THE rain pelted down at 9.30am which saw Australia Day celebrations at Avenel be moved to the Memorial Hall, but despite this, over 70 people attended in a COVID safe environment to commemorate achievers in the Avenel community .

The MC's for the occasion were last year's local primary school captains Tom Byers and Willow Harper who confidently kept proceedings flowing.

A guest speaker at the event was local Bronwyn Dunwoodie who spoke about and highlighted many examples of how we had all responded with resilience to the challenges of last year.

She and her husband Sam Plunkett had in early days last year at their cellar door in Seymour had a COVID scare and she said thanks to her staff and the community for observing restrictions they sailed through.

However, they were conscious as to how they had to protect their business and also the community but community health came first.

She said that COVID-19 had pushed all businesses to become innovative and she said she was proud to be an Australian because throughout 2020 Australians responded and united to keep everyone safe.

Awards were given to:

Junior Citizen of the Year - Ned Butler

Young Citizen of the Year - Sadhbh O'Sullivan

Citizen of the Year - Tim Batten Community Project Award

Avenel Plantation Volunteers who had created a native avenue of trees on the Seymour/Avenel entrance to Avenel.

Jim Peart and Malcolm Little were also both acknowledged for their contribution to Avenel.