The City of Ryde Citizen and Young Citizen of the Year Awards recognise outstanding accomplishments by individuals in our community who have excelled in their chosen field. The awards are open to all Australian citizens living in the City of Ryde.

Citizen of the Year recognises outstanding service to the community over an extended period of time.

Young Citizen of the Year recognises outstanding service to the community over an extended period by a young person between the ages of 16 and 25.

The awards are held under the auspices of the Australia Day Council of NSW and and judging is conducted by a local selection panel. The awards are presented during the City of Ryde Australia Day celebrations at the Civic Hall.

2012 Citizen of the Year

Suzanne Ward OAM

Decades of dedication to her family and the community has earned Suzanne Ward the respect and admiration of all.

Suzanne and husband Terry adopted and raised five babies with varying physical and intellectual disabilities, including epilepsy, spina bifida, and asperger’s syndrome.

Those children, whose ages now range from 41 to 47 years, are self supporting, employed and living independently in the community and are a testament to their parents’ dedication and drive. Each challenge faced was another opportunity to expand the world of a child with a disability .As the family grew, new challenges presented themselves cementing the Ward’s belief that their children should have all the opportunities as all Australian families.
Through this dedication and optimism, the Ward children have enjoyed success in gymnastics at the Special Olympics, State representation is basketball, as well as swimming, sailing and water polo.

Suzanne is a nurse by profession, specialising in children’s illnesses and later in aged care, and has served as a Crowle Foundation board member since 1990. Her fundraising energies include the Children’s Hospital at Westmead, Community Aid Abroad Eastwood and the Exodus Foundation. Other voluntary duties include Koronga and Hassell Street special schools, the Sheltered Workshop Chatswood and the Gladesville RSL Youth Club.

‘Sue is a dedicated woman and loving mother to five children’ …these are the words of admiration from her son, Tim, and are echoed throughout the community.

In 2005, Suzanne received the Order of Australia Medal (OAM).

2012 Young Citizen of the Year

Geoffrey Ward

Geoffrey is a young person with strong community commitments. He volunteers for his church, bushcare groups and community organisations such as refugee youth groups and the Scouts.

Since the age of nine, Geoffrey has been a dedicated member of the Ryde City Concert Band and as principal French horn, has played most of the band’s performances at local events including Citizenship Ceremonies, the monthly performances at Eastwood Plaza and also plays the Bugle on ANZAC Day. He can be relied upon to step in and fill the shoes of the 1st Trumpet or band conductor. He is also the driver and band roadie.

His skills also run to operating the audio visual equipment for the North Ryde Community Uniting Church. He is also secretary of the Church Property and Finance Committee.

Since becoming leader of the 1st East Ryde Scout Troop in 2009, it has grown into a well disciplined and positively focused group of 30 boys and girls aged 11 – 14 years.

His enthusiasm to support community organisations never waivers and for the past four years, Geoffrey has been a volunteer assistant with camps for “at risk” teenage children, organised by the Sydney Indo-Chinese Refugee Youth Support Organisation. He gained his heavy vehicle drivers license enabling him to drive the bus for the various camps.

In 2010 Geoffrey gained a Bachelor of Science (Honours) degree in Geographic Information Systems from Macquarie University and holds a Gold Duke of Edinburgh Award.  

2012 Australia Day Ambassador

Scott McGregor

Scott McGregor is a well known face from 30 years of work as an actor, presenter and producer in projects ranging from TV home makeovers to railway adventures. His numerous other enterprises include Tourism, Food, Home Renovations and Antiques and Collectables.

He has been seen recently on the History Channel as the presenter of The Stamp Of Australia. He also hosts and was co-producer on the documentary series Australian Icon Towns which screens regularly on the same channel. He has just released his second book for Allen & Unwin titled Big Boys Toys. This followed his recently released home repair and renovation book Fix-It. His column Weekend Workshop was a regular feature in the Sun- Herald for a number of years and has contributed to magazines such as House and Garden and Renovation amongst others.

Scott’s 6 part railway adventure series Down the Line exploring the great train journeys of Australia, New Zealand and Vietnam first went to air on channel 7 and can now be seen on the Travel Channel in Europe.

The ratings winning makeover show Room for Improvement which Scott hosted on the Seven Network racked up an impressive 50 surprise makeovers and entertained up to 2 million viewers with mad antics and amazing transformations.

Scott has also built just about anything you can imagine as the DIY presenter on the Seven Network’s long running, ratings winning, lifestyle show Better Homes and Gardens. In more than 160 segments Scott shared with the nation the secrets of building everything from a 12m deck, to an oak sideboard, to a model garden railway - all in just 3 minutes!
Railway Adventures across Australia with Scott as host first screened on network ten in 1999. It is still showing on cable channels across the world.

From 1997 – 1999 Scott was a regular face on The Lifestyle Channel, where he was the resident Antiques and Collectables presenter on Australian Living, and the travel and leisure guy in Out and About.

He trained as an actor at NIDA and since 1979 has featured in scores of TV series, films, stage plays and musicals. He sights starring roles in the ABC’s epic mini-series 1915 and the Coral Island and stage shows Bouncers and the Promise as some of his acting career highlights.

From 1989 - 1999 Scott ran Off The Rails Collectables, his own Antiques and Collectables business and in 2005 he opened Ruwenzori Retreat, a luxury mountain top tourist hideaway at Mudgee which he has spent half his life building based around a collection of vintage railway carriages. He is currently hosting a series of Railway Adventure Tours for special interest groups looking at the history, culture and great train journeys both here and abroad. He is married with 2 girls and lives near Byron Bay in NSW.