Tourism Noosa volunteer Wendy Cutting was both excited and humbled to receive a Medal of the Order of Australia (AOM) in this year’s Australia Day Awards, attributing the honour to the team of volunteers she coordinates and admitting adding the extra letters after her name “might take some getting used to”.
The Noosaville resident who has been a Tourism Noosa volunteer since 2006 and a volunteer coordinator of the 70-strong group of volunteers since 2007 was awarded an OAM for services to tourism and hospitality.
Before volunteering in tourism Wendy had a long teaching career, moving to the Sunshine Coast to take on the role of principal at St John’s College in 1988 before retiring to take on running two restaurants with her husband at Yandina.
After four years they retired from the restaurant business but Wendy “had to do something”.
“Working with Tourism Noosa was a likely path to follow,” she said.
“I love it. I really enjoy it,” she said.
“We get travellers from all over the world. There’s always challenges.”
Based at the Visitor Information Centre in Hastings Street, Wendy said the role of the volunteer had become more demanding over the years with the variety of tourist activities and programs every expanding and the need to keep abreast of everything increasing.
Volunteers are a wealth of knowledge for the 200,000 visitors that drop into the centre, providing information on where to stay, what experiences and tours to do, what restaurants, breweries and distilleries are in the region and, importantly, that local knowledge and insider tips that visitors love.
Wendy said volunteers were now better trained and regularly attended famils to pass on their first-hand knowledge of places and experiences.
Since she began, visitors have changed, wanting to see more than just the beaches. They’ve become more interested in seeing what the hinterland has to offer, taking country drives, hiking along trails, paddling the Everglades and visiting the many breweries and distilleries, she said.
“People are travelling up more to do more,” she said.
The visitor centre opens every day of the year apart from Christmas Day and coordinating a voluntary workforce is often a challenge, particularly during Covid.
Wendy said some volunteers chose not to work during Covid, some were reluctant to return for fear of contracting the illness and some had taken the opportunity to do their own road trips around the country.
Despite the difficult situation, the centre continued operating and Wendy had nothing but praise for her wonderful volunteers.
“It’s terrific camaraderie amongst people,” she said of the team.
