In front of a small but significant crowd at the Canowindra Services Club last Wednesday, Inspector Rowlands said the day was a chance to thank those who work tirelessly to keep their communities ticking over.

"It's really an honour to come here and be able to address people and present an award to people who, under normal circumstances, we don't hear from," he said.

"There are people out there who I'm sure do things on a daily basis, no pay, no thanks, they just go and do it and that is Australia.

"You help your mates, help your friends, help people down the road you don't even know."

Inspector Rowlands said it this attitude he sees often on the job.

"We had an incident the other day, a serious accident in a town in this area and people just turned out of their houses and took people in and took animals in," he said.

"No thanks nothing, just amazing what they do and what we do in this community."

In his mind, Inspector Rowlands said, every day is a chance to celebrate Australia and our lives in the lucky country.

"We have a gathering here today which is free and open and we can come and go as we please," he said.

"What an amazing country we are in. There are places in the world where we can't do this, so I think it's incredible.

"I believe, personally, Australia Day is 365 days of the year. While ever we are here and breathing, it's Australia Day."

He also noted the amazing work done by Australians in terms of inventions and how the next generation will lead the country into the future.

"The advances that I've found in my job, in medicine, in all sorts of areas that Australians have excelled in I find absolutely unbelieveable," he said.

"The fact that we have people in this country who have the skills to put mechanical things together, that they can send up to Mars, unbelieveable.

"And other things that have been invented in this country, going right back to the harvester and all sorts of things like that.

"This country, the bigger challenge we have, the better we like it I think."

Looking at the country's current challenges, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, Inspector Rowlands hopes young people will answer the call and help their fellow Australians.

"I still enjoy training the young people and they're the important people in the community," he said.

"I'm sure there's young people here today who hopefully would like to do a job like mine because we need them.

"We need nurses, we need people on the front line, more today than we ever have with COVID and everyone is sick from other things."

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