King’s Birthday 2024: See the full South Australian honours list
After spending his life advocating to people’s right to chose when they die, this top doc chose to end his own life - sipping champagne surrounded by loved ones.
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All up, 737 Australians were honoured on the King’s Birthday list this year. It comprises an equal number of men and women, and one recipient whose gender was not specified.
The overall tally was almost 20 per cent down on last year, with a spokesman for the Honours and Awards Secretariat saying a major digital transformation project affected the volume of nominations considered.
“Post-implementation, it is anticipated that lists will be of a similar size to recent years,” the spokesman said.
In South Australia the list included a number of recipients from across multiple sectors including TV and media, viticulture, defence and hospitality – scroll down for the full list of winners.
Richard Errington
Like his late mate and slain police officer Jason Doig, Richard Errington knows only too well what it is to ride the waves of country policing, the highs and the lows.
Losing his friend – “Doigy, the heart of the Lucindale community” – an uncontested low point of his three and a half decades with SAPOL.
December 2014, too, will also forever be etched in the 54-year-old’s mind when, as officer in charge at Millicent, he commanded two devastating back-to-back critical incident responses.
The first, a quadruple fatal crash involving multiple vehicles at Hatherleigh in which four people from the same family were killed.
Then, eight days later he and a colleague responded to another crash, only to discover the victim was that workmate’s beloved dad, a highly regarded local CFS volunteer on his way to fight a fire, Brian Johnston.
“I was with Jeremy as his dad passed … it was quite traumatic for him,” Senior Sergeant First Class Errington said.
“It was a tough time in my life.”
But the father of two, whose postings have included Christies Beach, Aldinga, Port Wakefield, Port Lincoln and Port Augusta, got through it with his trademark approach to life and work, underpinned by kindness, caring and empathy – and support from his loving wife Michelle.
“Thereis a heavy load you accumulate across the years (from attending fatalities) but you learn to deal with it andyou learn, as well, to put coping mechanisms in place for your mental wellbeing,” he said.
“(As a country police officer) you separate your own emotion from what you need to do in the community to focus your attention on how you can help those immediately involved and more broadly in the community … in the weeks, months and years that follow.”
An avid fisherman, surfer and diver, he established Operation TEXAS a decade ago in a bid to reduce deaths on the water and will today receive an Australian Police Medal (APM) in recognition of his resilience, leadership and “distinguished service”.
While privileged to receive the honour, Sgt Errington said he wanted people to reflect on the efforts of all first responders, including his late friend shot dead on duty.
“Certainly on the Limestone Coast there remains a level of grief and shock attached to the passing of (Brevet Sergeant Doig),” he said.
“I worked for a long time next to him and knew him very well. He was a friend of mine.
“(This award) is a timely reminder to reflect on those who are employed to help keep the community safe, also those who volunteer … it is important the community recognise the stress and pressures placed on all emergency services and the inherent risk involved,” he said.
– Rebecca Whitfield-Baker
Sandy Roberts
Beloved TV presenter Sandy Roberts reveals he stumbled into sports broadcasting early in his legendary career.
From humble beginnings in Lucindale, in SA’s South-East, Roberts started as a copy boy at the Adelaide News before applying for a gig at Channel 7 Adelaide – but he was knocked back due to a lack of experience.
He worked in Bendigo for 15 months then returned to Adelaide, finally securing a coveted role at Seven as a general announcer in 1973, at the tender age of 23.
“I was doing voice overs and news bulletins, a bit of everything, hosting a midday movie if necessary,” he said.
“And then after a couple of years, I was offered a job – if I wanted it – did I want to have a crack at calling football? I always loved football. I loved the Norwood football club over there and so I leapt at it. That’s how it started.”
Roberts never looked back, calling SANFL matches for five years before moving to the Seven network in Melbourne in 1980, working in the newsroom during the week and covering football on the weekends.
“It became my love. I morphed into a sports caller. I always enjoyed sport. I was not a great player. I was an average player. But I love the competition,” he said.
“And then to be able to call it the highest level at the MCG, in front of crowds of 90,000 people … if you can’t get excited about that there’s something wrong with you.”
Roberts, 74, became one of the voices of Australia sport, calling more than 1100 footy games during a remarkable commentary career. His wide body of work also includes six Summer Olympics, starting in Moscow in 1980, four Winter Olympics, and many major tennis, golf and motor racing events.
Retiring in 2019, Roberts has been recognised with a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for his service to media as a sports commentator. He said he was “absolutely shocked” to receive the honour.
“Shocked but humbled. It’s extraordinary. I’m still coming to grips with it, I think,” said Roberts, who’s based in Melbourne.
“After being involved in media and sport for so long … it’s almost a nice way to finish my career to be acknowledged like that.”
In 2022, Roberts was diagnosed with incurable myeloma, a type of blood cancer, which was discovered by accident after he suffered a fall.
“I was told I had two broken ribs, but I also had cancer. Well, my wife and I couldn’t believe it,” he said.
