Advocate and Victim Survivor Named Newcastle Local Woman of the Year

BY OLIVIA DILLON 

What Were You Wearing? (WWYW) founder Sarah Williams has been named as the 2023 Newcastle Local Woman of the Year.

A victim-survivor herself, Sarah has organised rallies attended by thousands of people, has collected more than 20,000 stories from survivors, organsied the first ever survivor advocates group within universities, and aired the first ever exhibition on sexual assault awareness in Australia. 

It also comes after WWYW recently launched a state-wide campaign to tackle drink spiking across the Hunter and NSW, backed by Newcastle MP Tim Crakanthorp. 

Ms Williams said he is hopeful her work is making change possible. 

"You don't really see people like myself getting awards or getting recognised, so I think the award is not only for me, but it's for all survivors," she said. 

Ms Williams also said there's still more to be done in the domestic violence space, and has plans to start survival workshops, as well as a once-a-week helpline for victims. 

Awareness Campaign For Cessnock Bushland

BY ARIANA GATTI

Cessnock City Council has just launched a new campaign to raise and bring awareness to the importance of the current sustainable state of the surrounding bushland.

The new campaign comes in conjunction with two short films that were recently produced by General Manager and Head of Conservation at the Australian Reptile Park, Tim Faulkner, after his extended visit to the area.

Image Sourced: http://www.cessnock.nsw.gov.au/council/news/TimFaulknervisitsourbushland

Both films saw the team up between Faulkner and Project Coordinator from BirdLife Australia, Mick Roderick in order to highlight the significance of flora and fauna of the region to potential visitors and tourists, as well as the impact of illegal dumping and logging.

The bushland around Cessnock is host to many endangered species of flora and fauna which still flourishes as a result of the area being the largest remnant of open land vegetation within the Hunter Valley.

The campaign to educate locals and tourists alike received funding from the NSW State Government through its Environmental Trust.

The environmental-based short films will be available to the public by the end of the month on Cessnock City Council's FaceBook page and website.

Sustainability Officer for Cessnock City Council, Karinda Stone, says the films will be very helpful in generating interest in the regions bushland.

"They will just be short, little films that we'll get out on social media to help raise people's awareness of what's around our area".

"We want people to be aware of the unique wildlife in our region, and with that knowledge, be able to help us protect the bushland that we've got in order to preserve those species", she says.

Image Sourced: http://www.cessnock.nsw.gov.au/environment/weeds