Mr Graham Davey, the YABBA President for more than 20 years, passed away on Thursday 11 April 2013

Graham Davey was a good friend to KOALA over many years. He was a passionate believer in the rights of children to have their say in ‘judging’ what were the best books for them, hence his dedication to YABBA and children’s choice awards in general. He willingly shouldered most of the workload involved in the operation of the REAL Awards involving the children’s choice awards in NSW, ACT and NT as well as VIC but he never claimed any credit for himself or YABBA.

A quick call to Graham was never that – he always had time to chat, discuss problems and share ideas. YABBA and KOALA regularly borrowed ideas from each other and Graham was always generous in sharing the resources created for YABBA. In my time as president of KOALA I had many conversations with Graham about the future direction of children’s choice awards and the creation of a national children’s choice award was one of his dreams.

Our sympathy goes to his family and friends and especially the YABBA team. They will be big shoes for someone to fill.

Val Noake

Past President of KOALA Council

A tribute to Graham Davey from the YABBA Committee