President of the Bathurst Business Chamber Stacey Whittaker said competition was fierce, with only a point or two between the winners and remaining finalists in some cases. 

She said the quality of the winning businesses was extremely high, adding there was great variety across the 17 categories. 

Ms Whittaker said there was a real mix of first-time nominees and veterans, and that most category winners had never won before. She added that the effort winning businesses put into their submissions was evident. 

“It really paid off for them. Some businesses received scores of 97.5/100 from the panel of out-of-town judges,” she said.

Ms Whittaker said 4000 online votes and 500 paper votes were received for the People’s Choice Awards. 

When the counting was done Tommy’s Tex Mex restaurant won the People’s Choice Best Business and Judy Meyers of Banjo’s Retreat took out the People’s Choice Award for Best Employee. 

Ms Whittaker said guest speaker, Today Show presenter Sylvia Jeffries, was very engaging. She spoke about her career and also about domestic violence.

Ms Whittaker said, for her, one of the highlights was seeing 84-year-old Ruth Lennon win the tourism award alongside her daughter Debbie Campbell.

The mother-daughter team are the new owners of Bathurst Goldfields. 

Mrs Whittaker said although Mrs Lennon retired from teaching 35-years ago, now in her 80s, she has won a business award.

Ms Whittaker said more than $8000 was raised by the Rotary Club of Bathurst Daybreak through the auction and raffle. 

Everyone enjoyed dancing to Mud Monkeys and the new addition of a photo booth this year was also extremely popular.

“We had some awesome feedback about what a great venue the Stannies’ Performing Arts Centre was,” Ms Whittaker said. “People were over-the-moon about it. It was just fabulous.”

Ms Whittaker thanked Bathurst Business Chamber members and publicity officer Emily Hancock for their hard work.