Copacabana Community
Matt Francis 21.5.1971–24.10.2023
Matthew David Francis was a man with true community spirit. Always the first to volunteer to help out, no matter what task, event or role was entailed. If it was for community, Matt was there for it. His loss leaves a great void that will be impossible for one person to fill.
Matt was a member of the CCA Management Committee from 2019 and worked tirelessly to ensure that community events and activities, in particular, were planned and run for maximum benefit and effect. Whether it was community meetings, forums or clean up days, Matt was front and centre, often fetching and carrying people or equipment in his famous blue Kombi van. Often this work was done after hours or squeezed in when his ‘real job’ would allow it.
An enthusiastic volunteer with the Copa Bushcare group; a past President of Copa Tennis Club, a supporter of the Kincumber Rotary Club and Care4Coast …these are just some of the organisations and people who have lost a friend and champion.
One of Matt’s major community achievements was as lead convenor of Copa Carols in 2019, a huge event staged over a whole day in December with market stalls, kids activities, a big stage where fifteen acts performed well into the night before crowds of over five hundred people. He worked himself into the ground fundraising and organising to ensure the day was a roaring success.
Matt was Treasurer of the Kincumber Neighbourhood Centre in his ‘spare’ time. The Manager of the Centre, Leanne Clarke, commented at his memorial that they would ‘never find anyone as good as Matt’ for the role. We can relate.
Matt was Deputy Captain of Copa RFB and just prior to his death, he’d spent five days in Kempsey fighting fires. Over the years he had multiple deployments and accolades for his service. Shane Hughes spoke movingly to a packed house about Matt’s enormous contribution to the RFB in his eulogy at Matt’s memorial service.
Apart from being a trusted, valued colleague to those of us lucky enough to work with him on the CCA; Matt was a clever, loyal and treasured friend. We will forever miss his amazing generosity of spirit, his cheeky grin and his ability to bring us all back to earth with a wise-crack whenever things were getting a little too serious for his liking.
We extend our sincerest condolences to his beloved wife Vanessa and his four cherished daughters on the tragic and unimaginable loss of this remarkable ‘local hero’. Vale Matt.
Sue Steedman
Lorraine Parks & Roge Mairet
Tennis Besties with the true volunteer spirit
In this issue we are pleased to honour two local heroes who have volunteered over many years to ensure our local tennis courts are improved and managed to make them attractive and available for use by the local community and visitors to Copa.
Lorraine Parks and Roge Mairet have decided to step down from the Copa Tennis Committee at this year’s AGM, to ‘make way for generational change’. As Lorraine said, ‘In order to renew and refresh the committee’s ideas and approach for the future, succession planning has been on our minds for some time now’.
Lorraine, a ‘very enthusiastic’ player, originally joined the committee in 2002, after an invitation from Paul Favoloro – one of the founding committee members - filling the office of President for many years. Roge took over as Treasurer in 2018, having played at the courts ‘from the very beginning’. Both women expressed their admiration for Paul and his ‘sterling effort’ to establish and steer an organising committee. They also acknowledge the work and skills of long-time tennis coach Mark Presdee, who is someone they have both enjoyed working with.
Lorraine and Roge forged their friendship at many Friday afternoon tennis sessions with a regular group of players whom Roge describes as always warm, friendly and respectful. In the early days, the group comprised couples who had been playing together since the 1970s and later travelled and socialised together. They welcomed Lorraine and Roge into the group. Roge has always enjoyed the social gatherings of the group, which have often stretched into Friday evening and beyond, including dinners and dress-up parties.
The women nominate getting the online booking system up and running as one of their proudest achievements over the past few years. It was apparently a torturous process entailing several false starts, and both women ruefully admit that the technology learning curve was steep. They grew their knowledge with lots of help from people in the community, particularly Wolf Messthaler, and with support from Tennis NSW. The courts apparently get many more casual players now that visitors from Sydney can book online. The pair also applied for grant funding to resurface the courts several years ago, a process that required a great deal of work and perseverance.
Both Lorraine and Roge have had busy and fulfilling careers: Lorraine as a Nurse for forty six years both in Australia and overseas, rising through the senior ranks; Roge as a teacher in English and French to HSC level, including a stint as an exchange teacher in Toulouse, France in the seventies. She was amused to recall that her French students knew nothing about Australia except that they all knew Yvonne Goolagong, who was of course a world champion tennis player at the time.
Lorraine recalls that as a child growing up in Earlwood, her neighbour, the future champion Ken Rosewall, would occasionally come to practice at the family’s home court with his mates. And sometimes, he could be persuaded to have a hit with her. Despite this, she nominates Roger Federer as her hero/tennis crush. Roge admires young Aussie player Alex de Minaur, and hopes he will continue to do well on the world stage.
Both Lorraine and Roge say they have always enjoyed interacting with the community and say that the committee has been a fun and collaborative group to work with. Recently, a group of current players assisted in putting up new shade cloths at the courts – they commented on this as an example of the community spirit they have experienced over the years.
Lorraine commented ‘They are beautiful courts that have been well maintained. A true social asset for Copa residents. I wish the new tennis committee and office bearers well and feel sure that they will continue to improve and manage the courts well.’
