On 23rd February Mandurah Cruises hosted a Thank You & Awards event for the Port Mandurah canal residents, to celebrate their amazing efforts over the Christmas lights period. This special time of the year brings so much joy to the many people who come from all over to see the breathtaking light displays. It is also a major fund-raising event for the Rotary Club of Mandurah Districts via the Wishing Well, which supports local charity and community groups. The event was held at the Halls Head Parade Community and Sports Facility, with the venue hire kindly sponsored by Visit Mandurah. It was a wonderful night full of celebration with food, drinks, live music, and an awards presentation.

Guests arrived at 4:30pm to start the evening of celebrations, with some local wines and beers from the bar, along with an extensive grazing board. Live music was played throughout the evening by the local band Yellowstone, who had everyone tapping their feet along to feel-good songs as they mingled. Guests enjoyed a delicious dinner catered by Mandurah Cruises chefs and popular local food truck – The Charcoal Project. After dinner and some more mingling, it was time for speeches and award presentations. Peter Robinson, Director of Mandurah Cruises, started the presentation with a welcome and thank you speech to the residents stating, “[Putting on the lights displays] it’s not a small commitment in so many ways, and it’s just neverendingly impressive about what you all do”.

On the first night of Christmas lights cruises, every year since 2018, Mandurah Cruises host exclusively the families of Camp Quality to provide them with a safe, stress-free, and relaxing time. At this year’s end of season celebration, we had a special guest, Camp Quality CEO, Deborah Thomas, who expressed her thanks on behalf of all the families. She shared a quote from one of the families that partook in the Camp Quality cruise, when asked what they valued most from the experience, they responded with “The opportunity for our entire family to create happy memories away from the challenges of cancer. It provides enormous joy and connection for us all as a family, and with the Camp Quality community. We absolutely loved the Christmas lights and the chance to see the amazing displays. Thanks you for all who made this possible”. In a lovely gesture, Deborah also provided a personally signed letter of thanks to all residents, on behalf of Camp Quality. She then went on to present the Stages Awards which are presented to the best lit house (selected on the official judging night) in each of the 6 canal stages.

Stages Awards

Stage 1 – 43 Cambria Island Retreat
Stage 2 – 26 Picaroon Place
Stage 3 – 43 Aztec Island Retreat
Stage 4 – 13 and 14 Starfire Close
Stage 5 – 18 Fistina Ramble
Stage 6 – 13 Ragamuffin Point

A heartfelt speech was given by Mandurah Cruises Natalie Goddard in remembrance of local legend Daryl Smith. Daryl and Cheryl Smith were some of the first people in the Port Mandurah Canals to start putting up Christmas lights many years ago. Respect was paid to this incredible man with lots of love from his family, friends, and community. “It was a very emotional season for us” Natalie said, “Daryl has been a big highlight of my career and having him the year before along with Cheryl come and sit with me at our jetty and see what they have created in Mandurah is absolutely incredible. What once was a of couple of lights down a couple canals, is now canals full of lights and joy and love in the festive season, and supported by a 30+ piece Christmas lights land trail on the Western Foreshore, by the City of Mandurah”. Cheryl was presented with a beautiful, colourful bouquet of flowers that reminded us of Daryl in thanks of their huge efforts in raising festive spirits over the Christmas season, year after year. In Daryl’s commemoration, one of the core awards given out to the resident that brings the biggest festive spirit to the canals, the Hall of Fame Award, has now officially been renamed the Daryl Smith Award. Port Mandurah representative Ron Taggart had the honour of presenting this award, keeping Daryl forever in our memory.

Daryl Smith Award

Brian & Pauline Packer

Councillor Bob Pond gave a speech on behalf of the City of Mandurah thanking residents for the joy they bring to the city before presenting the Rookie, the Grinch, the National Lampoon Christmas, and the Inflatables Awards, along with the Best Street Award.

Rookie Award

46 Brindabella Crescent & 1 Santavea Mews

Grinch Award

Best Grinch Theme Decorated House
3 Sovereign Gardens

National Lampoon Christmas Award

Best Clumsy and Fun Decorated House
17 Santavea Mews – man hanging off the roof

Inflatables Award

Best inflatable display
17 Cambria Island Retreat – The Snowman House

Best Street Award

Starfire Close/Aztec Island Retreat
Santavea Mews – where every house has amazing displays

Visit Mandurah’s Anita Kane came forward to thank residents on behalf of the city’s tourism sector before presenting the Judges Awards.
On the 16th of December, Mandurah Cruises hosted the official judging event, led by Renee Harman of Sauvage Properties – who has been a big part of this event for many years. Members from the City of Mandurah, Destination Perth, Visit Mandurah, Peel Development Commission and other organisations, were taken out on an exclusive cruise, to spend the night going up and down every single canal of the Port Mandurah Canals, to select the standout houses and make judgement on which are their top five light displays, to become the Judges Awards winners, along with the other awards mentioned above.

Judges Awards

1st place – 18 Fistina Ramble
2nd place – 40 Santavea Mews
3rd place – 5 Condor Mews
4th place – 6 Santavea Mews
5th place – 28 Eunamara Retreat

On every cruise through the season, we asked our guests to take a photo of their favourite Christmas lights decorated house and submit it to our Photo Competition, so that we can then determine the top five submitted houses, to become the People’s Choice Awards. Councillor Ahmed Zilani presented these awards and expressed his thanks on behalf of the City of Mandurah and his family.

People’s Choice Awards

1st place – 5 Condor Mews
2nd place – 4 Condor Mews
3rd place – 43 Aztec Island Retreat
4th place – 38 Aztec Island Retreat
5th place – 28 Eunamara Retreat

Canal visitors over the festive season are encouraged to throw in coins as a donation when passing by the Rotary floating wishing well, to help raise vital funds for local charities around Mandurah. Along with this, some local businesses just like us here at Mandurah Cruises make large personal donations, as well as holding donation tins on board, contributing contains for change monies raised and taking electronic donations at the time of booking. Mike Kirke from The Rotary Club of Mandurah Districts came forward to express his thanks to the Port Mandurah community and Rotary members who helped maintain the Wishing Well. He also announced the grand total amount raised by people’s extraordinary donations. For the 2024 Christmas lights season, just under $22,000 was raised. The Rotary Wishing Well has been a part of the Christmas lights since 2008 and has now raised over $325,000 for community projects. “Incredibly generous donations by people… great outcome, thank you to everybody” – Mike.

To close out the awards presentations we saw Ron Taggart give a sincere thank you speech to fellow Port Mandurah canal residents. “Firstly I’d like to thank all the canal owners, the effort you all put in, we started in a small group and you start to enjoy the fellowship and the fun that we get out there… it’s wonderful to see these little kids yelling out “there’s Father Christmas” and we get that beautiful feeling inside our heart, so it’s wonderful to get to do that for the community… so I thank you all, each and every one of you and I hope you just keep making it bigger and better because it’s so exciting”.

We thank everyone immensely for the enthusiasm, creativity and love brought to the 2024 Christmas lights season. Residents, crew, other local businesses, sponsors, and of course all of the incredible visitors, you all bring so much life to this magnificent city during this time of year through your care, generosity and Christmas spirit. We look forward to sharing yet another amazing season in 2025 with you all!