Now in remission, Roberts is determined to raise money and awareness for the disease, which develops from malignant plasma cells in the bone marrow.
He said there are currently about 22,000 cases in Australia alone, and survival rates are low.
“It’s growing daily and there’s no cure. I’m very keen now actually just to assist Myeloma Australia in their quest to raise awareness to try and find a cure for this disease,” he said. “I’m hoping to make a difference.”
– Antimo Iannella
Sir James Hardy
Renowned winemaker and yachting icon Sir James Hardy has been awarded a posthumous Order of Australia medal in the King’s Birthday honours list.
Sir James, who died in June last year aged 90, twice represented Australia at the Olympic Games, competed in 13 Sydney-to-Hobart races and skippered the nation’s 1970 America’s Cup challenge.
He also served as an adviser to Australia II skipper John Bertrand when the revolutionary boat won the America’s Cup in 1983.
Sir James joined the family wine company Thomas Hardy & Sons as a 21-year-old in 1953, initially working as a shipping clerk. He was appointed chairman in 1981 and became a non-executive director in 1992 when the company merged to become BRL Hardy.
Born in Seacliff, Sir James attended St Peter’s College. He was a prolific winner of ocean races, skippering Police Car to victory in the 1980 Sydney to Hobart Race, as well as
being helmsman aboard Impeteous on the way to winning the 1979 Admiral’s Cup.
Sir James was also awarded an Order of the British Empire in 1975 and a Knight Bachelor in 1981 for services to yachting and the community.
Sir James was also commodore of the Brighton and Seacliff Yacht Club and a director of the SA Film Corporation.
Ted Huber
Ted Huber is the first to admit that getting bogged down in the details of the highly complex work he does will put most people outside of his industry to sleep.
But as hard as that work might be to explain in layman’s terms, it has been deeply valuable to Australia’s defence capabilities for several decades and now at a time when tensions at the border are at an all time high.
In a nod to his career and his contributions to defence through science and technology, Mr Huber has been made a Member of the Order of Australia.
“My first thoughts were that they probably ran out of people to give things to,” Mr Huber said.
Mr Huber, who founded defence software and systems engineering company Acacia Systems in 1992, was in 2021 awarded the Australian Naval Institute’s McNeil Prize for an outstanding contribution to the Royal Australian Navy’s capabilities.
Acacia Systems’ work includes designing advanced mission management systems and sensor trackers.
The company’s Onyx Advanced Tracking Optimisation System is currently deployed in the Australian Air Warfare Destroyers, while an upgraded version of its Reflex data management system is being redeployed in Collins-class submarines.
Acacia Systems’ Cortex Mission Management System, which was designed to provide greater mission capability from less output, has been recently implemented by the Dutch, while the company has several projects underway with the US and UK.
“We basically pitched ahead of the curve and it only took 30 years but it looks like it’s been a bit of a success lately,” Mr Huber said.
“It’s been an organic path – a bit random – but we pitched clever things over the horizon.
“I’m terribly thankful to individuals within Defence who have sometimes actually suffered from their decisions, who kept on drip-feeding us with remnants of programs.”
– Riley Walter
Richard Harry
When Richard Harry, 79, was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2010, he realised there was a lack of support and resources for patients and their families living in the Limestone Coast.
So after undergoing surgery he joined forces with a local Rotary Club and an Adelaide support group and hosted a public meeting to gauge the viability of forming a cancer support group in Mount Gambier.
“One thing led to another and then the group was born,” Mr Harry said.
The Limestone Coast Prostate Cancer Support Group (LCPCSG) provides support, compassion and understanding to men and their families following a prostate cancer diagnosis.
Over its 14 years in operation, the group’s functions have evolved to include fundraising and lobbying government for equipment and resources – contributing to such feats as upgrading the Mount Gambier Hospital’s chemo chairs, purchasing a portable Transperineal Biopsy machine, and getting the government to appoint a part-time specialist prostate cancer nurse in the region.
Mr Harry is also an active member of the Limestone Coast Radiation Treatment Working Group and is anxiously awaiting to hear in the next few weeks whether a radiation treatment facility will be installed in Mount Gambier.
“I am hoping like crazy that we can get a treatment facility here – having one in the South East will massively reduce the anxiety and hardships country people face when having to travel to Adelaide – for sometimes months at a time – for treatment,” Mr Harry said.
Beyond his dedication to generating support and resources for those affected by cancer in the region, the retired dairy farmer, husband and father of two has also been involved with the local CFS, Gambier Lakes Rotary Club, and Scouts.
“It’s a privilege to have had the opportunity to be a part of these organisations,” Mr Harry said.
“You get just as much out of these groups as what you put in, it’s a truly rewarding experience.”
– Jessica Dempster
Trevor & Sandra Sharp
After 55 years of marriage, Trevor and Sandra Sharp’s dedication to the McLaren Vale community “right from day one” has never wavered.
As former chairman of the McLaren Vale Business and Tourism Association for 25 years – with his wife serving as a councillor in local government for eight years – the two have left a lasting impact on one of ”the best places to live”.