As to the best thing about living in Copa, Lorraine loves ‘the ocean and the space’, and expressed a sincere wish that the name Tjudibaring is eventually adopted as the suburb name. Roge nominates the friendships she’s made through volunteering and memberships with a bunch of different groups including Probus and the CCA.
We would like to sincerely thank them on behalf of the community for their volunteering work and for being such an important part of the fabric of Copa life. (But we’re sure they’ll still be tearing up the courts on Fridays!).
A Heart in Africa
and a Home in Copa
Dr Andrew Browning, an esteemed obstetric fistula surgeon, lives in Copa with his wife, Stephanie and their two boys, William and Christopher. It’s a world away from their life in Ethiopia, where Dr Browning began his life-saving work with the late Dr Catherine Hamlin in the 1990s, treating women who suffered fistula; life-long, untreated and stigmatising injuries resulting from long deliveries at home that might take 3-10 days. The injuries permanently diminish their health and quality of life, leaving them ostracised, depressed and often suicidal.
Dr Andrew, as he was known in Ethiopia, established maternity hospitals, trained midwives and performed surgery across Kenya, , Somalia, Sierra Leone, Uganda, Malawi and South Sudan while based in Tanzania. He established The Barbara May Foundation to raise funds and awareness to support and expand his important work across Africa and has recently written A Doctor in Africa (a book which has already sold out of its first print run) detailing the plight of the women he serves and what is being done to help them. As a result of Dr Browning’s leadership and the work of his Foundation, maternity hospitals and training programs have been set up across Africa and South East Asia, providing an essential, life-saving model of care for thousands of disadvantaged women.
Andrew and Stephanie lived and worked together in Africa for 17 years as Christian missionaries; volunteers who were supported by churches including Kincumber Anglican Church. Stephanie grew up in Africa and while Andrew was building hospitals, she was building schools. A formidable couple, it seems!
Stephanie’s parents live in Copa, and when they were visiting Australia they returned to a home they owned in Avoca, and eventually settled in Copa permanently in 2017. Their boys, now aged 15 and 12, attend local schools and play footy for the Avoca Sharks. Although they miss Africa the family enjoys the beautiful coastal surrounds and peaceful life at Copa.
Andrew returns to Africa regularly to perform surgeries and has only managed three trips since the onset of the pandemic, since travel there is often fraught with other challenges, including civil wars. He ‘has a ticket and permission’ to go back in October and has his fingers crossed he will be able to get on the plane and continue his work.
We wish him safe travels and a speedy return.
If you’d like to know more, or make a donation, go to barbaramayfoundation.com and keep a lookout for ‘A Doctor in Africa’ at local bookstores or online.
Kirra Dibb NRLW Champion
Primarily playing in the halves, Kirra is an Australian and New South Wales representative player and over the years has played for the Sydney Roosters, New Zealand Warriors and Newcastle Knights in the NRLW and for the North Sydney Bears in the NSWRL.
She made her Origin debut for New South Wales in 2019, starting at five-eighth in their 14-4 win over Queensland and again played at five-eighth in 2022. NSW were again victorious, with Kirra scoring a 40-metre solo try.
2022 was a pretty good year, even by Kirra’s standards: She was named the Harvey Norman NSW Women’s Premiership Player of the Year, she played for Australia in the Indigenous All Stars team and in October she played in the Newcastle Knights’ Grand Final winning team over the Parramatta Eels.
As to her greatest achievements in Rugby League, humble champion Kirra says that she believes it is her (and other female players’) impact on the next generation and the mentoring they do. She is proud that girls can now see a pathway into a very real dream in the sport and that young boys no longer think it’s odd to see women playing now because they’ve grown up with it. She says her role models are ‘every female making a pathway in every sport’ and comments that she loves seeing what’s happening in women’s sport across the country.
When asked about her Rugby League heroes, she says she is grateful to ‘all the women who played before me. Women who sold their cars and quit their jobs to go on tour, who pushed the game ahead into the competition it is today that I am lucky to be part of.’ She was also a big fan of Panthers and Roosters great Brad Fittler and was thrilled when she got to play for the Roosters.
In February 2023, Kirra again played in the Australian Indigenous All Stars team against the Maori Ferns in Rotorua and says this honour rates extremely high in her list of achievements.
‘That week was probably my favourite week of rugby league. That game had an entirely different meaning. It really holds a very special place in my heart.’
Kirra acknowledges her parents, Mark and Lynette Dibb (who still call Copa home) who ‘probably don’t get enough credit’ for the encouragement and support they gave her as a youngster, driving her to everything including games, training, camps and tournaments. With an older brother who works in the NRL, rugby league is in the blood for this family. Kirra says her parents are still her biggest fans.
With contract negotiations under way at time of writing, Kirra can’t say yet where she will play this year. But she does say that her best game is ‘always yet to come’ and she wants to play at the same high level for as many years as possible.
We sure she has many representative honours to come and congratulate her on being a great role model for all kids who aspire to achieve at the top level in their chosen sport. We wish her well for the 2023 NRLW competition.
Kirra Dibb, a former student of Copa Primary and Sports Captain of Kincumber High (Class of 2015), recalls her ‘entire childhood’ spent at Copa Beach with her mates. She was a Copa SLSC Nipper, competed in a couple of branch carnivals and spent ‘9-5 at the beach on weekends.’ Living on the Northern Beaches now where she works as an exercise physiologist in between matches, Kirra still regards the ocean as her ‘happy place’ to relax and unwind when she gets time.
