Sydney Awards 2024: The Sydneysiders who make our city the greatest in the world
It is the world’s greatest city and now the people of Sydney have a chance to salute the very best people who live and work in it.
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It is the world’s greatest city and now the people of Sydney have a chance to salute the very best people who live and work in it.
The Daily Telegraph and the Committee for Sydney are calling for nominations for the new Sydney Awards which celebrates the very best NSW’s capital city has to offer.
Editor of The Daily Telegraph Ben English said the awards echoed the masthead’s clarion call that “We’re for you”.
“Sydney is the greatest city in the world and these awards are all about acknowledging the achievements of the people who help make it great,” he said.
“There are four categories and I encourage everyone to nominate the people and the project they believe has done the most to elevate Sydney over the past year.”
Readers of The Daily Telegraph will also get to vote on the finalists in each category to decide The People’s Choice Award.
Top category is for Sydneysider of the Year with early nominations for NSW Police Inspector Amy Scott, who single-handedly ended the deadly rampage of Bondi knife man Joel Cauchi last month.
Inspector Scott ran towards danger and shot Cauchi after he had stabbed and killed six people at Westfield Bondi Junction.
Also in the running for the top award are NRL players Latrell Mitchell and Cody Walker, who have helped to launch the “outside the box” mentorship initiative to reduce youth violent crime in regional NSW.
Professor Georgina Long and Professor Richard Scolyer have led the world with their research into melanoma that has made it a treatable disease. At the same time Prof Scolyer has taken experimental treatment for grade four brain cancer that has advanced understanding of the disease.
Prof Long welcomed the awards to mark the best of Sydney.
“There is a lot to celebrate and shining a light on what works will allow that light to be spread across the city and further afield,” she said.
“These celebrations inspire and give us a moment to reflect on the good things around us, and the good things we can do to make the world a better place.”
Eamon Waterford, chief executive of the Committee for Sydney, said they were all amazing and inspiring Sydneysiders who were worthy of the award but there was still room for more nominations of people that help make Sydney great.
“If Australians are guilty of the tall poppy syndrome, Sydney’s the tallest poppy of all,” he said.
“Sydney’s night-life now outranks Stockholm, San Francisco and Toronto, we’re ranked third best city in the world for capital to invest, but despite all the evidence in front of us, we can’t resist talking our city down.
“That’s why we’ve created the Sydney Awards, to provide a night when we celebrate the people that make this city one of the best in the world.
“This is our call to Sydneysiders – take a weekend off from talking about house prices, schools and traffic, and take the opportunity to talk about this city of ours and the people that make it so great,” Mr Waterford said.
The awards expand and build on the Committee’s previous awards which include Atlassian co founders Scott Farquhar and Mike Cannon-Brookes for Sydney’s business of the year and musician Willam Barton for the culture award.
This year, medical student and children’s author Alexia Paglia from Concord is an early nominee for Young Sydneysider of the Year.
The 24-year-old has written a children’s book on heart health called My Strong Heart which shot to the top of the Amazon bestseller list on release.
“The idea came to me when I was working in St Vincent’s Hospital during Covid and I realised the lack of understanding about basic health concepts was leading to confusion and fear,” she said.
“Research has shown that understanding and healthy habits that start with children become a lifelong pattern. I thought this book could make a difference.”
Ms Paglia’s book, featuring a dog called Dr Zig Zaccy Zoo, is the first in a series explaining different organs to children aged between three and eight years old.
Four years ago Good & Fugly founders Jonathan Englert and Rich Tourino founded a company that would pay farmers for oddly shaped produce rejected by supermarkets and deliver it to peoples’ doors.
“Twenty five per cent of produce never leaves the farm which is appalling in a time of food insecurity,” Mr Englert said.
“We buy that at farm prices – it is fresher and more delicious than what you find in supermarkets – and reduce food waste at the same time.”
The Sydney business has delivered 950,000kgs of “ugly food” in 100,000 boxes to customers in Sydney and Victoria and aims to have a national reach by the end of the year. The work of the business with a social impact with schools in Western Sydney makes its founders perfect candidates for the Unsung Hero of the Year.
A leading candidate for project of the year is the Women’s World Cup which showcased the Matildas to the world and over the course of a month saw two million fans attend matches.
Football Australia chief executive James Johnson said it was “an honour to be nominated” for an award that celebrated the very best of Sydney.
“Living here we can forget just how good it is but the World Cup told everyone else with a global audience of two billion people,” he said.
The cup pumped $1.3bn into the NSW economy and helped forge the Matildas into Australia’s leading sporting brand.
“We are seeing a huge legacy from the cup with Monday’s friendly match against China in Sydney a complete sell out,” Mr Johnson said.
“Sydney will also be on show again in 2026 with the Women’s Asian Cup.”
Also in contention for the Project of the Year award is the renovation of the White Bay Power Station which “took a village” to pull off in time to host the Biennale of Sydney.
Anita Mitchell, chief executive of Placemaking NSW, said that for years the power station had been “the place where thought bubbles went to die” and had resisted calls for its demolition.
“Now it is complete, the benefit is that we can open it for similar events of scale,” Ms Mitchell said.
“We are having a Ministry of Sound retrospective with DJs playing from 4pm until 11pm.”
She said the awards were a wonderful way to cut through the tall poppy syndrome where Sydneysiders are “quite down on ourselves”.
“We don’t need to compare ourselves with the rest of the world anymore, we do very, very well on our own merits,” she said.
NOMINATE A CHAMPION TODAY
Sydney is one of the great cities of the world – but you wouldn’t know it from the way we talk about our city.
Talking down Sydney has become such an ingrained habit — in the media, around the barbecue, on social media — and, yes, there’s plenty to complain about. Anyone tried to buy a house recently?
But every now and again we all need to stop, take a breath and remind ourselves of the big picture – you wouldn’t want to live anywhere else, would you?
There’s living in Sydney, and everywhere else it’s just camping.
For all our problems, we have so much to be proud of.
Sydney has an absolute wealth of incredible places – you only need to see the wonder on a visitor’s face the first time they get off at Circular Quay train station or walk into moody Casula Powerhouse to be reminded of this – but what really makes our city so great is the people.
Our city has been formed, shaped and built by people – coming from all walks of life, whether their ancestors have lived here for 60,000 years or they moved here last year.
Our work at the Committee for Sydney is about two things: taking a close look at where we can improve because we want to make Sydney the best it can be, balanced by unashamed advocacy for our great city.
We’re Sydney’s biggest champions, we love this city and the people who make it great.
That’s why, in partnership with The Daily Telegraph, the Committee for Sydney is proud to be launching the 2024 Sydney Awards – a program to recognise the great people of our city.
This is our call to Sydneysiders — take a weekend off from the BBQ chat about house prices, schools and traffic to instead talk about this great city of ours and the people that make it tick.
At the end of that, nominate someone you think deserves a pat on the back for their efforts.
They might be a grandee of the city or they might be an unsung hero, but there’s space in our collective vision of Sydney for all the great people, and we want to hear who you think should be up for a Sydney Award.
– by Eamon Waterford, CEO off the Committee for Sydney
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