Cadet of the Year Award

Federal Cadet of the Year 2026

Cadet of the Year Award

The Federal Cadet of the Year assessments were held last Sunday, 22nd February 2026, and the following participants are congratulated for being nominated by their respective Groups and for all putting in an impressive performance on the day, and all can be considered winners.

The participants were:
Participants for the Female Award

  • Leading Cadet Roisin Herath of Victoria Group
  • Leading Cadet Aamina Dars of South Australia Group
  • Leading Cadet Grace Thatcher of New South Wales Group

Participants for the Male Award

  • Corporal Shawn Yao of Victoria Group
  • Sergeant Josh Friend of South Australia Group
  • Corporal Oliver Dunk of New South Wales Group
  • Sergeant Bogdan Bek of Queensland Group

The process, as used in previous years utilising the capabilities of MS Teams and from the comfort of the participants’ (and assessors’) homes was again successful. 

The selection process included the following contributing components which were weighted to produce a result.

  • Knowledge Test 15%
  • Inspection 5%
  • Presentation 30%
  • Interview 35%

For the presentation, each candidate prepared a fifteen-minute audio-visual presentation delivered to the activity coordinator (Federal Education Commissioner, Commissioner Brendan Willard) a week before the event and marked by members of Federal Staff. The presentations were all a high standard, and participants are to be congratulated on the quality of the preparation and execution of the task. The topic covered by the presentations was The Importance of Crew Resource Management in Aviation.

The Interview Process provided valuable feedback from the participants, and from this it has been decided to re-establish the Cadet of the Year Advisory Group (COYAG).

COYAG was suggested, in 2012, by the late Comr. Tom Short with its aims 

  • to generate ‘upward feedback’ on a range of pre-selected themes and is based on thoughtful, positive input from senior cadet leaders
  • to be a communications channel that transcends organisational hierarchy and removes structural barriers 
  • Aimed at developing new and innovative ideas for future achievement of strategy
  • Intended to harvest real-time tacit knowledge and opinions from cadet members

COYAG last met in 2017, and we look forward to its resurgence.

All participants competently represented their individual Squadrons and their Groups at this event with Chief Commissioner Ian Rickards OAM, LM., DSA and Bar, MSA congratulating all and announcing that the successful participants for the Federal Cadet of the Year, 2026 were:

Federal Cadet of the Year (Female)

  • Leading Cadet Aamina Dars of South Australia Group

Federal Cadet of the Year (Male)

  • Corporal Oliver Dunk of New South Wales Group

Commissioner Brendan Willard is to be thanked for his efforts in organising and managing this event.  He was assisted on the day by Commissioners Brian Grinter, DSA, MSA, Troy Norton and Joel Mortimer and sincere thanks go to them all for making they day memorable for the participants.

Presentation of certificates, badges and trophies occur at an appropriate opportunity in the not-too-distant future.

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