It’s no surprise that as a child Kirra was pretty much sports mad. She played for the Kincumber Colts – the only girl in the team - from Under Sixes to Under 10s. After that she played ‘everything else’ including Oztag; soccer; Ultimate Frisbee; netball and basketball. These were baby beginnings for a stellar career in the NRLW which began when Kirra was 19.
Mark Presdee
A shining example of someone who really loves his job and working with kids; Mark Presdee has been coaching tennis to Copa locals for thirty-one years. Although Mark lives at Niagara Park, he is a fixture at the courts here, coaching kids and adults, and as he says
‘I’ve been invited to quite a few weddings here in Copa and I’m now coaching the kids of people I taught back in the day.’
Mark has had a long career as a player and was the Junior Boys Singles Champion on the Coast at age 16; a State ranked junior playing the likes of Wally Masur and later Todd Woodbridge and the Gosford District Open Mens Singles Runner Up four times. One of his biggest wins was the Mid North Coast Open Mens Singles in 1986. He played local inter-district Blackwall Cup for Gosford, following in the footsteps of players like Ken Rosewall and John Newcombe who used to play for district and state teams in the fifties. Mark nominates Ken Rosewall as his favourite player and recalls being selected to do a special training squad with him when he was a junior. Mark said
‘I learned a lot from him and was privileged that he spent the time and effort on me. I’ll never forget that experience.’
Mark started coaching at the age of nineteen, and it has been a full-time job for him since 2000.
In 2003 he had one hundred and ten students at Copacabana. He coaches every weekday afternoon and Saturday mornings. His students have included State ranked players, including Abbie Nugent, who ‘played all her tennis at Copa’ and was Regional Champion
Northumberland) for three years and won a State title. Mark currently has thirty-six students at Copa and says that through the pandemic, other sports weren’t available to kids and adults and the courts were just about booked out eight hours a day.
Mark also teaches a ‘Sporting Schools Tennis’ unit at Copa school during first term, an eight-week program. He recalls arranging for former seven times Grand Slam Doubles title winner and Davis Cup player and captain, John Fitzgerald, to visit the school as part of the program in 2018 – the only school on the Coast he visited.
Of the present-day players, Mark admires the great Roger Federer and was also a fan of Pat Rafter, the former world number one Australian player who won consecutive US Open Singles championships in 1997 and 1998. Pre-Covid, Mark regularly attended the Australian Open in Melbourne with a ground pass from Tennis Australia. He hopes to get back there in 2024.
Although Mark is a qualified plant mechanic, he says if he wasn’t a tennis coach, he’d like to be a PE teacher because he likes working with kids and being in the outdoors. Sporting skills run in the family: Mark’s Dad used to play rugby league reserve grade for the Tigers and Mark has happy memories of watching games at Leichhardt. He’s still a Tigers fan (although he admits he’s not having a great deal of joy this season). Living on the Central Coast
provides a perfect lifestyle for Mark as he’s also a keen fisherman.
Tennis Club stalwart, Lorraine Parks, says
‘Mark has been intimately involved with Copa Tennis Club basically since the courts were built. He is totally professional and reliable, and very well-liked by his students and their parents. He makes a wonderful contribution to our community and the Club wouldn’t be where it is without him.’
Mark says he really enjoys his involvement in the Club and says of Copa,
‘It’s a good community, with fantastic families and great kids. Their behaviour is fantastic.’
Many people have Mark to thank for their skills and love of tennis and we are lucky to count Mark as an ‘honorary’ Copa local.
Vale Marion Ruth Stewart
24.04.23 – 01.04.22
Marion was born at the historic family farm ‘Reibycroft’ in Freeman’s Reach, built around 1820.
She grew up there as one of ten siblings born to her parents, Thomas and Gertrude Greentree. After living in Coogee with her older sister and working in the city during the Great Depression, she returned to live in Wilberforce and married her beloved husband, Claud in Windsor in 1940. They moved to Balmain and both worked at Dunlop in Birkenhead Point when the war broke out. Their daughter, Claudia was born in 1942 and their son, Kim in 1956 after they moved back to Windsor.
While living in Windsor, Marion joined the Windsor Tennis and Bowling Clubs and was very accomplished at both sports. In 1968, she and Claud bought a home in Copacabana which became their family home when Claud retired in 1978, long before the school was established in 1983 (some of the Stewart grandchildren were part of the first intake at Copa PS). The family - by then including an extended clan of children and grandchildren - enjoyed many happy holidays in Copa over the years and all share fond memories of visits here. After Claud’s death in 1999, Marion was comforted by the love and support of family and friends.
In 2011, Marion moved to an apartment overlooking the beach, where she enjoyed the view from her veranda up until her last days. She was also an avid card-player and enjoyed her weekly games and get-togethers with that group of friends. Marion played bowls weekly at Avoca Bowling Club and a group of members in full bowls uniform attended the memorial service to honour her.
