Our Veterans’ Haven co-founder Cath Hayes has recently been honoured at the annual Burt Volunteer Awards for her exceptional service to the local veteran community.
A veteran herself, Ms Hayes served for over 34 years in the Australian Navy, having only recently finished.
“I was a warfare officer, commanding a patrol boat out of Darwin at one point, as well as a frigate here. I had some really amazing jobs around amazing people during my time,” she said.
“I have been to the Middle East multiple times, in the early 2000s during the War on Terror. I was in both Afghanistan and Iraq. We were doing also a lot of stuff on Indian Ocean, mostly counter narcotics. For instance, as part of our operations, we intercepted 5.6 tons of hashish and 712 kilos of heroin.”
After being discharged, Ms Hayes devoted herself to developing the Veterans’ Haven, which she’d been thinking about for some time.
“I pursued this with some of the other veterans I knew, including co-founder Iain Thomas, who’s very involved in it now. We share the experience of losing some of those we’ve served besides, and now we really want to give back.
“The Haven opened officially in February and then commenced operations. We spent a lot of time over Christmas building, doing a lot of decking and sorting out the workshop area. I’ve always been one for hands-on activities.
The Haven, situated on Oxley Road in Forrestdale, is a particularly tranquil piece of land, which previously served as a native flower farm. Ms Hayes said she was drawn to the area for its peace and beauty, which veterans are very much in need of.
“The three tenets of our establishment are rest, create, renew. It defines what we do, whether that be woodwork, metallurgy, yoga, Pilates, pottery or anything else.
“The types of activities we tend to do are quite tactile by nature. We emphasise connection to one another through hands-on activities. Pottery has this, as does woodwork.”
Regarding her volunteer award, Ms Hayes was taken by surprise, having been nominated by a friend.
“I got notified six weeks before the reward presentation. It was a complete surprise. If I’m being honest, I’m not big on being front and centre in the media, and I see what we have now as a team effort, honestly.
“On 23 August, I attended the ceremony and received the award. One of the things that stuck out was the multicultural representation among those who attended the event, which speaks to the diversity of the Burt electorate area and those who volunteer in it. They are the fabric of the community that binds us together, which is especially important as we grow in size.”
