“I was shocked,” Ms Wallace said after receiving the award for female excellence.

“It’s a great feeling to be recognised by your peers.”

The excellence award recognises a worker as having made an important commitment and contribution to reducing the harmful effects of drug and alcohol use among Indigenous Australians over at least five years.

Ms Wallace thanked her Bega based team for their hard work over the last 12 months.

“We’ve got a really good team here,” she said.

Wandarma men’s group facilitator, Dennis Scott, said the award “confirms the hard work put in to the region by Raechel over the last five years”.

The organisation is funded by the Office for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health under the department of Health and Ageing, operating under the control of non-government organisation The Lyndon Community.

Ms Wallace was nominated by Lyndon’s Dr Julaine Allan.

“For Lyndon, Raechel has developed work with Aboriginal people to be more culturally appropriate and as a result we have seen a significant increase in Aboriginal people completing our mainstream treatment programs and improving their quality of life,” Dr Allan said.

“Raechel has grown the team from three to eight staff, and in the last 12 months has created two trainee positions for local people.

“The trainee positions use a ‘grow your own’ strategy to provide a way for the local community to develop their own solutions to harm done by substance use.”

Ms Wallace was recognised for her holistic view of service provision that includes health and well-being programs, youth programs such as ‘sista speak’ and hip hop events, needle and syringe programs, and suicide prevention work.

The Bega team were personally congratulated by keynote speaker, associate professor Ted Wilkes, for their successful projects.