Tropical Fruits has won the coveted Community Organisation of the year award at this year’s Honour Awards.

Speaking from the IVY Hotel in Sydney, Tropical Fruits Events Coordinator Shane Duniam, said it was not just a win for Tropical Fruits but a win for the whole Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) community of the Northern Rivers. “The whole LGBT community makes Tropical Fruits what it is, so this is really a win for all of us” he said.

The Award was sponsored and presented to Mr Duniam, by New Mardi Gras. “It really means a lot to be recognised by New Mardi Gras for this award” said Alison Corfield Tropical Fruits Chairwoman. ‘It’s both humbling and a great recognition for Tropical Fruits to be so successful in this year’s Awards.    

The Tropical Fruits Inc won the award from a list of 5 possible finalists. Their outstanding contribution towards creating social inclusion and opportunities for the LGBT communities of the Northern Rivers for more than 20 years was what pushed them over the line to collect the award. Tropical Fruits is one of the longest running independent regional grassroots volunteer LGBT community groups in Australia

The Honour Awards are an annual event which recognises outstanding achievements within or contributions to NSW's gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) community. The awards are also a gala fundraising event for ACON, which is the largest GLBT health and HIV/AIDS organisation in Australia.

Mr Duniam thanked the local LGBT community for the dedication and commitment to making Tropical Fruits what it is today. Mr Duniam said the award would be on display at the upcoming Munity Party being held this Saturday at Bentley Hall. “Everyone at Fruits will be proud to show off this award to the community at our party this Saturday. It’s like we have uncovered our own buried treasure”, he exclaimed. Tickets to the event will be available at the door.

Whilst the atmosphere at the awards ceremony was raucous Mr Duniam said a lot of community organisations were interested to know how a rural LGBT community based group was so successful. “They just kept coming up and asking what we did and how they could learn from us. It was a real compliment to our community”.

It is understood that Tropical Fruits are currently in the process of purchasing a home for the organisation, which had been a vision of previous Tropical Fruits member Erif Benham, who died before the group could fulfil this ambition. Mr Duniam dedicated the award in his acceptance speech to both Ms Benham and the whole community for creating a vision of the future that we could all be proud of.