Australia Day Awards 2016

Last modified on 26 January 2016

Barney Flanagan - Citizen of the Year 2016

Citizen of the Year Award

Barney Flanagan has given continuing community service for more than fifty years to the people of Willoughby. He is the current President and Welfare Officer of the Chatswood RSL Sub-branch and has been custodian of the Memorial Garden in Chatswood for the past nine years. He has served on the Chatswood/Willoughby Dawn Service Committee since 1975 and is the current chairman of the committee. His honorary work since becoming a member of the Chatswood Bowling Club as the Men’s Bowling Club President and Club Limited Board Member and Company Secretary has contributed to the Club’s success over the last ten years.

Judy Brady has lived all her life in the Willoughby area. She started contributing to our community when she was a little girl and her father got involved in developing the Northbridge area. This recipient has been an active, and now life member of the Northbridge Golf Club, winning many awards, and serving as Club Captain. She played a large part in setting up our community radio station, 2NSB-FM, now Northside Radio, and broadcast her own golf program each Saturday. She has also spent 53 years volunteering for Meals on Wheels. 

Noel Cislowski has been actively involved in the Willoughby community for the past 35 years.  He has provided technical advice in planning of some of our performance spaces, been a keen advocate for The Concourse, and provided hours of entertainment for senior citizens across the North Shore.  He has been involved in the Willoughby Symphony Orchestra for more than 30 years as Chairman and Deputy Chairman.  He has been an active Rotarian for 20 years and has been recognised through several awards for his service to the Rotary Club of Chatswood.   

Young Citizen of the Year Award

Leon Warren has been active in the Willoughby community for several years. In 2014 he was School Captain of St Pius X College Chatswood. He attended the United Nations NSW State Conference and was an integral member of the Edmund Rice Committee – the school social justice group. He achieved First in State in the HSC for Chinese beginners, and since then has been sharing his love of the language with others, assisting members of the community with cross-cultural communication. He has worked as a volunteer at the MOSAIC Centre. Here he assisted in the formation of a beginner Mandarin course, created the teaching resources, and has taught the course weekly for the past 9 months. He is a keen sportsman, a stellar student, and a great contributor to the Willoughby community.