Dame Sybil Von Thorndyke has been awarded the first ever Lifetime Achievement Award at the Queen's Birthday Ball Community Awards ceremony held last week at the Judith Wright Centre of Contemporary Arts.
On a night when the Queen's Birthday Ball returned to its community roots, it was the iconic Dame Sybil who founded the Queen's Ball 48 years ago who stole centre stage.
After receiving a long standing ovation, a humbled Dame Sybil reminisced about the early years of the Queen's Ball before speaking of her pleasure that the event (which is the longest continually running gay and lesbian event in the world) had returned to being a night of recognising the outstanding contributions made by the members of our community.
The gala awards ceremony was a new look for the Queen's Birthday Ball which faced closure last year when the previous organisers decided to discontinue the event due to dwindling numbers and increased production costs.
Not wanting to loose such a valuable piece of our history, the Board of the Brisbane Pride Festival decided to rescue the event and give the former dance party a new format.
Fourteen awards were presented on the night including Person of the Year, which was awarded to QAHC General Manger, Paul Martin.
Mr Martin told QNews, "I am very proud and thankful to be recognised by the community that I am a part of for any contribution that I may have made. But of course any achievement that people make in the community stems from a group effort and I would like to thank all of the staff and volunteers at QAHC who have helped to create change in the community.
QNews was also proud to be well represented on the night, with regular fitness columnist Lindsay Nutley being awarded Sportsperson of the Year for his contributions to Team Brisbane and Aqualicious, as well as legal writer Stephen Page being invited to present the award for LGBT Friendly Politician of the Year to Grace Grace.
Long term QNews cover photographer Russell Fleming was named Creative Artist of the Year for his popular photographic exhibitions, including his latest work, A Night in Purgatory, which is currently on display at Raw Space Galleries, South Brisbane.
QNews Editor Toby Longhurst was delighted to win Journalist of the Year, a category which contained some very stiff competition. The award was named in honour of and dedicated to the highly respected and long serving LGBT journalist Iain Clacher who sadly passed away early this year.
A full list of the 2009 Queen's Birthday Ball Community Award winners is included below:
Volunteer of the Year
Vicki Ogilvie - Dykes on Bikes
Business Person of the Year
Mel Whitaker & Age D'Alton - Bent DVD
LGBT Friendly Politician of the Year
Grace Grace - Member for Brisbane Central
Creative Artist of the Year
Russell Fleming - Russell Fleming Photography & QNews
Sportsperson of the Year
Lindsay Nutley - Team Brisbane
Iain Clacher Journalist of the Year
Toby Longhurst - QNews
GLBT Friendly Company of the Year
The Wickham Hotel
Entertainer of the Year
Miss Synthetique
HIV Activist of the Year
Jarran Haywood - Queensland Positive People
Gay Icon of the Year
Matthew Mitcham - Olympic gold medallist
Gay Venue of the Year
Sportsman Hotel
Community Group of the Year
Open Doors
Person of the Year
Paul Martin - QAHC
Lifetime Achievement Award
Dame Sybil Von Thorndyke - Queen's Birthday Ball founder
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