By JENNIFER GARRETT

AN emotional celebration took place in Whorouly on Australia Day with the local achiever and joint junior achiever having recently farewelled their husband and grandfather.

In accepting their respective awards, local achiever Sherryn Tilson and her grandson, joint junior local achiever James Tilson, both acknowledged the devastating loss of Jim Tilson, whose life celebration had been held at the same location the previous Friday.

James said he was very honoured to be receiving his award and thanked his parents and Nan for their support, but said his biggest thank you was to his Pa.

“I looked up to my Pa all my life. He has loved and inspired me,” he said.

James also said he also felt extremely grateful for living in and being part of such a great community.

Sharing honours as Whorouly’s junior achiever this year was Charlotte Elkington, who thanked her family, her primary school, her principal Mrs McPherson and had a special thanks for “the people who made breakfast, it was delicious.”

Charlotte said she was very excited to be going to high school next year.

Both juniors completed their schooling at Whorouly Primary School in 2023 and received their awards for their leadership in various roles at school and in the community, teamwork and being great role models.

President of the Whorouly Memorial Park Committee and MC for the event, Trent Newton, said the future was in good hands with such great kids.

Whorouly’s local achiever award was presented to Sherryn Tilson for her work as an elder of the Uniting Church in Whorouly, and as such running an after-school care group and visiting residents in Barwidgee Lodge in Myrtleford.

She also participated in the community visitors scheme in Wangaratta, assisted the Whorouly Senior Citizens, and was a founding member and now president of Whorouly Inner Wheel.

In an emotional speech, Mrs Tilson thanked everyone for their support and particularly her family.

“This community is just so amazing. Everyone does something,” she said

Ms Tilson said it was never a chore when you did something to help out, because you got so much more back.

The local achiever awards were the culmination of the morning’s festivities at the Whorouly Recreation Reserve, which started with a free barbecue breakfast sponsored by the Rural City of Wangaratta and enjoyed by the crowd of approximately 150.

The honour of raising the Australian flag was given to community stalwart John Griffiths.

Past recipients of the local junior achiever award, Jake Skahill and Ebony Newton, were invited to talk about what they had achieved in the six years since being named as joint winners in 2018.

Ebony said she had pursued her interest of working in child care and hoped to start her career in the school setting soon, but in the meantime, she had been invited to go to Europe by a family she had been working with as a child carer.

Jake said high school had come as a bit of a shock after leaving Whorouly Primary School.

“I went from 30 kids in the school to 30 kids in a class, and then during Covid only two kids, me and my brother,” he said.

Despite the obstacles, Jake ended up achieving dux of Cathedral College in Wangaratta last year with an ATAR of 97.45 and hopes to eventually work as a veterinarian.

Rural City of Wangaratta councillor Harry Bussell presented this year’s local achiever awards and said it was good to see Whorouly’s new million-dollar netball courts were nearing completion.

“They will be something for the people of Whorouly to enjoy for many years to come,” he added.

Mr Newton responded that the cost of the courts was currently around the $800,000 mark, but the recreation reserve committee could certainly find plenty of things to spend an extra $200,000 on to take the spend up to the million dollars.

Mr Newton said 2024 was going to be a big year for the recreation reserve and the Whorouly community with the netball courts expected to be completed by the end of February, grants to replace the chairs in the reserve pavilion and the ovens in the kiosk, and celebrating 200 years since Hume and Hovell passed through Whorouly, 150 years since the Whorouly Primary School opened and 120 years of the football club.