Young girl enjoying the Australia Day Festival

2018 Australia Day Awards

Congratulations to the winners of the 2018 City of Greater Dandenong’s Australia Day Awards. The winners were recognised for their service to our community in a special ceremony at Dandenong Park as part of the Australia Day Festival.

  • Citizen of the Year - Patricia (Trish) Keilty
  • Young Leader of the Year - Aishwarya Pokkuluri
  • Volunteer of the Year - Maria Mastroianni
  • Leadership Award - Sarah Williams
  • Multicultural Award - Manzoor Nazari
  • Sports Person of the Year - Nilesh Vaheesan
  • Corporate Citizen of the Year - Maria Peters
  • Community Hall of Fame Award - Colin Robinson
  • Sports Hall of Fame Award - Christine Ware
On
Since graduating from the City of Greater Dandenong’s Young Leader’s Program in 2016 Aishwarya has fully immersed herself in vo
Christine is a former Councillor and Mayor of the City of Dandenong, and has long been a role model and advocate for sport in G
Colin has been the Town Crier for all major community events and citizenship ceremonies for the past 10 years.
Since 2014 Manzoor has volunteered with the City of Greater Dandenong’s FReeZA youth music event committee.
Maria dedicated more than 25 years to volunteering in our city.
Maria has worked at Chisholm Institute for the past 30 years. She was CEO until she retired last year.
Nilesh was named the Male Athlete of the Year at the City of Greater Dandenong’s Sports Awards last year, following his elevati
In 2003 Trish founded Avocare, an organisation that provides a range of support services to the local community.
Sarah is a co-founder of Footprints Enterprises Inc, which was established in 2008 to bring about social change through the art