Marion was an energetic advocate for the community and helped ensure that important facilities were established at Copa, including the fire station, the tennis courts and the Surf Club. She was a great supporter of Neighbourhood Watch; a founding member of the Copa Progress Association and subsequently the Copa Community Association, a tireless volunteer and fundraiser, including making her legendary jams and pickles for the RFS. Like her great friend and fellow CCA Life Member, Bonnie Hawkins, she has been described as ‘the backbone of the community’.
On behalf of the community, we express our gratitude for her service and extend our sincere sympathy to Marion’s family and friends.
Shane Hughes
Shane Hughes, Captain of the RFB, has contributed so much to the community in the seven years he’s been a resident of Copa, we thought it was time to recognise his huge volunteer effort.
Shane and his wife Allison moved to Copa from Windsor Downs, looking for a relaxed beach lifestyle away from the city. ‘I love Copa. You can’t beat this suburb – just can’t imagine leaving’, Shane commented. They have two sons aged 6 and 4 now, with Macsen having just started Kindy at Copa Public and enjoying his first year of Nippers. Shane’s in-laws live in separate accommodation with the family and he greatly appreciates the fact that they ‘help out so much’ with the kids, since both he and Allison work full time.
Shane says he has always wanted to be a ‘firey’ and joined the RFB virtually as soon as he moved here - at the time he didn’t know a single person in Copa and has made many great friends as a result of his involvement in the Brigade. He’s been Captain for the past two years. Shane’s volunteer time commitment varies week to week, but needless to say, it’s a big responsibility and he spends an hour or two ‘most days’ on RFB work and obviously a lot more if there’s an emergency.
The pandemic has made training more difficult, with a lot of sessions put on hold, making it slower to progress members through their various qualifications. Training has recently started up again. After the horror fire season in Summer 2019, it’s been a relief to have two relatively quiet seasons, but as Shane says, it’s always hard to predict what lies ahead.
Shane also recently took it upon himself to embark on a project to fund and install defibrillators around Copa after a personal life-threatening experience with Allison’s grandmother at home.
It occurred to him that with the defibs ‘locked up’ in the Fire station and the Surf Club, public access was very limited. Drawing on his personal contacts in the community to help, he got the project up and running very quickly, and is grateful to individuals, local businesses and organisations who contributed to the funding. Today there are 4 defibs in various locations around Copa, with a fifth due to be installed very soon. Shane is busy organising a ‘launch’ event and some training for residents to take place in March.
Copa wouldn’t be the wonderful place it is without people like Shane, who puts in hours of effort and takes on a great responsibility to ensure the safety of the community. We urge anyone who has time to spare to consider volunteering to serve on the Brigade and thank Shane for his service on behalf of all Copa residents.
"The biggest challenge of the job is that you never know when you’re going to be called on and you just have to make sure you are always prepared. We’re fortunate that there’s a core group of volunteers who turn up pretty much every time and there is a bigger team of about 50+ who help out as their commitments allow. It’s always a challenge recruiting – which we are trying to do now - and although we do get teenagers signing up, of course when they finish school and start work or uni, you lose them, so it’s a pretty high turnoverin that age group. On the plus side, the Brigade is a really social group and we have all made great friendships out of it”.
Elaine Odgers Norling
Having been a ‘Progress Association’ member (as it was then known) since 1999, Elaine has instigated or been involved in so many important projects and issues in and around Copacabana. Her reputation as an activist, advocate and environmentalist is well recognised by many. It’s not easy to encompass all of Elaine’s contributions to the community in one short article, but the photos you see here from her collection are testament to her involvement as a passionate and active Copa resident.
She and her husband bought land here in 1978 and built what was then a ‘very affordable’ holiday house. Elaine says, ‘Well Copa was a cheap beach back in those days, not like now!’ She and her husband were keen surfers and swimmers and the love of the beach was the main drawcard for them and their three children. The unspoilt bushland surrounds and the magnificent views from their house were also a major attraction.
Elaine’s career began as an Art teacher – working in England and Australia - and in later years she was a Special Ed teacher, including a stint at the Children’s Hospital at Camperdown. After she sustained an injury, she eventually left teaching and trained in business management, establishing her own photography business – which she’d always pursued as a hobby, starting with a Baby Box Brownie aged 8 and progressing with technology through a variety of SLR cameras into digital and underwater gear.
Elaine says she didn’t set out to be an archivist but her photographs chronicle and preserve memories, providing a pictorial ‘history’ of Copa over the years. She fondly recalls that in days gone by, local kids used to have billy cart races down the Del Monte hill and there were fireworks nights as well as the Canoe and Kite Festival held at the lagoon. Elaine recollects that sadly, the cost of insurance and changing health and safety considerations brought those ‘great fun’ activities to an end.
As the Progress Association morphed into the Copa Community Association, Elaine took on various roles – as President from 2005-2008; then Vice-President and Arts & Culture Officer – and she has only recently officially ‘retired’ from the CCA. But with activism in the blood, Elaine still has a lot of local issues she wants to pursue. Reflecting on improvements to Copa over the years, Elaine cited the incredible work that’s been done on the dunes and is also personally proud to have helped advocate for disability access at Sean Brinklow park and in other locations.
She and her husband bought land here in 1978 and built what was then a ‘very affordable’ holiday house. Elaine says, ‘Well Copa was a cheap beach back in those days, not like now!’ She and her husband were keen surfers and swimmers and the love of the beach was the main drawcard for them and their three children. The unspoilt bushland surrounds and the magnificent views from their house were also a major attraction.
