New South Wales finalists for Australian of the Year, Senior Australian of the Year, Young Australian of the Year and Australia's Local Hero awards were announced today. They include a world champion surfer, a pioneer business woman, an indigenous literacy campaigner, a nurse and a theatre legend.
There are four finalists in each award category and recipients will be announced at the NSW Australian of the Year Awards event on Thursday 27 November 2008 in Sydney. The New South Wales recipients will then join recipients from all other States and Territories as finalists for the national awards. The national awards will be announced on 25 January 2009.
Ms Tam Johnston, Director of the Australian of the Year Awards, said the finalists were selected from more than 3,300 nominations received from across the nation.
"This year, the New South Wales finalists represent many different parts of the community," said Ms Johnston.
"They include quiet contributors, household names and well known achievers but all are either giving back or working to make a difference to others in some way."
The NSW finalists are:
NSW AUSTRALIAN OF THE YEAR
Layne Beachley - Surfing legend
Professor Simon Chapman - Anti-tobacco campaigner (Sydney University)
Liz Ellis - Netball great
Glenn McGrath AM - Cricketer & fundraiser (Sutherland Shire)
NSW SENIOR AUSTRALIAN OF THE YEAR
John Bell AM - Actor and director
June Dally-Watkins OAM - Businesswoman
Dr Catherine Hamlin AC - Fistula surgery pioneer (Wahroonga)
Lorraine Peeters - Stolen Generation supporter (Terranora)
NSW YOUNG AUSTRALIAN OF THE YEAR
Craig Ashby (Gamilaroi) - Indigenous literacy campaigner (Summer Hill)
Daniel Clarke - Entrepreneur and mentor (Blakehurst)
Kurt Fearnley OAM - Paraylmpian (Bar Beach)
Mimi Zou - Community services volunteer (Campsie)
NSW LOCAL HERO
Susan Elder - Nurse & inventor (Westleigh)
John Harper - Mental health advocate (Stockinbingal)
Captain Paul Moulds - Homeless youth supporter (Bondi Junction)
Dr Jamal Rifi - Cultural leader (Belmore)
This year marks the thirtieth anniversary of the Commonwealth Bank's involvement with the Australian of the Year Awards.
For more information of the Australian of the Year Awards visit www.australianoftheyear.org.au
Ends.
Finalist bios attached with this media release or downloadable from www.australianoftheyear.org.au
For further information or to arrange an interview please contact:
Nicole Browne, Media Opps 02 9954 7677 or 0414 673 762 or nicole@mediaopps.com.au
NEW SOUTH WALES FINALISTS 2009
Australian of the Year - NSW Finalists
Layne Beachley
Surfing legend
Layne Beachley is regarded as the best female professional surfer in the sport's history, having won the World Championship seven consecutive times. She turned professional at the age of 16 and made a remarkable rise through the ranks in a very male-dominated sport. By the age of 20 she was already ranked sixth in the world. But in 1993 and 1996 she suffered two episodes of chronic fatigue that threatened to end her career. A mental, physical and emotional challenge, she overcame the illness to become the Women's ASP World Champion in 1988. She now dominates the sport, holding the record for the greatest winning margin in the world title race and for the greatest number of consecutive World Championship victories by any competitor. Having experienced the financial pressures of supporting her career for the first eight years, Layne established the Aim for the Stars Foundation to inspire girls and women to achieve their academic, sporting, community and cultural dreams. Layne Beachley is a phenomenal competitor and an outstanding role model for women around the world.
Professor Simon Chapman
Anti-tobacco campaigner
Based at the University of Sydney's School of Public Health, Professor Simon Chapman has worked for many years championing public health causes. He has been particularly inspirational in taking on the powerful tobacco industry, successfully lobbying for measures to reduce the uptake, usage and flammability of tobacco products. In doing so he has without a doubt reduced the financial and emotional burden associated with tobacco related illness in our society. He has also been a pioneer in the field of public health advocacy, lobbying across numerous mediums to put tobacco usage on the political agenda. He is the author of 14 books and major government reports and 352 publications in peer-reviewed journals. In 1997, he won a World Health Organisation gold medal for tobacco control, and this year was named Outstanding Cancer Researcher of the Year in the NSW Premier's Award. In 2003, he was listed in The Bulletin's top 10 smartest, most innovative and creative people in the field of health and medicine. Professor Chapman analyses the most important tasks facing global tobacco control with penetrating insight, providing a road map of what must be done to ensure the health of our community.
