Ms Hull is an artistic associate and access and inclusion at Arena Theatre Company who hopes to use the prize to further develop her leadership skills and ensure theatre is accessible to everyone.

The Castlemaine woman has been living with neurological condition Charcot Marie Tooth disorder since age five.

Read more:

As a person with a disability, Ms Hull recognised that she has the chance to see more people with disabilities get involved in theatre.

"People with disabilities are often not in leadership positions," she said. "I want to enable more people to come forward and gain the skills they need so they can (reach their goals).

"I am also a musician and singer and have been doing that since I was five - the same age I got my disability. I love theatre and the arts, so Arena is a great fit for me. I have combined my role with access and inclusion work to make sure theatre is inclusive of people with disabilities- both audiences and artists."

Ms Hull said theatres are beginning to look more closely at how they can include more people.

"We have still got so much further to go but the conversations are starting to happen. That's the main thing," she said. "Arena is starting to say 'who are we excluding?' They have things in place like relaxed performances for the neruodiverse and Auslan for the deaf and hard of hearing.

"The real aim is that we as company are getting to the forefront of access and inclusion to enable more change, more widely."

As part of her access and inclusion roll, Ms Hull developed an Access and Inclusion Plan that anyone can download to help them develop more inclusive practices.

She has also had a hand in Arena productions, most recently with Bendigo's South Sudanese community when they created BAAI.

Arena's executive director Sharon Custers said it was great to see Ms Hull recognised.

"We have benefited from her wisdom and strength for the last two years since she started with Arena in 2019," Ms Custers said. "We want to congratulate her for winning this national award.

"Thank you to the Australia Council for recognising what we already know about Eliza - that she was born to be a leader."

She hopes to used her $10,000 prize from the Arts Access Australia National Leadership Award.to expand her skills.

"I was very surprised and very honoured to win it," she said. "And I am excited for the future to take me further with my access and inclusion role in Arena but also where it can take me in my freelance career where I journalism and work as a disability advocate.

"I am planning to use the money for training with different organisations that teach leadership skills and can really grow my confidence."

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can access our trusted content: