Walmer resident Sharyn Williams is among 732 outstanding and inspirational Australians to be recognised on the 2025 Australia Day Honours List.
Awarded a Public Service Award for outstanding service in the agricultural sector and for supporting Victoria’s rural regions, Sharyn told the Express she was thankful to have been given a lot of opportunities and support throughout her career.
“There have been so many people who have encouraged me to take my ideas forward and to achieve the best outcomes,” she said.
“One thing that has helped me with my career, to give the best that I could give to the public service, is the family support behind me. My husband, and when my kids were younger, my mum, they were all there to help me work through what I saw as important to support the community.”
A highly accomplished public sector leader with more than 25 years’ experience spanning science, policy and operations, Sharyn has dedicated her life to supporting Victoria’s rural regions and agriculture sector, particularly in relation to biosecurity emergencies and driving regulatory reforms to deliver better outcomes for the agricultural sector.
“A lot of people say to me, ‘What do you do? What do you get out of it?’ and I say, ‘It’s my job to make sure you have good quality food to sit down to eat every night for dinner’.
“People also ask why I work for the public service. It’s because I want to help people. I’ve been able to learn from the farmers about what is best for them. I love working and helping the farmers. Every time I see a program that I’ve put together or delivered, to see the results and the benefits that our ag industry and farmers get from it is amazing,” she said.
In 2022, Sharyn, who was born and bred in Elphinstone, was responsible for the establishment of the Biosecurity Service Centre, which is now a ‘one stop shop’ for the customer-facing regulatory service, e.g. provision of licences, permits and approvals.
A class two controller for biosecurity emergencies, Sharyn capably led Victoria through the 2020 avian influenza outbreak, the largest biosecurity emergency Victoria has faced in more than 20 years.
“When I first started out, I was a field officer, working with land owners to do land management improvements, productivity and agriculture. At that time biosecurity was becoming a bigger issue across Australia and globally,” she said.
“The first big one for us was Queensland fruit fly. We were working on the eradication of that for a long time, but I learnt from that you need everybody to be part of a program. It’s not just up to government to regulate, it’s up to the industries and communities to work together.”
