New South Wales
Casey Stoner
World MotoGP champion
Casey Stoner is Australia's world champion motorcycle racer, cementing his place in this year's MotoGP competition with a home win at Phillip Island in October. Casey first competed when he was four years old, in a race for under-nine's, and he won his first national title at the ripe old age of six. By the time he was fourteen he had won 41 dirt and long track titles and 70 state titles. In a single weekend he won 32 of 35 races and all of the five titles up for grabs. Because the legal age for road racing in Australia is 16, his family took him to compete in Europe. After a string of successes since then, he finally accomplished his ambition of racing in the fastest and most prestigious of the cycle racing classes in 2007. With his highly competitive attitude Casey took on the best in the world and won.
Victoria
Daniel Adams
Poverty fighter
Daniel (Dan) Adams is a change maker, social justice advocate, educator, innovator, and project director. He was instrumental in organising the 2005 concert for the Make Poverty History campaign, the largest youth-run event ever held in Australia. The concert united 24,000 people at live sites across Australia and reached an audience of 500,000. It is remarkable that someone who started out with no music industry contacts, events management experience, or financial backers could make an event of this magnitude happen let alone sign up 50,000 young Australians to a commitment to fight poverty. Since the concert Dan has continued as a passionate advocate for social justice, channelling his energy into a new project, Schools 4 Schools, facilitating a direct link between schools and students in Victoria and Natal in a peer-to-peer leadership program. He has inspired thousands of young people to actively engage in seeking solutions to world poverty.
Queensland
Lars Olsen
Orphans' champion
Lars Olsen set off in 2004 for a stint of helping orphans in Nepal and teaching English as a volunteer. What he found was uplifting - kids facing a life of hardship and destitution yet looking on life with simplicity, love, compassion, and wisdom at such an early age. But Lars was dismayed when he discovered that the small orphanage he worked in was a quagmire of corruption, and worse. After rescuing one of the children from terrible abuse, he set up the Forget Me Not Children's Home, with strict governance in place so that all the funds raised are used directly for the kids' welfare. The number of orphans under care quickly reached ten, with the hope that it will one day rise to thirty. Lars is both the 2007 Suncorp Young Queenslander of the Year and the Australian Youth Development Program Youth Ambassador for 2007/08, both a timely recognition of his tireless dedication to relieving poverty, hunger, and oppression from the world.
Western Australia
Simone McMahon
Organ donor advocate
Born with poor kidney function and suffering chronic renal failure at age nine, Simone McMahon received a kidney transplant when she was eleven. She has been passionately promoting organ and tissue donation ever since. Simone is Western Australian State President and a national director of Transplant Australia, a volunteer with the Kidney Health Foundation, and a wish granter with the Starlight Foundation. She is the 3000th Winston Churchill Fellow whose scholarship allowed her to travel to the US, UK and Spain to identify the successful international models of organ and tissue donation and to assess promotional strategies and programs that provide support to transplant recipients, donor families, and living donors. Simone has recently produced a report to share her findings with policy makers, health professionals and researchers in the field in order to advocate for improved organ and tissue practices and has received the Prime Ministers Centenary Medal for her continued contribution to the field. Simone's story inspires people to consider organ donation as an act of kindness that replaces despair with hope, giving people on transplant waiting lists the courage to face an otherwise unbearably uncertain future.
South Australia
Niki Vasilakis
Musician
Niki Vasilakis is widely regarded as one of Australia's most exciting musicians and one of the world's up and coming violinists. She has already played her solo violin concertos with some of the finest orchestras in the world. Her regular media appearances and her busy international schedule of concerts have made her a familiar face with a wide public. Niki took up violin at age four because her parents suspected she had ADHD, using her daily practice to temper her over-energetic behaviour. She became so keen that she often wagged school to practise. Her career has taken her to Europe, China, New Zealand, the Rockefeller Centre in New York, Washington Cathedral, and the Sydney Opera House. Niki is also lead violinist with Australia's premier trio, TrioZ, and regularly volunteers her time running school holiday programs in remote Indigenous communities.
Tasmania
Robyn McKinnon
Youth mentor
Robyn McKinnon has a remarkable record of youth support and counselling in schools and is also a trained sexual assault crisis worker. Robyn has been a youth mentoring program coordinator for Northern Tasmania Development, an award winning entity owned by eight local councils that identifies and facilitates worthy community initiatives. She has set up projects that provide an early morning meal at school for children in need and an after school mentoring program for young rural girls that focuses on building self esteem and healthy lifestyles and has trained 40 community members as mentors. Robyn is dedicated to raising awareness of child sexual abuse and developing support programs that help young people make the transition to adulthood. Robyn has been member of the Tasmanian Youth Consultative Committee, one of three Tasmanians on the 2007 National Youth Roundtable, a member of the Launceston Women's Shelter management committee and is the 2007 Tasmanian Young Achiever of the Year in the Spirit of Tasmania category.
Australian Capital Territory
Xian-Zhi Soon
High achiever
Xian Zhi Soon is passionate about tackling issues affecting young people and being a catalyst for positive change. His belief in a compassionate and tolerant society forms a continuing theme in his work as a youth advocate. Even in his early high school days, Zhi was known as a bright young man keen to help others. His community service led to his being awarded a scholarship for three consecutive years. He was recognised in 2003 for his exceptional achievements as one of NSW's most outstanding students. Zhi was member of the National Youth Roundtable in 2003 and in 2005 joined the NSW Board of Studies, the youngest member ever appointed. Since moving to Canberra to complete his studies he has channelled his energy into developing the next generation of community leaders as co-founder of the Ashtyn Institute, a think-tank providing a forum for young people to engage in the public policy debate.
Northern Territory
Simone Liddy
Groundbreaker
With Simone Liddy's outstanding academic and sport abilities all career paths were open to her when she finished school in 2004. She selected a career in which there are few Indigenous people, and one which will enable her to make a significant contribution to the health of Indigenous Territorians. When she graduates from Charles Darwin University she will be a true trailblazer - the first Indigenous graduate in a Bachelor of Pharmacy course. In addition to her strenuous study load she works in the Pharmacy Department of the Royal Darwin Hospital and is an elite athlete with the NT Institute of Sport, representing the Territory in hockey and last year becoming a rookie member of the Northern Territory Pearls in the Australian Hockey League. Simone's story of high achievement is used by the university as a role model when visiting high schools to talk to Indigenous youths about career pathways and opportunities.
