Ever since she has been on call 24 hours a day to conduct welfare checks and to rescue sick or injured koalas and transport them to the Koala Hospital in Lismore.
Ms Matthes said the award was unexpected and she was ‘a bit embarassed’ to be nominated again. ‘But with consideration I thought that it’s a reflection of the value and importance that the community places on our koalas and the effort I am putting into recovering them… it has been a really tumultuous four years for them.’
She spoke about losses of koalas due to drought, car accidents, dogs and disease, and her fears for koalas living along the planned Barlows Road bypass, but said the wet weather was helping the species come back from the brink in the wider Ballina area.
Ms Matthes said she looked forward to government at different levels doing more to protect koalas......
Read the full article here.
What happens when you give a 12 month old coffee before breakfast? Zoomies with Butters. More pics below. Video by Marley Christian #friendsofthekoala #koalarescue @talkingkoala pic.twitter.com/o672HAJbLx
— Brad Mustow (@Bardlee1) September 5, 2020
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