By Tyler Wright
Locals making an impact on the community were acknowledged at an Australia Day Breakfast ceremony held by the Rotary Club of Monbulk and District Inc on Friday 26 January.
Coby Passingham received a Citizenship Award for Community Service by a Young Person for his role in the Monbulk Football Club.
Coby joined the Monbulk Football Club when he started Auskick, followed by the under 10s, now volunteer umpiring for the reserves and women’s football and filling in as well as umpiring junior matches on Sundays when needed.
Coby was goal umpiring for Silvan at 14 years of age, as well as field umpiring for junior games at age 15 for Monbulk.
For the past two years Coby has been a part of the senior club, captaining the under 19s, and was also the winner of the of the John Mitchel Award, which recognises people for excellence in community service and leadership.
Last year Coby umpired during the finals, including the reserves Grand Final, and has MCd at various sporting functions, including presentation nights.
2023 also saw Coby play his match, go straight out to umpire the reserves, and often run water for the seniors or cook the BBQ.
For some matches, he would stay and umpire the girls’ team, pitching in to help out by cleaning the club rooms, while also being an active member of the Monbulk Football and Netball Club Mental Health Team.
He was nominated for the Citizenship Award by his Monbulk sporting community peers, and was presented the award by Casey MP Aaron Violi.
“I had no idea that I was even up for this award, [I’m] just honoured and grateful,” Coby said.
“I was about eight years old doing Auskick and then just playing footy in every age group up from there, and now involved in the senior club.
“[I’ve loved] all the people and family and friends around the club; It’s just a great community.”
Monbulk’s Open Door Pantry was given a Citizenship Award For Community Service by a Community Group, presented by Monbulk MP Daniela De Martino, for its work supplying food items and meals to those in the community who are in need.
“It’s lovely recognition,” pantry coordinator Jenni Nash said.
“Even the people that go there, they don’t know the hours of work that you’re doing or even just 15, 20 minutes every week just online ordering, things break down, like the microwave…between us all it’s like ‘who’s free to go and turn the power back on.’
“It’s not just people walking in and getting food, there’s a lot more behind it than people don’t realise.”
Jenni herself goes to Woolworths three times a week to pick up what is available, before bringing it back to the local minister’s house to sort for recipients.
“It gets opened every day and people can just come in, they have to sign in with their name, the time, and their postcode so it’s we can track how many people are coming in each day,” Jenni said.
“It’s just got bigger and bigger; there’s probably between 20 and 30 people coming in every day, and they’re the ones that sign in.”
Welfare coordinator Judy Thornburn said stacking the shelves is a “full on production” on a Thursday.
“The shelves are stuffed and then the rest of it’s all gone to the back and they are just an ordered machine.”
Rotary Club of Monbulk and District Inc Vice President Rob Clark acknowledged that the gathering at the Monbulk pavilion was held on the traditional lands of the Wurundjeri people and paid his respects to elders past, present and emerging.
“Australia Day is the official national day of Australia celebrated annually on the 26th of January,” Rob said.
“In present day of Australia celebrations reflect the diverse society and landscape of the nation and are marked by community and family events, reflection of Australian history, official community awards and citizenship ceremonies welcoming new members of the Australian community.
“The National Australia Day Council as this year set the theme as Reflect, Respect and Celebrate; Australia Day as a time for all Australians to reflect, respect and celebrate. We’re all part of the story of Australia from those whose ancestors walked on country for 10s of thousands of years to the newest Australian citizens.”
Bob said on Australia Day, residents reflect on the past, accept the truth of our history and respect that everyone has a contribution to make to the story of Australia.
“We celebrate being part of a diverse and multicultural nation,” he said.
“We reflect on the resilience of communities and the spirit of helping and giving that defines the Australian spirit. We respect on stories, histories and contributions of all Australians, especially those who sacrificed so much over the past year.
“We respect that regardless of where we come from, the faith we follow or the language we grew up speaking, we are all Australian and we all have a completely different nature to make. Australia Day is a day to celebrate together and celebrate being Australians.”
Australia Day Ambassador and guest speaker Professor Arnold Dix, who helped rescue 41 trapped workers in a collapsed tunnel in India in November 2023, spoke at the event.
“It’s kind of funny for me to hear that word spoken about here in Monbulk, because this is the last place that I ever imagined would know what I did,” Dix, who is president of the International Tunnelling and Underground Space Association, said.
“For many of you who do know me locally, some of you know me as a truck driver, and can I say that is really hard to get that job, thank you, Nishiki.
“I had to get my CV and cut everything off after school, and I put in my welding certificate and my spray certificate… I was not a fantastic truck driver, but I drove the trucks.
“Some of you know me as the council shooter. so I shoot foxes and rabbits… some of you know me for spraying weeds at your properties because I do that; what you don’t know is I do it for therapy, because my day job is a bit of a shocker.”
Arnold thanked his family, who he said could have been on the phone telling him to get out of the precarious Silkyara Bend-Barkot tunnel in Uttarakhand state, which could have ended in fatalities of the workers trapped and rescuers.
“My career starts with the Twin Towers collapse in New York; I get sent there to look at the tunnels underneath,” Arnold said.
“That’s a bit of a career-changing move and I’m never quite the same again, which is obvious.
“I’ve investigated most of the world’s most horrible underground incidents ever since and been involved usually in getting the bodies out, and that’s why you don’t know me because no one’s interested much in that, except me because I try and make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
Arnold said Prime Minister Anthony Albanese acknowledging his work in Parliament for improving the relations between Australia and India was “extraordinary”.
“For the whole of my career no one’s known what I did, and in my imagination like a little kid, you’re like ‘imagine if one day someone like the Prime Minister of Australia, what if someone actually knew what I did’
“I really thought maybe I was having an anaesthetic reaction, maybe a rocket dropped on my head or something, and then the leader of the opposition got up and said something nice, and I was sure…since when does that happen?'”
Arnold also told locals they may see ABC’s Australian Story crew wandering around Monbulk, Puffing Billy and other locations filming for a piece on the local hero.
“Now that people know what I actually do as my day job, they’ve discovered all these other things that I do that I hadn’t told anyone about, and I know there are people in the audience, I’m not going to mention names, that I’d helped though over the years, but I don’t tell anyone.”
“Then they bump into each other and they go ‘hang on, you know what, he helped me with such and such’…so there’s a whole lot of stuff coming together, I think the Australian Story one would be really cool.”
