She has been working with young LGBTI people aged 12 to 17 years old after starting up the Alphabet Crews Youth Group, then had a big 2017 campaigning for marriage equality.

“Hearing the news (about the award), I didn’t believe it was real – I didn’t think I deserved it I guess,” she said.

“It has been the most accepting year realistically, especially the last couple of months.

“It really does give that validation and proves that there was a reason for all of those marches, for all of those big events.”

Being a public advocate for LGBTI rights has left Ms Williams vulnerable to homophobia, but she has continued to speak out and be a role model.

She said she saw an opportunity to prevent other young people feeling isolated because of their sexuality, especially during the difficult period of the postal survey.

“The thing that makes you different actually makes you really, really special and can be what puts you over the top and makes you exceptional,” Ms Williams said.

“Every day you’d wake up and you weren’t sure what people were saying about you and everyone debating your own rights as a person, which is really humbling and at times distressing.

“Then that moment when Australia voted yes and then that moment it was pushed through Parliament - I cannot describe that emotion.

“It felt like I was a normal person like everyone else for the first time in my life.”

The history of Wodonga will be documented for future generations to come, thanks to the work and persistence of Uta Wiltshire over the past decade.

The Wodonga Historical Society secretary and treasurer has been honoured as the 2018 citizen of the year.

“I feel quite chuffed. I thought I had flown under the radar for so long and I thought I was going to continue to fly under the radar, but they caught up with me and I must say I’m quite pleased about that,” she said.

Mrs Wiltshire lost her own personal history after moving from Germany to Australia as a child after the war.

She now treasures the memories of people who grew up in Wodonga and is always searching for new details.

“I love it and I’ll continue to do it as long as I possibly can,” she said.

“I’m doing it because it’s something that has to be done.”

The historical society has been at the centre of a push for a museum to be opened in Wodonga, which Mrs Wiltshire said she would continue.

“I’m more concerned that our collection is value and has some assurance that if people like myself and other people on the committee – some of them who are 20 years older than I am – no longer can do it, there will be somebody to pick up the pieces, that it’s not all going to be relegated to the tip after all our hard work,” she said.

Mrs Wiltshire is also an active Wodonga Show Society committee member, Wodonga Council Place Names committee member, and has been involved with Neighbourhood Watch.

The Border Ovarian Cancer Awareness Group has also been named the community organisation of the year.

The group is a non-profit organisation dedicated to raising awareness of this cancer, assisting women to recognise the symptoms and supporting those fighting the disease, and has raised $200,000 funds through donation and sponsorship collection.

Events have included a "celebrity horse race"  where participants ride a hobby horse down the straight, and sky diving.

President Heather Watts formed the group in 2012 after her daughter Kelsey died from ovarian cancer and she did not want it to be in vain.

“It was all about having fun around a very serious subject,” she said.

“It’s great to be known that you’re making a difference, that you’ve made the awareness of ovarian cancer.”