City of Albany rewards tireless volunteering at Citizenship awards

Prolonged efforts to restore the environment, hundreds of hours giving back to a club, and passionate advocacy for the disability sector have been recognised at the City of Albany Australian Day Citizen of the Year awards. A packed tent on Binalup/Middleton Beach watched Geoff Bastyan claim the top Albany Citizen of the Year prize. The award was recognition for his decades of work to help re-establish seagrass beds in Princess Royal Harbour, Middleton Beach, and Oyster Harbour. Mr Bastyan told the Advertiser the award was certainly not something he expected for “just doing something you love all your life.” “I grew up in Oyster Harbour and from the 1970s onwards you could really noticed the decline in the environment there,” he said. “Come 1981, I had mapped the seagrasses as a voluntary thing because I could see something was happening. “I repeated that in 1984 and that then led to the Albany Harbour Study out of concern, then in the early 1990s I started dabbling in the restoration side of things.” Albany Mayor Dennis Wellington said My Bastyan’s efforts would have a lasting impact well into the future. “It has enabled marine life to return, fishing industries to thrive and the waters of Albany to be cleaner than ever,” he said. “His findings here in Albany have also informed studies across the State.” The Young Citizen of the Year prize was awarded to Angus Bowles who has put in hundreds of hours of volunteering at the Albany Surf Life Saving Club. Mr Bowles told the Advertiser it was a huge honour given the quality of the other nominees in the running for the award. “I enjoyed it so much as a kid because of the work other people put in behind the scenes,” he said. “If I can put in my own work behind the scenes to make it just as special for everyone else than I’m more than happy to.” The final award for Senior Citizen of the year was given to Bob Rees who has been a passionate advocate for the betterment of the disabled community since a motorbike accident left him with paraplegia in 2019. “In the 3½ years I’ve been in a wheelchair, I’ve come to realise there is so much wrong and so much to be fixed,” he said. “So that’s what I’ve been trying to do.” There was no winner from the two nominations in the Active Citizenship Community Group or Event category as the City’s judging panel decided “it was unfair to pick a winner” because they “displayed such similar attributes.”