Campaspe Murray Business Awards held off for another year

Published on 25 March 2021

The biennial Campaspe Murray Business Awards will be held off for another year to ensure the entire business community has the opportunity to be recognised. 

Run jointly by Campaspe Shire and Murray River Councils, the awards have been postponed to ensure businesses can showcase their achievements beyond the 2020 year; where most were operating under a strict COVID environment.  

Murray River Council mayor, Cr Chris Bilkey said both councils wanted to ensure the event was inclusive of everybody. 

“Many businesses were either closed or operating on limited capacity during 2020 and therefore answering the application questions would be non-reflective of their usual performance or achievements.” 

“With this in mind, we don't believe that running the Business Awards this year would be inclusive of all businesses, particularly during a period when we are now focusing on recovery.” 

“So we’ll hold off for this year, and look forward to celebrating some amazing achievements when we relaunch the event in the future,” Cr Bilkey said. 

The business awards are also largely reliant on sponsorship support, with organisers saying that this too factored into the decision to postpone. 

“We also had to consider any additional financial pressure it might add to valued sponsors,” Cr Bilkey said. 

Campaspe Shire mayor, Cr Chrissy Weller said the councils will review any future date for the awards early next year. 

"We all appreciate the amount of work that goes into creating an awards program for our community and the efforts by our local businesses to complete submissions.” 

“We will review the situation early next year where we hope to be in a position where we can be back showcasing the achievements of our business community through a vibrant and celebratory community awards event.” 

Campaspe Shire and Murray River Councils are now looking at the possibility of running a business dinner later in 2021, in lieu of the awards dinner.