Eight are shire residents, and the other three are former Australian netball captain Liz Ellis, who lives near Lismore, former hockey Olympian Brent Livermore, and Woolgoolga gymnastics coach Julie Wales.

Our baton bearers are:

Another person with a strong connection to Dorrigo, Mark Donaldson VC, has been named for Coffs Harbour.

Queensland Premier Palaszczuk said the list of names, selected through a community nomination program, is a great reflection of Australia.

“The lists of names have been compiled by judging panels in each state and territory, allowing local knowledge to play the greatest possible role in the selection process,” the Premier said.

“The batonbearers recognise the achievements and aspirations of Australians from all walks of life, from ambitious 10-year-olds to humble volunteers and well-known Australians from a variety of fields.

“Collectively, our batonbearers will take more than a million steps through every state and territory, sharing the excitement of GC2018 with regional and remote communities.”

Already the baton has been passed between thousands of people across Africa, the Caribbean, the Americas and Europe, and it will arrive in Australia on December 24, Christmas Eve.

The baton will then travel through every state and territory over 100 days, covering 40,000km to bring it to the GC2018 opening ceremony on April 4.

Australia’s youngest batonbearer is 10-year-old Corbin Easton and the oldest is 100-year-old Bill Bruce.  

Running is not central to the relay and on average, each batonbearer will only carry it for about 200m.

Name: Peter Tarran

Year of Birth: 1959

Peter Tarran was nominated by Dorrigo SES Unit Controller Ellie Luhr, and his nomination story reads:

Peter has been an active member of the Dorrigo SES for over 30 years. He is the Senior Rescue Officer and has a calming influence on the other volunteers. He has the type of personality that on jobs when people are at their most vulnerable he is able to put them at ease in that quiet way that lets you know it’s going to be ok. He gives his time to the Dorrigo community not only in his role with the SES but also to his family and grandchildren and many other endeavours. Peter inspires those around him to excel. His list of awards include; State Emergency Service Long Service Medal of 30 years (he will receive his medal for 35 years later in the year), National Service Medal of 25 years, Royal Humane Society Award for Bravery and Bravery Medal.

“I received an email saying that I’d been nominated and asking if I’d like to accept,” Peter said. “At first I really didn’t think I was worthy of it but my wife convinced me to say yes.”

Peter’s involvement with the SES is a family affair. He has 10 children and six of them are SES volunteers, and so is his wife.

His Bravery Medal was for the rescue of a driver on the Dorrigo Mountain in the early 1990s.

“He’d gone over the edge one night and we had to recover him,” Peter said. “Four of us received a medal for that one. He went down quite a long way, I think it was over 200m he went down.”

These days, with the guardrails in place, going over the edge is unlikely, but even back then plummeting so far was unusual, Peter said.

“Most of them would just go a few metres down and get jammed in the trees and lantana and stuff. Now with all the barriers up we don’t lose any over the side of the road any more.”

The driver was local farmer Wayne Burley.

“He survived, he was very lucky given what happened,” Peter said.

Over the next few months, the Bellingen Shire Courier-Sun will run profiles of other local batonbearers.