River rejuvenation champion and fishing enthusiast Matthew Hansen has received the 2022 Citizen of the Year Award at Dubbo's Australia Day ceremony.
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It made a twin celebration for Mr Hansen, who was also recognised with a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in this year's honours for his service to recreational fishing and to conservation.
Members of the public gathered at Victoria Park heard Mr Hansen's volunteer work started with a single raffle down the main street of Dubbo, and grew into "an incredible organisation that has bettered the lives and opportunities for thousands of people" in central-western NSW.
The freshly-minted OAM was at the event to receive the recognition of his city, the award presented by Dubbo mayor Mathew Dickerson and Australia Day ambassador Lyndey Milan OAM.
"It's an honour to be standing here in the heart of the city where just over 13 years ago I started there with a bloke who's been on this stage before, [Mick] 'Eagle' O'Neill, the very first... fridge full of fishing lures that kicked this whole whirlwind off," Mr Hansen said.
The pair had run a raffle, the prize bought by Mr Hansen on his credit card, and with the help of the Garden Hotel Fishing Club it was a success, more than covering its costs.
"That raffle raised $16,000 on top of that in a matter of weeks, and it was evident that Dubbo was just really happy to see something positive happening for the river," Mr Hansen said.
The pair, who founded the Inland Waterways Rejuvenation Association, continued their efforts, with Mr Hansen detailing the serious situation they faced.
Our first river clean-up was alarming.
- Matthew Hansen
"Our first river clean-up was alarming," he said.
"It saw drum nets removed right here in the centre of the CBD," Mr Hansen said.
"Big Murray cod didn't go in the phone photos, they went on the clothesline, and that's the way it was, it was a different time. People kept everything they caught, including me."
But then they set about making changes, starting out with stocking fingerlings.
"After the first six or seven years of fundraising, and five Burrendong Classics later, not only were we pulling in huge coin as a volunteer committee, huge sponsorships and huge crowds, but our little group of volunteers had managed to put in about 150,000 fingerlings in the river," Mr Hansen said.
With the help of volunteers they put in $150,000 of snags in the river, he said.
Then came the River Repair Bus's work for the dole projects, where they raised $60,000 at the Lake Burrendong Classic to buy the bus and trailer, an idea adopted by two other towns.
"So our little idea from Dubbo that sprang out of that little can-do committee grew into now three river repair buses and a legacy that was born right here on the banks of the Macquarie River," Mr Hansen said.
"It's something that all you volunteers who have sat along beside me can be so ultra proud of, that you've started a real movement right across the Murray-Darling Basin now."