Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to share with the House the news that the Bendigo Sports Star Awards have achieved another milestone. On Friday, it was their 60th anniversary. The Bendigo Sports Star Awards are the longest continuing regional sports awards of their kind and date back to March 1965. Locals share with me stories of how they used to gather around and watch the live broadcast of the event for many years. The first ever recipient was Eaglehawk cyclist Frank McCaig, a name which is synonymous with local cycling in my community. Each month, the panel selects a sports star, and those athletes are then considered for the main award, the Bendigo Sports Star of the Year, for which people gather on this night. The Bendigo Sports Star of the Year for 2025 was Dyson Daniels, a Bendigo local and a name that many of us in this place would know because of his achievements on the international scene. We know him in this place for his work in the NBA with the Atlanta Hawks and as an Olympian, but Dyson was first and foremost a basketballer locally. I can recall meeting him at the Local Sporting Champions event in my electorate. Dyson was a worthy winner and presented, by video, a message to local kids, including the local kids of his former primary school, Camp Hill Primary School.