OAM
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Honour ‘quite a shock’
Eve Lamb Truth is we all get old, if we’re lucky, so it’s nice to know that someone like Marilyn Bennet is out there doing what she does. The prodigious amount of work that the longtime Castlemaine local pours into improving her community, and particularly the lot of seniors, has played a major role in…
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Royal honour for fest favourite
There’s hardly a person in Kyneton who doesn’t know Marg Dearricott. In perhaps her best known role as the long-running secretary of the Kyneton Daffodil and Arts Festival, Ms Dearricott has been front and centre in celebrating her close-knit community for the past 18 years. It’s that commitment to community that has seen her awarded…
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Digital health leader honoured
Harcourt North resident Professor Kathleen Gray has been awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia for service to medicine through digital health education.Prof Gray said she had been working in the ever-evolving sector for more than 20 years and was delighted and overwhelmed to be acknowledged for her contribution. Digital health is the use…
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OAM for passionate planter
Declaring to all and sundry that you’re going to plant a million trees is a fairly big boast.But Chewton’s Dr Maggie McLeod did just that.“It was back in the ’80s at an Werner Erhard seminar that I got up and opened my mouth and said ‘I’m going to plant a million trees,” she recalls.“I had…
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A super contribution
Joe Farrugia is a self-confessed advocate for industry superannuation funds and would recommend anyone thinking of joining one to do so.It’s sound advice too, coming from a man whose 49-year contribution to the superannuation sector has just been recognised with a Medal of the Order of Australia in this year’s Queen’s Birthday Honours. “All the…
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OAMs for Castlemaine climate activist couple
Australia needs to step up to the plate on climate action, Castlemaine’s newly named OAM recipients Neil and Heather Barrett say. The two veteran campaigners for the environment and climate action have been individually named recipients of the Order of Australia medal. Each told the Midland Express they initially thought the prestigious Australia Day honour…
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Fryerstown photographer gets OAM
Receiving a Medal of the Order of Australia, acclaimed local photographer Julie Millowick has taken this Queen’s Birthday opportunity to urge for decisive support for renewables transition, describing our times as at a “turning point”. The Fryerstown-based creative has received her accolade for service to the visual arts – particularly photography. The long-serving lecturer in…
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Queen’s Birthday gong for a ‘£10 Pom’
Arriving in Australia in 1957, aged 25 and a proud ‘Ten Pound Pom’, Ron Alexander never looked back. The carpenter loved the larrikin fun of Australian building sites and was soon dubbed ‘Ron the Pom’. “I didn’t take offence to it, it was a term of endearment as far as I was concerned. You give…
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Richly deserved
Castlemaine resident and respected beekeeper Eileen McDonald has been awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia for service to the community of Mount Alexander Shire, and to apiculture. The mother of six and passionate apiarist said she was shocked and a little embarrassed when she first got news of the award. “Being named the…
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A quiet generosity
Despite decades of charitable work in the community, Gisborne’s Elaine Millar “never in a million years” expected to be named in the Queen’s Birthday Honours. In fact, in her surprise, she almost didn’t reply to confirmation correspondence from the Governor General’s office. “When I first read it, I thought, ‘this isn’t right, it must be…
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An unbreakable bond
A love for his community shines through when you meet born and bred Kyneton local Eric Scoble. “It’s a bond with everyone in Kyneton, everyone seems to band together and stick together, it’s unbelievable,” he says. Born in 1951, the middle child in a family of 14 children, Eric remembers fondly the generosity and kindness…