03 February 2022

The Premier’s hard border announcement may have taken some people by surprise and while many were pleased with the decision to keep the borders closed, a lot of people and businesses were not. Though we may not be opening up as planned on February 5 we still need to be cautious with Omicron potentially lurking in our community.

Here in the Shire of Irwin over 94% of residents aged 15 years and over have received two doses of a COVID-19 vaccination, a number we should all be proud of. If you have not yet received a vaccine, I urge you to consider it.

Masks are now mandatory for Perth, Peel, the South West region and the Wheatbelt in all indoor public venues. The mask mandate does not apply to the home, people with disabilities, people doing vigorous indoor exercise, or children in primary school or younger.

Anyone who has been in these regions from January 6 is also required to wear a mask in indoor public places when travelling to another regional area. It is recommended returned travellers wear their masks for 14 days.

It is also important to practise good personal hygiene (wash hands often with soap and water, or hand sanitiser and cover coughs and sneezes with a tissue or use your elbow) and stay home if you are unwell and if you are experiencing flu-like symptoms get tested for COVID-19. In the Shire of Irwin you can get tested at the Dongara Eneabba Mingenew Health Service  (08) 9927 0200, 48 Blenheim Road, Dongara.

If you need more information, you can call the COVID-19 information helpline on 13 COVID (13 26843) or visit www.wa.gov.au/government/covid-19-coronavirus

Last week we held our Australia Day celebrations at the Port Denison Foreshore, it was wonderful to see so many people come down and enjoy the free entertainment, water activities, and music.

At the Citizenship Ceremony I had the honour of welcoming two new Australian citizens to our community and then had the pleasure of presenting the Community Citizen of the Year Awards.

These awards recognise the positive impact of people and groups who are engaged and committed to our local community, they allow us to celebrate their outstanding contribution. This year we had seventeen nominees and I would like to congratulate them all for their dedication to our community.                                                                                           

The winners of this year’s Community Citizen of the Year Awards were:

Overall Community Citizen of the Year - Gavin Denton

Community Citizen of the Year – Senior 65+ - Trudy Wisewould

Community Citizen of the Year – Youth Under 25 - Beau M’Leane

Active Citizenship Award (for a community group or Event) - Dongara Men in Sheds

I congratulate them all and commend them for their commitment to making our community a better place to live. You can read all about our nominees and winners here

Recently CEO Shane Ivers and I were invited to the opening of the Denison Bowling Club's new synthetic greens, we were joined by the Member for Moore, Shane Love MLA, Members for the Agricultural Region, Sandra Carr MLC and Darren West MLC and Federal Labor candidate Jeremiah Riley.

The Shire of Irwin was pleased to assist the Club to upgrade their greens from grass to high quality synthetic bowling green playing surfaces, through the provision of a Self Supporting Loan from the WA Treasury Corporation (WATC). Further funding was provided through a WA Government Sport and Recreation grant.

I would like to congratulate the Club on seeing this project through to fruition. We will hopefully see some top notch playing on the turf this year!

The Shire of Irwin has been awarded $137, 435 in the latest round of the Recreational Boating Facilities Scheme (RBFS).

The RBFS allows boating facility managers to apply for grants for the planning, construction or upgrade of boat launching ramps, jetties, moorings and new channels that are directly related to a public boating facility.

This funding will go towards the design of the Port Denison boat launch facility upgrade.

The Shire of Irwin Council and staff wishes you all a safe and prosperous 2022 and I ask that you please continue to liaise with Councillors this year if you have any concerns or equally any expressions of support you wish to convey as we continue to work to deliver the best possible outcomes for our community.