On Friday, 7 August, Business Uralla brought our business community together for the 2026 Uralla Business Excellence Awards — a celebration of the incredible businesses, people and personalities that make Uralla such a great place to live, work and do business.
The awards are about much more than trophies. They’re about recognising the big ideas, the new ventures, the established businesses, the teams working behind the scenes and the people who continue to invest their time, energy and passion into our community.
There was plenty to celebrate in 2026. The below numbers are a wonderful reflection of the confidence, creativity and fresh energy coming into our local business community.
This year, the awards also aligned with the Business NSW Awards program, introducing a simpler nomination process, independent judging and a pathway for local winners to progress to the New England North West Regional and NSW State Awards.
It’s an exciting opportunity to put our local businesses on an even bigger stage.
A fantastic 50% of nominations came from first-time entrants.
25% of nominations were in the Outstanding New Business category.
The best part of the awards was simply bringing people together.
Business owners, employees, families, friends and supporters gathered at The Alternate Root for an evening of great food, great company and plenty of celebration.
Our guest speaker, Tim Coates, shared his insights and experiences in regional business before attention turned to the awards themselves. There were cheers, applause, a few nervous moments as envelopes were opened, and plenty of reasons to be proud.
Guests enjoyed a delicious dinner showcasing Uralla’s top quality local produce, followed by live music from Chilli Jam, keeping the celebrations going into the evening.
Behind every business is a person — or a team of people — with a story, a passion, a dream and a whole lot of hard work.
That’s what makes the Uralla Business Excellence Awards so special.
It’s an opportunity to stop for a moment, look around and recognise the enormous contribution our local businesses make to the economic and social fabric of our community.
To all our nominees, finalists, winners, sponsors, volunteers and supporters — thank you.
Thank you for backing local. Thank you for backing each other. And thank you for helping make Uralla a vibrant, welcoming and thriving place to do business.
Here’s to our people, our businesses and the next chapter of business in Uralla!
We thank these businesses who have taken the time to recognise the contributions of their staff in the success of their business, and to recognise their own driving forces and passion behind their own business success.
Nominations don’t happen by accident, they are a deliberate and conscious decision to reflect on their business journey, to recognise what are their strengths and what builds the brand, and define their direction into the future. We thank everyone who took the time to nominate for these awards.