AS Wendy Baldwin listened to MC Damien Crump list her achievements and those of the three other women nominated for Citizen of the Year at Moree’s Australia Day celebrations, she admitted to being a little embarrassed.
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“Because I thought of all the wonderful people who’ve done so much for this amazing community,” she said.
“I wouldn’t want to single anybody out but I would say that I think it is a mark for the rural people that I serve, because those communities function well, they do communities really well.”
Ms Baldwin was given the award in recognition of more than 25 years’ work with Gwydir Mobile Children’s Services, which brings pre-schooling to children up to five-years-old in seven rural towns in the North West: Bellata, Garah, Boomi, Croppa Creek, Mallawa, Bullarah and Pallamallawa.
Her title is teaching director, but Ms Baldwin describes herself as more a custodian.
“What defines us is that long after their children have left, parents still feel as though they have ownership of the service,” she said.
“Whenever there’s a funding crisis – and there’s always a funding crisis – people whose children haven’t been at pre-school for 20 years ring up and say, ‘right, what do you need?’
“That’s why this is such an amazing service and why I am only its custodian.”
More than education, Ms Baldwin said the service forged vital networks which sustained communities through drought, flood and death.
She also said it could nip disadvantage in the bud.
“If a child has problems, language problems or learning difficulties and we get to work with them early enough, we can fix those problems so that when they go to school they are on par with their classmates,” she said.
“But if they miss out on that they can start off two years behind and spend the rest of their lives catching up.”
After receiving the award, Ms Baldwin was given another reason to be optimistic about the coming year – a heavy downpour.
“All we need is to get rain now out in the western side, and we’re in for a really good year,” she said.
“We’ve got babies everywhere now, which is exciting, because this is our next generation of farmers and here in Moree we just accept that our kids are resilient and clever and articulate, and it’s not till you go away and meet other people that you realise that our guys are quite extraordinary.
“We’ve had flood, we’ve had drought and they just keep getting up. “People talk about the Aussie spirit, well to me that’s the Aussie spirit; they get knocked down six times and they get up seven.”