Elaine’s career began as an Art teacher – working in England and Australia - and in later years she was a Special Ed teacher, including a stint at the Children’s Hospital at Camperdown. After she sustained an injury, she eventually left teaching and trained in business management, establishing her own photography business – which she’d always pursued as a hobby, starting with a Baby Box Brownie aged 8 and progressing with technology through a variety of SLR cameras into digital and underwater gear.
Elaine was responsible for the name ‘Bonnie Lookout’ being adopted, to recognise the achievement of the late Bonnie Hawkins, who was a tireless advocate for the betterment of the community and a great friend of Elaine’s. She also organised a tree with plaque in the Skatepark area to acknowledge Bonnie’s work in getting that project off the ground.
A particular passion for Elaine is the Mavis Pool and surrounds at the North end of the beach. Elaine is worried that it is being ‘stripped’ of its’ stones, seaweed and small molluscs by visitors and feels this fragile eco-system should be protected and made a ‘no-take’ area. She spent over three years recording all the fish and marine life there, looking to record the status to measure the effects of climate change in a marine microcosm.
Elaine is a very accomplished and active ‘Local Hero’ and we thank her on behalf of the community for her continued work and passionate advocacy.
Local Hero March 2021
Dallas Mulhall OAM
Dallas – a veteran - originally moved from Canberra to Avoca in 1975, where like many at the time he bought land and built a house which he subsequently sold, moving to Copa in 1987. His daughters went to local schools and participated in Nippers at Avoca.
He still finds Copa a very pleasant place to live after years of surfing and beach walking and says that he’s noticed many improvements over the years, particularly to footpaths and paving – he says that originally the only paved area in Copa was in front of the shops. Like all of us, he is not ‘holding his breath’ for the roads to be improved though!
One of his daughters still lives at Avoca and the other now lives in Tasmania. Before Covid, Dallas made an annual trip to Tassie to visit her and plans to do so again when that’s possible.
He has no plans to travel internationally, having been ‘around the block’ to many countries over his 20 years of military service. He was a Warrant Officer, on active service in Vietnam for one year, then moved on to Peace-keeping missions in Malaya and Singapore, and eventually on to New Guinea before coming back to Australia for postings in Newcastle and Singleton.
Raised in Newcastle, Dallas has always loved the surf and the beach, to obtaining his Bronze Medallion at Queenscliff in 1958. He managed the Masters Team for years in Copa and has been Surf Club Patron since around 2013, succeeding Judge Lincoln. In fact, he says he has only ever been away from the coast and beaches because of his army postings, and even so he has memories of swimming in the South China Sea and the Mekong River as a welcome break from his duties.
Dallas joined Legacy in 1975 as a volunteer and became full-time CEO of Legacy on the Central Coast in 1987, where he remained for 12 years. Legacy provides services and accommodation facilities for spouses and children of ex-service personnel and more recently, for children of injured veterans, helping with education and housing. Dallas has been on the Board of the Vietnam Veterans’ Hostel – an aged care facility at Norahville – since its inception thirty years ago. He was Aged Care Director for Gosford RSL’s Evergreen Retirement Village and on the Board of that group for twelve years. Dallas was also a representative on the Veterans’ Home Care committee – a federal body which met in Canberra every 2-3 months and worked with the Department of Veterans’ Affairs.
Dallas was awarded his OAM in 2014 for work with the ex-service community. Retired now, he is still a member of Sydney Legacy. He can be found at Artie’s Place having a coffee and a catch-up with mates most mornings. On behalf of the community, we thank him and salute him for his service.
Local Hero December 2020
Bernadine Mitchell
You may have noticed a small group of people on Saturdays working hard to rehabilitate the dune area of the beach. The Bushcare volunteer group is led by Bernadine Mitchell.
She and her family have been part of the community since 1981, with her two sons attending Copa Public School and Kincumber High. Bernadine will be familiar to many Copa locals as she worked as a casual teacher at Copa PS from when it first opened for a number of years and is still a casual teacher at Kincumber Public. With surfing part of her DNA, she was also a patrolling member of the Surf Club for ten years and still regularly gets out there on her bodyboard.
Bernadine has a long history of volunteering work to beautify Copa, going as far back as the original grant application to refurbish what was then an overgrown and unlovely park near the shops. Subsequently renamed Shaun Brinklow Park to honour a local family and recently upgraded, the park is now a fantastic facility for families and kids.
Bernadine and a group of committed locals then turned their attention to Susan Fahey Park and formed the Copacabana Landcare Group in 1997, starting work in the bush behind the park. At that time, Council planned to locate the stormwater drain across the rocks near the rockpool - Bernadine helped band the community together to oppose that and preserve that area which is a breeding environment for small sea creatures. Bernadine worked with others to get a grant to build the viewing platform opposite the shops ‘Bonnie Lookout’, erect the information signs dotted around Copa and to begin the work of rehabilitating the dunes, which had been bulldozed.
The volunteer Bushcare group was formed to preserve and improve the native vegetation in the dunes which was over-run with weeds. Their work includes planting, weeding, seed collection and propagation and over the years they have done an incredible job from the surf club to the end of the shops, removing lantana, bitou bush and asparagus fern, all of which are noxious plants.
