by Mat Churchill


After receiving the Volunteer of the Year award for the Cairns region in front of 500 people at the Cairns Civic Theatre on Australia Day, James Watson talked to The Newsport Daily about what motivates him to continue working for his community.

Mr Watson's tireless efforts include working with Rotary, Art House Port Douglas, a Parkinsons support group, and many others, and he can often be seen in his bright shirts cleaning up Four Mile Beach and maintaining the beautiful landscape garden he created on Nautilus Street.

Watch the video interview with James Watson (top left)    

"The thing is that each day…you get up and you realise this is what you've got to do here or there. Each day I'm setting certain goals and I achieve that."

Mr Watson, who was born in Africa and lived in harrowing conditions , described how coming to Australia 1968 changed the way he saw life.

"I came up in a very traumatic area, and then I was involved with the uprising in Myanmar and all that so I was really traumatised. So when I came to Australia with my family in 1968, it's such a different thing… I just changed like that.

"By doing that, I was so keen to help other people do the same. That's really what leads me on, and where I can see there's help needed I'll do that.

"I never thought I'd get it (the award). I thought there were far more people worthier than me. When they called the runner-up I though well that's it, I'm finished, and when they did call me, WHOO-HOO!

"It was out of this world because I'd never done anything like that before. And when I was going up I couldn't believe the number of handshakes, from complete strangers."