Helen McAnulty and Rachael Brooking share Australia Day honours

Two Orange women have been recognised for their dedication to two very different causes at this year’s Orange Australia Day Awards.

Rachael Brooking and Helen McAnulty were named co-winners of the Citizen of the Year honours at the community celebrations in Cook Park on Australia Day.

Rachael has spent years working tirelessly to raise money for research and awareness of Huntington’s Disease, a genetic neurodegenerative disorder that progressively turns off a person’s ability to think, plan, speak, swallow, and walk.

Rachael lost her own mother to the disease, which is highly inheritable and has no cure.

Rachael said she was humbled to have been nominated for the award and happy to have any chance to raise awareness of Huntington’s Disease and advocate for better support.

“The fact that I walked away without inheriting Huntington's disease is a pretty amazing gift. My mum and my brother just had to ride this really, really long, hard journey for most of their lives and so I had to do something,” Rachel said.

“We're not going to get anywhere if we don't raise the profile of Huntington's disease. I want it to be talked about like motor neurons, Like Parkinson's, like Alzheimer's, it's actually the head of all those three degenerative motor diseases, and there's still no advocacy and still no specialist support and still no funding.”

Helen McAnulty is a name that should be well known to Orange City Life readers as she has been a regular contributor to these pages for many years. Her ‘History Talking’ column has become a much-loved feature of our publication, but Helen’s work collecting stories and social history began nearly 50 years ago.

In the decades since, in towns across NSW, Helen has diligently continued recording stories of the past with her Oral History group and writing them up for publication.

Orange Australia Day Community Committee chairperson Matthew Chisholm said

the committee members were split on the decision of who to award the top gong, so they decided to honour both women.

“I’m so pleased that we are able to give this award to two very deserving recipients and recognise their commitment to the community this Australia Day, and give our congratulations to all the winners,” Mr Chisholm said.

Orange Mayor Jason Hamling congratulated Rachael and Helen and all the winners and nominees for the 2024 Australia Day Awards.

“These awards show that Orange is full of wonderfully giving people who make a positive difference to our community and I’m proud to acknowledge their contribution,” Cr Hamling said.

“I give my congratulations and thanks to all the winners here today, they are an inspiration to our community.”