Liz Ellis
Netball great
Liz Ellis has had an amazing sporting career and has been a positive role model for other young sports people. She began playing netball at the age of eight with the Greens Netball Club in the Hawkesbury Association, and is still a member and club sponsor to this day. Liz overcame her asthma to play in the Australian Netball Team for 14 years, and has a long list of sporting achievements to her credit. She is a former captain of the Sydney Swifts and is the only player to have represented the Swifts at every Commonwealth Bank Trophy since the competition's inception in 1997. She helped Australia win two Commonwealth Games gold medals, three World Netball Championships, and captained the Australian Netball Team for three years. She is the most capped netball player of all time with 122 test matches, winning the World Championship Gold Medal in 2007. Although Liz retired from netball last year, she has continued contributing to the sporting community through the netball clinics that she began in 1997 to help improve young netballers skills and fitness. Liz has helped raise the profile of netball in Australia and inspired young people in the process.
Glenn McGrath AM
Cricketer and fundraiser
Glenn McGrath is one of Australia's most loved cricketing legends. Since first wearing the baggy green cap in Perth in 1993, he has gone on to become the most prolific fast bowler in test cricket history, spearheading Australia's bowling attack for over a decade. Professionally he has always demonstrated an unerring will to succeed, but off the field it is the way he has handled personal struggles that has gained him admiration. Glenn's wife, Jane, was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1997, cancer of the hip six years later and had a brain tumour removed in early 2006. Together they established the McGrath Foundation, with an aim to provide funding for breast care nurses on a national basis and provide greater public awareness of breast cancer, particularly amongst younger women. The McGrath Foundation is now a major fundraiser for and supporter of people with breast cancer. In June this year Jane lost her 11-year battle with cancer, leaving Glenn to care for their two children. Throughout it all Glenn has shown enormous strength and dignity, setting an inspirational example.
Senior Australian of the Year - NSW Finalists
John Bell AM
Actor and director
John Bell may have started life as a shy child with a stutter but he has become a great Australian actor and a daring director. As co-founder of the Nimrod Theatre Company, John presented many premiere and landmark productions of Australian plays in the 1970s and 1980s. He also spent five years with The Royal Shakespeare Company in Great Britain before launching his own radical brand of Shakespeare in 1990 with the Bell Shakespeare Company. It was founded on the ideals of uninhibited access to the great classics for as many Australians as possible through productions and education activities. For its first 10 years the company's work was almost exclusively devoted to exploring, preserving and presenting Shakespeare's plays, however they now also occasionally perform other classics. In 2001, John established the Bell Ensemble, offering a group of 13 actors a long-term relationship with the company and an opportunity to develop their skills over time. A similar commitment to director training has since been made. In 2002, John's performance of Richard III earned him a Helpmann Award for Best Actor. John is undoubtedly a theatre legend who has helped shape the Australian theatrical tradition and make it what it is today.
June Dally-Watkins OAM
Business woman
The name June Dally-Watkins is synonymous with etiquette, manners, and modelling. Affectionately known as Miss Dally, her career took off in 1949 when she was named Model of the Year and Australia's Most Photographed Model. After every fashion show women flocked to her for advice, so in 1950 she established Australia's first ever deportment school followed by our first modelling agency in 1952. Both were highly successful and June's name became an icon in the business world. In 1953, she started a family but continued working hard to develop her business at a time when women in business were rare. June eventually expanded the school to include Australia's first Business Finishing College, as well as school holiday programs, weekend courses and corporate training. For the last 58 years she has continued to pass on her skills to more than 300,000 eager students. She was also involved in fostering the first Australian Fashion Week. At 81 years of age, June remains incredibly active in supporting charities, including as an ambassador for Crossroads International, which provides for the destitute in Third World countries.
Dr Catherine Hamlin AC
Fistula surgery pioneer
Dr Catherine Hamlin is an obstetrician, gynaecologist and co-founder, with her late husband Dr Reginald Hamlin, of the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital. The hospital, located in Ethiopia's capital, is the world's only medical centre dedicated exclusively to providing free fistula repair surgery to poor women suffering from childbirth injuries. It is also a global centre of expertise in fistula repair and trains surgeons from around the world. Dr Hamlin has since opened hospitals in a further three Ethiopian cities, and this year opened the Hamlin Midwifery College in Addis Ababa in an attempt to prevent fistula damage. When she arrived in Ethiopia in 1959 there were almost no resources for expectant mothers. Since then she has treated more than 34,000 women, restoring their health and dignity. Her work has garnered the respect of the United Nations agency UNFPA, which has recognised her as a pioneer in fistula surgery, and the Global Health Council which awarded her the coveted Best Practices in Global Health Award in 2004. At the age of 84 she is still performing surgery. The New York Times' Nicholas Kristof has described her as a modern day Mother Teresa.