The success of the Copa Bushcare group has been acknowledged by Sydney Landcare, with representatives scheduled to visit early in the new year to study the dunes and learn from the work done there. The group has a regular crew which meets on the first Saturday of each month, working from 2-4pm. They always welcome new members and no particular skills are required. The group is very warm and friendly and includes people who have holiday houses here and want to connect with the community. It’s a great way to meet local people and make a contribution.
Bernadine says she is ‘trying to retire’ but this dynamo is always busy – she has recently returned from a 5-day hike in Green Gully with a local women’s hiking group. What with surfing, yoga, hiking, teaching and her extensive volunteer work, Bernadine obviously has an incredible zest for life. We salute her for her decades of service and thank her on behalf of the Copa community.
Local Hero
September 2020
Gay Lanbridge
When it comes to unsung heroes Gay Langbridge is a shining example. Over the years she has volunteered countless hours in key local roles – both formal and informal – that have helped shape Copa and make it the wonderful place it is. Although Gay is very self-effacing and not sure why she was singled out for this tribute, we think her incredible record of service to the community is something to be celebrated.
It’s something of a mystery why Gay was attracted to Copa in the first place as she admits she ‘wasn’t particularly beachy’. Gay says she was a bit scared of the surf and not a strong swimmer when she moved here, coming to Copa from Canberra via Sydney in 1993 ‘almost by accident’ when a family member living in Lisarow suggested she look at living on the coast here. Gay and her young daughter moved to Copa and they have certainly made the most of the beach lifestyle over the years, with two brothers added to the clan (all still living in Copa).
Gay’s service as a volunteer has included stints as Copa Surf Club President for 3 years from 2011, and she is also a past President of Copa PS P&C Association and was a regular helper at the school canteen. Gay has also been actively involved with the CCA and has a history of lobbying Council against inappropriate development, as well as fund-raising for much-needed equipment and funding at Shaun Brinklow Park (which has more recently benefited from a major upgrade).
Gay’s association with the surf club started because she wanted to get to know more people in her new community and because she wanted to get her kids, particularly her daughter Hannah, involved in local activities and sports. With Hannah enrolled in Nippers, Gay became a familiar face helping out at barbeques and fundraisers, wrangling kids at carnivals and then becoming the Club’s First Aid Officer, eventually being elected as President in 2011. Among many achievements as President, Gay instigated ‘Sundowners’ as a way for locals to get together socially and enjoy meeting new people.
Gay overcame her fear of the water, gaining her Bronze medallion and competing for ten years in Masters events, particularly Board Paddling. She is still involved in patrol duties, with the season early this year truncated because of the pandemic. She enjoys the sense of camaraderie with her fellow-volunteers and welcoming families, old and new to Club activities. She still takes a board out every now and again when time permits.
Gay has managed to fit all this volunteering in between work, running a household and raising kids. She is a midwife, who divides her time between Gosford Hospital and a local GP’s surgery. The apple hasn’t fallen far from the tree with Gay’s daughter, Hannah now an active volunteer at the SLSC, doing patrol work and supervising Nippers as well as being a team member at Copa RFS.
Gay says that the best thing about all of her volunteer work has been developing friendships with many locals. She describes Copa as ‘a close-knit community of nice people, not too busy, with just enough shops and not too many tourists during peak season’. (We’ll see what this year brings!).
On behalf of the community, we thank Gay for all of her contributions to life in Copa and for staying involved in volunteering for so many years.
Local Hero June 2020
Paul Clements – THE MAN IN THE T-REX SUIT
If you’ve noticed a large T-Rex running around our streets, the man inside the costume is Copa local, Paul Clements.
Paul’s family moved to Copa about 20 years ago and he went to Erina High. Since then he’s lived in Copa on and off but his work has taken him all over NSW. He studied to become a nurse at Newcastle Uni Ourimbah campus and his first postings sent him outback to Broken Hill and Wilcannia. Then, after a stint in Newcastle, Paul came back to settle in Copa and help care for his Mum after his father passed away. But he’s not simply a man who dresses up for fun runs – he’s also an Oncology Registered Nurse, now commuting daily to Royal North Shore for his work with oncology and haematology patients.
The idea of wearing fun costumes came out of a dare from a colleague on a 5k fun run in Newcastle – she wanted to be chased by a T-Rex, so Paul obliged. Since then he’s added Bob the Minion to his wardrobe. Paul said ‘Well I have a Malibu board that I’m starting to master on the waves in Copa, and I call it Bob the Board. So the Minion costume idea came out of that’.
Paul said kids get a bit of a shock when they first see him in the T-Rex costume but they love to be chased around and often grab his tail, enjoying the pure fun and silliness of it all. For Paul, it’s an antidote to the serious nature of his work at the hospital.
He’s not all that comfortable with the hero tag and says it’s ‘business as usual’ at Royal North Shore, although because his patients are immuno-supressed and more vulnerable to infection, COVID-19 has naturally brought additional challenges. He and his colleagues are very mindful of checking for symptoms and there are additional screenings and testings in place and obviously the protocols are strict in the oncology ward. The staff are doing more ‘team nursing’ and are routinely tested. Paul said these days it’s ‘slightly more stressful, as much for the patients as us – they just want to get their chemo done, but any symptoms mean they get treated for those first and then have to wait a week before chemo can commence, so any delays are very difficult for them’.
