QUEENSLAND: Jayantha Wickramatunga, a civil engineer, has won the prestigious ‘Australian of the Year’ award from the Department of Transport and Main roads of Queensland which has over 7,000 employees. Jayantha is the Principle Engineer in the department where around 400 engineers are employed.
Jayantha has given his knowledge, time and leisure for the benefit of the country he lives in and was honoured with the prestigious award for exceptional community work done by him since arriving in Australia in 1994.
The Daily News quoted the engineer as saying that the award brought honour to all Sri Lankans living in Australia as a migrant community and it helped promote the name and fame of Sri Lanka.
“The recognition I have received must encourage the younger generation of Sri Lankans to contribute to the betterment of the land we live in and interact with the people of this country. Lots of Sri Lankans hold top positions in various fields in this country and if we all have a positive attitude and a love for the country we live in it will do good for the people who are willing and waiting to come to Australia,” he added.
“In addition to the numerous volunteer work I do for the Sri Lankan community I do a programme called “Mission for Vision programme” with Bangladesh. This contributed immensely for my nomination for the award. They realized that my community work is not only limited to Sri Lanka and Australia. They said they were happy to note that I have no borders when it comes community work. So they see me as an Ambassador who has taken Sri Lankan values to promote humanity, loving kindness and compassion.” Jayantha said.
Jayantha is a Director of the Ethnic Broadcasting association of Queensland. He serves as the President of the Institute of Sri Lankan Engineers, Queensland Chapter and is a corresponding member of the Engineers Australia, Queensland Division, Founder President of Old Anandian Group, Queensland and former convenor of the Sri Lankan ethnic group 4EB radio in Queensland.
When receiving the ‘Australian of the Year’ award, he said his late parents Don Simon Hewa Wickramatunga and Leelawathi Dias Gunasekera, who were both teachers, sacrificed a lot to give him a good education. Having studied at Mirissa Maha Vidyalaya and then at Rahula, Wickramatunga gained his higher education at Ananda College, Maradana. Later he entered Peradeniya University and became a Civil Engineer. In 1990 he married Tharangi Renuka Hettiarachchi and is blessed with two children. The projects he served as an engineer while he was in Sri Lanka include the Kothmale dam project, the State Development and Construction corporation and the Road Development Authority.
“My vision for the future is to lift the image of Sri Lanka through committed work through the Institute of Engineers Sri Lanka, Queensland chapter.”
