Event Photos

Melba resident Iris Smith, a former cook in the Queensland Parliament, is the Housing ACT Tenant of the Month for May.

Mrs Smith was presented with the award by local member Mary Porter for her volunteer work with St Vincent de Paul and the Adult Migrant English Program and also for her community involvement.

Speaking at the morning tea to celebrate her award, Mrs Smith recalled how she would often get a call from Lady Flo Bjelke Petersen to say that Sir Joh was having guests for morning or afternoon tea.

The ACT Government has committed $9 million for the new Belconnen Arts and Cultural Centre to be built on the Ginninderra Lake foreshore, adjacent to the Town Centre.

The funding will allow for design work to be finalised and also for the construction of stage one to begin in 2008. The Centre will support a wide range of community events, the arts and the cultural needs of the Belconnen community.

Mary joined with over 300 members of the Motorcycle Riders Association of the ACT, again riding pillion at the front of the pack with President Peter Major in the Association's annual Blanket Run.

The cyclists rode under police escort from Old Parliament House to Woden and on to Garema Place where the bikers passed around the buckets and contributed almost $1600 to the work of Smith Family as well as donating a mountain of blankets, warm clothing and food for St John's Care.

Mary Porter recently joined 40 fellow Greening Australia volunteers helping to remove pine wildings from the slopes of Mt McDonald which have been planted with 14,000 native trees, shrubs and grasses. Since 2005 Mary has worked with many other Greening Australia volunteers to help with those plantings.

The survival rate of these plantings has been in excess of 75% which is an amazing result considering the lack of rainfall that has been experienced since the plantings.

Mary Porter recently accepted the challenge issued by the Gungahlin United Football Club to field a team from the Legislative Assembly to play for a specially commissioned perpetual trophy.

The game was part of the GUFC's Gala Day and aimed at promoting greater interaction between those who represent Gungahlin in the Legislative Assembly and members of the community. The event also raised funds for Camp Quality.

John Fillery has been named the Volunteering ACT and NRMA Insurance Volunteer of the Year 2007 at a ceremony during National Volunteer Week. Mr Fillery also received the award in the Community category.

Mr Fillery spent his youth in a Sydney orphanage and as a young man vowed that he would do whatever he could to bring joy to the lives of children. This he does by using recycled scrap timber to make toys which he paints and donates to hospitals and charities such as Barnados, St Vincent de Paul, the Smith Family, the Salvation Army and Marymead.

Over 5,000 turned out to join with family and friends at the recent Charny Carny, now in its 4th year.

"The carnival is a great example of the whole community getting together and creating a fantastic atmosphere," Mary Porter commented. "No other suburb in Canberra has its very own carnival, and Janette O'Sullivan and Michael Pilbrow and their hard working committee of volunteers are to be congratulated on their achievements."

It was amateur theatre's night of nights when over 600 actors, singers, producers, directors, choreographers, set designers as well as musicians came from around the region to attend the Telstra Countrywide Canberra and Area Theatre Awards.

The CAT Awards provide recognition for the enormous contribution made by non-professional groups to the artistic life in Canberra and the wider region, and encourage individuals in the performing arts.

Hawker resident Frank De Marco came to Canberra from his native Italy in 1955 with his mother, elder brother and 2 sisters, to join their father Antonio, who had migrated 2 years earlier to become a gardener at The Lodge.

Frank was among almost 300 fellow long-time Canberrans who received their Chief Minister's Gold Awards on Canberra Day, recognising their unique contribution to our city.

Frank also proudly collected an award on behalf of his now 94-year old mother Concetta who lives in an aged care residential facility in Page and who Frank visits daily.

The ACT Government has launched a 3-month community consultation process on a proposal to supplement Canberra's drinking water supply by adding purified water to an enlarged Cotter Dam.

As the long-term effects of the drought continue to bite, and as the risk of chronic water shortages into the future become more real, the need to secure our water supply has become more urgent.