Paul loves his job and plans to dress up in his costumes and visit the paediatric wards at the hospital once the pandemic has passed. We’re sure he will bring a lot of fun and laughter to kids and families who really need a break, and we’re proud to call him our Copa Local Hero for this issue. We thank him for his service and community spirit.
What a legend! A great positive outlook on life that we could all learn from.
Local Hero March 2020
Callum Sutton
Callum is 18 years old and Copa born and bred. He’ll be familiar to some of you as he regularly surfs Copa point in his ‘down time’. We’re not sure how he even has any spare time, considering his achievements competing on the state, national and world stage. Here are just a few highlights:
Paddle-boarding
Molokai 2 Oahu World Championships, Hawaii
In 2017, at just 16 years and 88 days old, Callum became the youngest ever to compete in the World Men’s 18-29 years old Solo Prone Stock Board Category. This iconic race is known around the world as one of the toughest races in any sport. It is a paddleboard race across hazardous waters from the island of Molokai to the island of Oahu in Hawaii through the Kaiwi Channel (also known as the Channel of Bones). The race is 52 Kilometres long and Callum achieved 5th place, taking 6 hours and 32 minutes to complete the event.
2018/19 Australian Ocean Racing Series Champion – Open Men’s Prone Paddle-board category
Callum competed in 6 races in the series for 4 wins:
Pacifica Downwind (Woolgoolga to Coffs Harbour); Charles Stewart Memorial Classic (Mona Vale to Fisherman’s Beach, Long Reef); Moon Island Ocean Race (Catherine Hill Bay to Blacksmiths Beach); Manly Wharf- Bridge to Beach (Harbour Bridge to Manly Wharf). Callum finished 2nd at the 20 Beaches Ocean Classic and won a 3rd place podium position at the Gold Coast Classic. The results secured the Australian Championship win for Callum in March 2019 with an impressive 4443 points.
Athletics
Gold Medal 2019 Oceania U20 Men’s Discus Champion
Callum was selected to represent Australia in the 2019 Oceania Athletics Championships, Townsville QLD, June 2019. After a terrific series of personal best throws (his best being 43.47 metres with the 1.75kg discus) Callum went on to win the Gold medal for Australia.
Callum has been crowned New South Wales Discus Champion 3 times:
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2019 NSW All Schools Athletics Championships, Sept – 1st place.
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2017 NSW All Schools Athletics Championships, 1st place.
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2017 NSW Junior & Youth Athletics Championships, 1st place.
Callum’s achievements ‘off the field’ are just as impressive
Callum’s work ethic and willingness to give his best have been recognised in many other special awards including 2020 ‘Youth of the Year’ winner, Central Coast Australia Day Awards and 2019 ‘Youth Sportsperson of the Year’, Central Coast Sports Awards. Callum completed his HSC last year and achieved fantastic results. He’s now working as an apprentice carpenter for a local builder.
Callum will again represent New South Wales at the 2020 Australian Athletics Championships this month in the U20 Men’s Discus Final. We wish him the very best of luck and look forward to an update on his goals and wins over the coming year.
Another Copa local we can all be proud of.
Local Hero December 2019
Zoe Evason
Congratulations to Zoe Evason, Year 4 student at Copa Public School for representing her school and the Central Coast region as a State Finalist at the 2019 Premier’s Spelling Bee held in Sydney on November 8.
Zoe’s proud parents Sarah and Geoff migrated to Australia in 2005 from Canada. Now Australian
citizens, they have lived in Copa for 3 years and love the lifestyle here. Sarah says that Zoe is an enthusiastic reader and her favourite books include the Harry Potter series and Keeper of the
Lost Cities by Shannon Messenger. No doubt that regular reading is an important tool for improving spelling skills and Zoe also spent many hours studying in preparation for the Spelling Bee, having been given a list of several hundred words to practise months ahead of the competition. Mastering the list took many hours of writing the words down, oral practise and sticking the difficult words on to her bedroom walls so she could memorise them! Mentored by Copa PS teacher, Craig Mitchell, Zoe put in the hard yards to win a medal for herself and online access to Macquarie Dictionary and Thesaurus for the whole school.
It’s great to see a ‘Copa kid’ suitably rewarded for academic effort, and we wish her every success in her continuing education at Copa PS.
Well done Zoe!
Local Hero September 2019
Adam Stern
If you’ve ever seen the movie ‘The Big Blue’ you’ll know that Freediving entails holding your breath for what seems like an impossibly dangerous time, while descending to great depths. Adam is the current and 8 x Australian record holder - at 99 metres (free immersion).
As you can see from Adam’s incredible images, he spends a lot of time under the water – only natural for someone who spent his early years surfing in Copa. Actually Adam says he was more of a bookworm than a surfer and that he ended up as the National record-holder and a professional Freediver by accident. Or as he puts it ‘an act of serendipity’.
Adam grew up in Copa and went to primary school here, then Kincumber High. His proud parents, Haim and Andrea have lived in Copa for over 25 years. Adam visits a lot with his wife Erin and 3-month-old baby Eleanor from their home in Gorokan.
How did Adam get into Freediving?
