Above: Dominic Arcara (second from left) was among the first recipients of the Australia Day Study Tour Awards in 1985.By Sarah Schwager
IN 1985, the former City of Berwick instigated a sponsorship program for year 11 students to explore the local, state and federal governments in Australia.
Since then awardees have entered all sorts of politicsrelated careers, from state politicians to lawyers and journalists.
Last Friday winners of the Australia Day Study Tour Awards were invited to help celebrate the 21st anniversary of the City of Casey youth program.
One of the first four recipients of the award was Dominic Arcara, who featured in the Gazette when he was in year 11 at Hallam High School, now Eumemmerring College Hallam campus.
Mr Arcara said it was a visit to the High Court on the study tour that settled his decision to study law.
After four years as a lawyer at Minter Ellison, Mr Arcara changed career and started work at the Docklands Authority.
In September, he began work at VicUrban – the merged body including the Docklands Authority and the Urban and Regional Land Corporation – as the development director for the Revitalising Central Dandenong project.
Mr Arcara, who grew up in Hallam and Narre Warren, lives in Williamstown with his wife Sandra and daughters Olivia, four, and Chloe, two, but said he would now be spending a lot of time back in the area in which he grew up.
Mr Arcara, who spoke at the youth program reunion, said the Australia Day study tour was a great initiative of the City of Berwick and had provided some fantastic opportunities for the awardees.
“My time at the High Court was pivotal for deciding what I wanted to do,” he said.
Another recipient who also spoke at the reunion was Eumemmerring MP Gordon RichPhillips.
The 31yearold received the Australia Day Study Tour Award in 1991 when he was a year 11 student at Eumemmerring College in Hallam.
“It was a program that really provided all the candidates with how Australia’s institutions work,” Mr RichPhillips said.
“It was a great opportunity to see how the system worked and to see how individuals could have an impact,” he said.
Mr RichPhillips said it was another three or four years before he became interested in working in politics.
“I always had an interest in local issues. The award was a good way of expanding on it,” Mr RichPhillips said.
He was elected to Parliament when he was 25 and has been the member for Eumemmerring in the Legislative Council for the past six years.
