For Australia Day all our councils rightly celebrate local achievements but there is one award in common to five of our councils.
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The Sarus Crane award is presented by Mount Isa City Council as well as Cloncurry, McKinlay, Richmond and Flinders Shire Council.
The award is the brainchild of local land management group Southern Gulf NRM and its name celebrates one of the more remarkable birds that call our region home.
Since 2007, Southern Gulf NRM has proudly recognised individuals and groups making a significant contribution to the fields of land management and the environment by means of the highly sought after Sarus Crane Award.
Initially the award was announced at the Annual General Meeting of Southern Gulf NRM (then known as Southern Gulf Catchments).
From 2016, Southern Gulf NRM offered partnerships with local councils in our region to offer the Sarus Crane Award as part of Australia Day Awards ceremonies with an objective to enable wider recognition of achievement across all shires in the Southern Gulf region.
The award is called the Southern Gulf NRM Sarus Crane Award and given to an individual, group, organisation or school that demonstrates significant contribution to the fields of land management and/or the environment.
Southern Gulf NRM supplies a medallion and a customisable certificate to each of the five participating councils who engrave the winner’s name and year onto the medallion.
Councils run a nomination process in line with their other Australia Day awards,
Southern Gulf NRM CEO Andrew Maclean said the awards gave people and organisations right across our region the opportunity to recognise “champions of the land”, individuals and groups that have achieved something special within our communities.
“(This) includes areas of conservation and sustainable management and also community engagement and education projects with a positive environmental message,” Mr Maclean said.
The award is named for the iconic Sarus Crane (Grus antigone), which features in the Southern Gulf NRM logo.
The Sarus Crane is the tallest flying bird in the world with some adult males reaching up to 1.8 metres tall.
They have predominantly grey plumage with a red head and neck and long, pale red legs.
Their significance to our region is that the only known breeding area for Australian Sarus Cranes is in the Southern Gulf of Carpentaria.
This area is important not only for native flora and fauna species that call this region home but also for the numerous migratory bird species that travel vast distances along the East Asian-Australasian Flyway to reach these feeding grounds.
Derek Barry
Editor of the North West Star Mount Isa since January 2016. Prior to that, an editor at several regional southern Queensland newspapers. Passionate about telling local stories. Comes with a strange accent to due an Irish accident of birth.
Editor of the North West Star Mount Isa since January 2016. Prior to that, an editor at several regional southern Queensland newspapers. Passionate about telling local stories. Comes with a strange accent to due an Irish accident of birth.
