26 January 2021
Lucindale's Citizen of the Year Amanda Carter, with her four
children Aden, Dominic, Rubin and Leo.
Picture courtesy of the
Naracoorte Herald.
Registered Nurse and football team manager Amanda Carter has been named Lucindale’s Citizen of the Year 2020.
A mother of four, Ms Carter, an ANMF (SA Branch) member, was born and bred in the tiny, tight-knit South-East town and has poured her heart and soul into the community, helping out on so many levels.
When she isn’t patching people up at nearby Naracoorte Hospital 40km away, Ms Carter is either volunteering as an ambulance officer with the SA Ambulance Service or managing her son’s U14s football team. She also helps out with another two sons’ school footy team and donates her time as a member of the Lucindale Area School Canteen Committee, the Women's and Children Hospital and Lucindale’s Community Economic Development Board.
“I’ve got four boys so I try to be involved in anything they’re involved in, they probably hate it,’’ she laughs.
“If I’m not active enough and not getting involved in the community then I feel like I’m not doing anything.’’
2021 is not even a month young but Lucindale has already had a brush with disaster after a massive bushfire threatened to engulf the town on January 11.
The fire burnt through 16,000ha of grazing land and destroyed two properties. Thankfully no lives were lost.
“We (her family) bunkered down in my house because it’s a stone home, we bunkered down in the hallway,’’ Ms Carter says. “Once the fire front had passed I actually got tasked to the Incident Management Team of the SA Ambulance Service.
“I went down to the Town Hall and checked on the welfare of all our residents. There were two injuries in the whole of the fire.’’
Ms Carter will be presented with her award in an Australia Day ceremony today. “I didn’t even expect to be nominated, to be quite honest,’’ she says.
“I don’t know how I’m going to stand up there after we’ve just had a fire rip through town, where there’s so many people to thank.
“We are just a very tight community, we help each other out like you help your own family out.
“We’re sort of one big family … we all love it, Lucindale proud.’’
Cover Image courtesy of the Naracoorte Lucindale Council.