Neidra Hill AM, life member of Metropolitan South West Hockey association, has sadly passed away. Neidra was a fundamental force within our local association and across the sporting community of the local area. She pioneered grass roots sports in the Macarthur area, with hockey but also significantly contributing to softball within our LGA.
- President of the Association from 1989-2010
- 1993 Life member of Macarthur District Women's Hockey Association and Macarthur Hockey Association
- 1994 Camden Sports Person of the Year
- 2000 Member of the Order of Australia (AM)
- 2000 Australian Sports Medalist
- 2017 Field named in her honour at Macarthur Hockey Complex
In 1988, Neidra was a member of the Macarthur Area Joint Negotiation Committee, spearheading a group working towards negotiating with local councils and government towards building a synthetic hockey field for the region. Through this journey she, and other members, took a road trip to hockey venues including Lithgow, Bathurst, Parkes, ACT, Albury and Wagga Wagga to ensure they designed the best synthetic field for our needs when building our first field.
Although she was a pioneer for hockey in Macarthur, she put her heart and sole into further developing the skills of players coaching numerous Macarthur Skylarks Hockey teams and running and organising school and holiday clinics.
Neidra was extremely active in helping to secure much needed funds and locations to build our first field and was President while we undertook to build our second and resurface our original sand-based field converting to water-base and establishing our amenities block.
Neidra was involved in hockey for over 50 years, coaching, umpiring and dedicating her time and energy completing tasks to ensure our facilities were in their best condition. When things weren’t going well from when we started looking for funding (for 5 long years), Neidra always had faith that our goal would be reached and kept us going.
We could write books on Nedra's contributions, knowledge and commitment to our sport and the hockey community. We are entirely thankful for her work.
May she Rest In Peace, and Neidra's commitment and love for our sport continue to live on.
