The awards, which were open to all Central West residents (not just mums), saw three Orange finalists pick up wins.

Mum of the Year was won by Shona Millar; Business of the Year was taken out by Argyle Australian Saffron - owned by Angela and Brendon Argyle, while Libby Johnson won Angel of the Year.

Educator Of The Year was picked up by Cowra's Emma Tree; Blayney's Penny Rohleder won Hero Of The Year, and Elsie and Henry Mahon from Parkes won Garden Of The Year with 'Zephranthe'.

Central West Mums' founder and creator of the Mummys, Amorette Zielinski, was delighted with the community response to the inaugural awards and looked forward to making them a regular staple of Mumsfest - which had to be postponed from this month to March 2022 because of COVID.

"I launched the Central West Mummy Awards to publicly acknowledge the amazing resilient people and businesses that give practical help to families every day," she explained.

"Our Central West community has been through devastating drought, mouse plagues and COVID over the last few years, and this has an impact on our mental health and wellbeing, as well as on small businesses.

"I guess, for the first year [of the Mummy awards], I thought that I would just start with six categories that I feel... families connect with every day, [as well as] categories that [would recognise]... volunteers and frontline, support workers."

Over the course of the six weeks that voting was open to the public, Ms Zielinski said the Central West community really got behind the finalists, casting thousands of votes.

"[It was] fabulous. I mean, I couldn't have predicted that it would turn out that way, and I'm really thrilled that so many people went online and voted," she said.

"All [the finalists were] deserving. The three finalists in each category were all amazing," Ms Zielinski added.

"I was just excited to see that the winners came from all different areas in the Central West because I really wanted these awards to give lots of people a voice and... be highlighted."

Tickets are on sale now through the Central West Mums' website for their next event, 'Mumsfest', which will be held on March 12 at the Greenhouse.

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