After he finished uni (where he studied Theatre) Adam took off for South East Asia, landing in Koh Tao in Thailand. Here he segued from a scuba diving course into a basic beginner course in Freediving, which he’d never heard of until then. Adam instantly loved it and stayed in Koh Tao, training and ‘getting pretty good at it’. He travelled to other diving meccas around the world to train, including South America.
He started to teach other people and thought he might be able to make a living out of it. His timing was serendipitous. Freediving now attracts a few thousand divers to competitions all over the world, mostly in South East Asia, the Mediterranean and the Caribbean – the places with the calmest oceans. It’s a very fast-growing sport and Adam is now an expert professional, running a successful business with Erin - teaching others, guiding and managing dive tours all over the planet and of course, competing.
What is Freediving and who can do it?
According to Adam, Freediving is statistically the safest extreme sport in the world and ‘long breath holds are something that people can do quite easily, it’s just not something we are usually taught or think we can do’. He says that someone who attends a beginner course, who has no diving experience, can be diving to 20 metres in two days. His students come from all ages and backgrounds. Some are into spear-fishing, scuba diving or surfing and want to try something new in the water. Others are interested in seeing more of ‘what’s down there’. His photographs provide an amazing insight into the world beneath the surface.
Adam is the founder and organiser of an event called Deep Week, which brings the best Freedivers, Freediving instructors and Freediving experts from all over the world to one place, where they share knowledge and maximise learning.
Adam also runs courses at Terrigal Haven if you want to give Freediving a try. And if you want to see him doing an actual dive, click on the link to his website, where you can see a live dive on Adam’s YouTube channel. While you’re there, read about his upcoming Mount Gambier Freedive Trip (5-7 October) – beginners welcome.
Adam is a true champion and we can be very proud of him, a high-achieving Copa local.
Local Hero June 2019
Summer Klein
Meet Summer Klein, a swimming champion from Copa Public School. Summer travelled to Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Centre in April to compete at the NSW Primary Schools State Swimming Championships and achieved fantastic results.
Her representative journey began this year with some amazing performances at the school swimming carnival in February. From here, Summer qualified to represent Copa PS at the Southern Central Coast Zone Championships. Again, Summer performed brilliantly, finishing the meet with 4 gold medals.
These stellar results qualified her to compete at the Sydney North Regional Championships. At this meet she continued to better her PBs across all strokes and she earnt a gold medal in the butterfly and silver medals in the 50m freestyle, 100m freestyle and breaststroke.
Summer’s tremendous performance at the regional championships meant that she qualified to swim at the prestigious NSW State Championships. Over two days in April, 1,527 students from every corner of NSW came together to represent their Schools, Zones and Regions to compete at Sydney’s Olympic pool. Summer’s hard work and rigorous training program paid off! She continued to better her times and finished the NSW State championships with more outstanding results:
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4th – 50m butterfly
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7th – 50m breaststroke
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8th – 100m freestyle
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11th – 50m freestyle
On behalf of the community, we congratulate Summer and wish her well in her swimming career. We have no doubt she has a great future in competitive swimming and are proud to claim her as a Copa Local Hero.
Go Summer!
Local Hero March 2019
Corey Fletcher
Corey is an accomplished Surf Lifesaving champion who grew up right here, starting with Copa Nippers at the age of six. He won two State titles when he was in the Under 8s and many Branch and State medals for Copacabana SLSC in a wide variety of events before he moved to Terrigal SLSC at the age of 15. He attended Copa Public School and Terrigal High. Two years ago he moved up to the Gold Coast, where he now competes for Currumbin Vikings SLSC. His favourite events are Board and Ironman.
Now aged 21, Corey has an impressive array of titles under his belt, including fantastic results at the World Surf Lifesaving titles in Adelaide at Glenelg in November 2018. He came 2nd in the individual Board event and in the team events achieved Gold in Board Rescue; Gold in Tube Rescue and Silver in Taplin Relay for a total of 2 gold and 3 silver medals. Currumbin Vikings were crowned the second best club in the world at this event from the 40+ countries represented.
Corey is currently sitting in 2nd place in the Board category in the Ocean Six Series and 15th place in the Nutrigrain Iron Man series. In the upcoming Queensland State Championships, Corey has been invited along by his sponsors, Engine, to participate in a clinic with some of the best Ironmen and Ironwomen in the world, where he will be signing posters and talking to fans.
Corey’s next big goal is to make the Australian World Team for Italy 2020.
His weekly training session schedule will no doubt help him achieve that goal and is something all our young Copa competitors could aspire to.
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Monday to Friday – Swim
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Monday, Tuesday, Thursday - Run
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Monday & Friday – Ski
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Tuesday & Thursday – Board
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Wednesday & Saturday – Ironman
His favourite training session is ‘Any session with sick runners or pumping waves!’ and his favourite quote “Be grateful with everything you have and you will be successful in everything you do” (Conor McGregor). Sounds like Corey is a humble and very grounded champion and we wish him all the very best in his chosen sport.
His achievements have done Copa proud.
Corey lists his Coach, Michael King and his parents, Copa locals Paul Fletcher and Laney Bell as his mentors. Dad Paul supplied much of the information for this story and we are very happy to name Corey our inaugural Copa News ‘Local Hero’.
His Instagram handle is
@coreyfletcher if you’d like to check it out or go to: