Knox, who will go on to compete against finalists throughout Australia for the LIA/GAMAA $16000 National Graduate Scholarship, told Australian Printer her win can be credited to hard work, and strong support from her employers and teachers.

She says, “I have had such a good apprenticeship and my teachers have always believed in me, which made me believe in myself. They taught me I could do anything I wanted and in think this must have shown through in the interview.”

Also commenting, Greg Grace chairman of the judges says, “The standard this year was very consistent. In past years we get good finalists with one outstanding however this year it took the judges over an hour to come up with a result as they were all so close in terms of the standard.”

He continues, “The industry has a lot against it but with young candidates like this it also has a lot of good going for it. If they stay then I think the industry is in safe hands.”

The other finalists were Sarah Donvito from Sinnott Bros, Ben Chamberlain from IntoPrint, Phillip Marshall from Amcor Cartons, Wayne Dorch from Pettaras Press, Tim Adams from STI Lilyfield Printing, Chantel Bailey from Hann Print and Marko Ristovski from Alfred Johns.

Entertaining guest on the night was keynote speaker Chris Trethewy, a critical care physician for the department of rural critical care, who spoke of the extraordinary challenges of being a member of an airborne response team in rural NSW.

Prior to the awards ceremony the NSW LIA held its annual general meeting where Ray Berwick was re-elected as president and David Wells of DS Chemport was appointed vice president. Denise Thompson was elected as secretary while Mike Williams retained the position of treasurer.

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