Lorraine Peeters
Stolen Generation supporter
Like many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children of her generation, Lorraine Peeters was forcibly removed from her family at the age of four and placed in an institution. Through the healing journey necessitated by this traumatic event, she became involved with helping others from the Stolen Generation. She developed the Marumali model of healing and in response to great demand she established a healing program called Winangali-Marumali in 2000, to support survivors of the Stolen Generation. Participants are empowered by the workshop and its model of healing. The program works in tandem with Link Up, which allows Indigenous people to trace lost family members, and Bringing Them Home counsellors. Recognising that those removed from their families are twice as likely to have been arrested, she also established the Marumali program in Victorian prisons. Since 2002, more than 250 participants have completed the program. Lorraine also played an important role in the National Apology given by the Prime Minister in 2008 to the Stolen Generations. Following the apology, she presented the Prime Minister with a glass coolamon, an Indigenous carrying vessel, to thank him for offering the apology. Lorraine has had a profound impact on helping members of the Stolen Generation to heal.
Young Australian of the Year - NSW Finalists
Craig Ashby (Gamilaroi) - 21
Indigenous literacy campaigner
Just six years ago, at the age of 15, Craig Ashby was unable to read or write. Now he is in his third year of a degree in teaching at Sydney University and achieving excellent results. His journey is remarkable. An Aboriginal man from Walgett in country NSW, Craig was cared for by his Nan until her death. By Year 9 he was moved to an Aboriginal hostel in Dubbo and he began treading a path that looked likely to end in jail. An eventual move to St Joseph's College in Hunters Hill changed everything. Craig began to understand the rewards of learning, his literacy skills improved and his confidence grew. With a new-found pride in his Indigenous roots, Craig began to work as an Ambassador of the Australian Indigenous Education Foundation to help other young Indigenous people realise their potential. He now tutors Indigenous primary school children in Redfern with learning difficulties, and is helping develop and implement programs to encourage Indigenous children in remote communities to attend school. Craig is also working for Father Chris Riley's Youth Off The Streets program. He believes that education is the key to Indigenous advancement and that every young Indigenous person needs a quality education.
Daniel Clarke - 30
Entrepreneur and mentor
At the age of 16, Daniel Clarke started his own computer business while still at school, taking phone calls in his lunch break. Now a successful entrepreneur, he understands that many of the obstacles he faced when starting out can be overcome with practical support. This led to him to found the Enterprise Network for Young Australians (ENYA) to fill the gap that existed in supporting and promoting Australian youth enterprise. Through ENYA, Daniel has launched a number of programs. The ENYA Microfinance Fund provides small interest free loans to individuals trying to establish their own business. In 2006, ENYA opened the Youth Enterprise Legal Centre (YELC), the only legal centre in Australia aimed at supporting young business people. It provides free legal information and reduced-cost advice, with Daniel serving as one of its volunteer solicitors. Since its inception it has grown rapidly and currently manages 400 active cases and 10,000 calls through its advice line. In addition, Daniel is the voluntary director and secretary of the Life Changing Experiences Foundation, which runs free mentoring programs for underprivileged and disadvantaged young women. Daniel has used his success as a young entrepreneur to help give others a chance to make their own lives a success.
Kurt Fearnley OAM - 27
Paralympian
Born without the lower portion of his spine, as a child Kurt Fearnley ignored his disability and joined in every sport possible. At the age of 14 he took up wheelchair racing and has since become an elite international athlete. His never-say-die attitude is truly inspirational. Competing in the marathon at the Athens Paralympics, he pushed his chair for the last five kilometres on a flat tyre to win gold. Then during the New York marathon in 2006 he hit a pot hole at full speed and crashed face first, but still went on to set a course record. In 2007, he won 10 out of the 11 international marathons he competed in, breaking six course records in the process. He is currently world champion in all five distances above 800m. Despite being disqualified in one final at the Paralympics in Beijing, given the wrong lane in another, and having his wheelchair bumped sideways down the track in a third, he took home one gold, two silver and a bronze medal. Kurt has an indomitable spirit and that is truly inspirational.
Mimi Zou - 23
Community services volunteer
Mimi Zou has always been passionate about empowering young people to make a difference. Upholding the belief of 'think globally, act locally,' she has volunteered for many organisations that seek to improve access to and equality in the areas of education, employment, housing, health, law and justice. She has volunteered for many organisations, including Oxfam, Canterbury Youth Council, Chinese Australia Service Society, National Council of Women Australia and NSW Community Relations Canterbury-Bankston Harmony Roundtable. This year she was selected as a delegate to the 2020 Youth Summit, and is currently coordinating the establishment of a community legal clinic in the University of Sydney that will be entirely run by student volunteers. The aim is to encourage students to utilise their legal education to assist those who are disadvantaged and marginalised in the community. Mimi's empathy for others stems from her own background. Arriving in Australia from China at the age of six without a word of English she understands how it feels to be marginalised. She has embraced Australia's multiculturalism and believes we should all celebrate our country's diversity. Her goal is to become an international lawyer so that she is better able to help others.
Australia's Local Hero - NSW Finalists
Susan Elder
Westleigh
Nurse and inventor
Susan Elder has dedicated much of her life to intensive care nursing. Retiring from Hornsby Ku-ring-gai Hospital last year, she left behind a lasting legacy. Susan invented the Hornsby Cooling Kit to save lives around the world. The Kit is her solution to an age-old problem in emergency situations of how to cool a patient quickly in the event of a cardiac arrest or stroke. Previously, the cooling devices available were expensive, labour intensive, often requiring some type of specialist involvement and could not be used until a patient was stabilised in Intensive Care. Susan's kit is inexpensive, easy to use, and fully portable, meaning that it can be used in ambulances as well as hospitals. She has collaborated with company Artic Heat, and the Kit is now being marketed globally. A percentage of the profits from sales go to set a trust at the Hornsby Intensive Care Unit for nursing education. Although retired, Susan visits hospitals to train staff in using the Kit, and is currently developing a neonatal cooling kit. The Australian Army is trialing the Kit for use in rescue situations and treatment of heat stress. Susan managed to invent the Cooling Kit while working double shifts and her creation has the potential to save thousands of lives.
John Harper
Stockinbingal
Mental health advocate
Farmer John Harper has been actively promoting awareness about the need for mental wellbeing in times of stress and anxiety. These feelings are often present for those working in a rural environment, particularly during drought, and after experiencing depression himself John decided to help others in a similar situation. In 2006, he established a grassroots self-help program in Stockinbingal called Mate Helping Mate. Since then, John has raised awareness of mental health issues, organised social activities, and arranged for small rural communities to visit other small communities to provide mutual support during the drought. His informal approach over a sausage sizzle and a beer has encouraged men to open up and discuss their concerns. John believes isolation is one of the main contributors to depression. 'Isolation leaves us with self-doubt that brings us undone … It's bloody dangerous,' he says. John has tried to reach out to as many isolated men as possible. In 2007, the Mate Helping Mate DVD was released in conjunction with St Vincent de Paul and John distributed thousands of copies throughout NSW. John's concept has been such a success it is now being used as a model for other rural communities.
Captain Paul Moulds
Bondi Junction
Homeless youth supporter
As a 19-year-old student Paul Moulds spent his summer volunteering as a youth outreach worker and 27 years later he is still helping Sydney's homeless youth, many of whom are drug addicted, abused, damaged or suffering mental illness. As Director of Oasis in Sydney, The Salvation Army's response to youth homelessness and disadvantage, Paul is literally saving lives every day. With more than 20 innovative services, Oasis offers outreach, accommodation and specialist intervention to help disconnected young people get back on their feet and turn their lives around. Paul manages 70 staff, allocates Oasis's 55 beds to homeless youth and feeds more than 100 kids a night. When he joined the organisation 12 years ago they only provided a bed and a meal, but Paul generated corporate sponsorship to allow them to undertake a host of day programs, including an onsite radio station run by the kids; internet bus; film, editing and production company; outdoor adventure therapy and counselling; training and employment assistance; work in cleaning and gardening; and handyperson experience. Paul invests much of himself in offering these young people hope, a sense of purpose and a chance to rebuild their lives.
Dr Jamal Rifi
Belmore
Cultural leader
In 1984, Dr Jamal Rifi arrived in Australia to study. Despite facing challenges with the English language, he successfully completed his studies and qualified as a medical practitioner. Dr Rifi's generous nature and desire to give back to this country led him to become involved in serving the community, particularly in the areas of youth, family and community development. He was a founding member of Muslim Doctors Against Violence and the Christian Muslim Friendship Society. His efforts to build harmony between the Muslim and non-Muslim communities have been recognised with a Human Rights Medal. He is a former member of the NSW Medical Advisory Board and a community representative for the Youth Partnership with Arabic Speaking Communities. As the President of the Lakemba Sports Club, he has used sport as a social tool to build bridges between communities and channel young people's physical energies into positive activities. He trained the first group of youth from south-western Sydney to become volunteer pool guards, and was instrumental in establishing a program, called On the Same Wave, to recruit and train Muslim youth as lifesavers at the Cronulla beaches. He also encourages young people to join the State Emergency Service, and in every way helps them to take positive career paths.