When looking back on their extensive careers, both Mr and Mrs Sharp were particularly proud of the McLaren Vale Vintage & Classic – an event they started together 18 years ago.
“While I was chairman of the association, I’d read about something similar in England and thought ‘we could do something like that in our village’, so we started this process and it’s now grown into a huge operation,” Mr Sharp, 76, said.
“It started out as a nothing event. The whole idea of the project was to bring more people into the McLaren Vale and let more people know what we’ve got down here.
“Now, the amount of people coming in has grown substantially; so much so that before the event people have to book months in advance to get accommodation.
“So, that’s what we achieved and that’s what we set out to do, and it’s probably bigger than we ever dreamt about.”
“It grew from 50 cars the first year with about five spectators in the main street, and now we get close to 600 cars and 15,000 to 20,000 people lining the streets for the parade,” Mrs Sharp, 75, said.
The married couple have both received individual Medals of the Order of Australia (OAM) for their service to the McLaren Vale region spanning over 40 years.
Mr Sharp has held various leadership roles in tourism, scouts and Rotarian groups in the community since 1980, while Mrs Sharp has won multiple awards for community service – most notably the Australian Government Volunteer Award presented to her in 2018.
“You do all these things and you put in all the time and everything but you’re never looking for that sort of recognition,” Mr Sharp said. “It is great when someone does actually recognise that you’ve been doing something though.
“We’ve been here for 46 years and we’ve seen a lot of change. We’ve bounced off each other and we’ve worked together as a team.
“You’ve got the hills in the background, the vines, the wineries – you’ve got everything down here. It’s the best place to live.”
– Charlie Dadds
Prof Katina D’Onise
After “falling into medicine” Professor Katina D’Onise’s career was shaped by two landmark student placements, one in a remote Aboriginal health centre and another on a scholarship to work in impoverished South African community.
The profound impact steered her into public health and a lifelong passion to learn from Aboriginal people and work clinically with them to improve Indigenous health — her early years as a GP included working in Aboriginal health centres.
“Right at the end of medical school I went to Kakadu to do a clinical placement (at the Jabiru Community Health Centre) and it changed my perspective entirely of what I could do,” she said.
“Then I went to South Africa on a scholarship and was exposed to disease and infections from poverty, and it all really inspired me to move into public health.
“I’m very grateful for what I have learnt from such different communities, it has shaped my life.”
The Millswood mother of two daughters who enjoys growing her own vegetables has received an Order of Australia (AM) for significant service to public health through translational research, and policy and legislative reform.
The inaugural executive director of SA Health’s Prevention and Population Health Branch has worked in multiple roles in public and preventive health including as medical director of the South Australian Cancer Registry and chair of the SA Primary Health Care Advisory Committee.
She was a member of the Dog and Cat Management Board 2008-2015, spurred on by the public health aspect of working to prevent dogs biting children.
Prof D’Onise, 48, rates her most rewarding career highlights — so far — as working as executive director of SA Health’s Covid-19 Operations in 2020, work supporting the pregnancy termination legislation, and leading the government’s anti-racism strategy.
She notes there is always more to be done to prevent sickness.
While “public health” may bring to mind things such as monitoring clean drinking water and food hygiene, Prof D’Onise says factors outside the traditional health system ranging from education to employment, discrimination and lack of participation in society, also drive ill health.
“Some of these things are going in the wrong direction and the health system is at the other end catching people who become unwell,” she said
“Things can be done at a population level that can help us to be healthier.”
Prof D’Onise is Adjunct Professor Public Health in the School of Public Health, University of Adelaide, and has held positions including a member of the Urban Greening Strategy Government Leadership group, the Aboriginal Affairs Executive Committee, chair of the Australian Atlas of Healthcare Variation Jurisdictional Advisory Group and chair of the Australian Association of Cancer Registries.
– Brad Crouch
Alexander Ward
Drama is underpinned by the opposite, yet equal, forces of comedy and tragedy – indelible influences that also define the life of SA barrister Alexander Ward.
Many South Australians know him for his work with the arts, his rapier wit on FIVEaa and ABC radio, or his comedic exploits with friend Shaun Micallef.
But when wig and gown are donned, Mr Ward is a staunch defender of the rule of law who has fought to protect both the institution and the people affected by it.
From navy sailors battling suicidal ideation to decriminalising homosexuality in foreign Commonwealth countries, Mr Ward has changed many lives for the better.
For that significant service to both the legal profession and the arts, he has been named a Member of the Order of Australia – an honour he took with customary humour.
“My nom de plume on the radio has always been ‘gentleman lawyer’, and I’m fond of saying ‘I’d love to stop and talk, but I have to get to the opera’,” he said.
“But this is a serious award, and I am delighted to receive it and I recognise the seriousness of it … I’ll have to make sure I dress appropriately when I go to the shops.”
Mr Ward, 61, is a past president of the Commonwealth Lawyers Association, the Law Council of Australia and the Law Society of SA.
He has sat on the Administrative Appeals Tribunal and the board of the Adelaide Fringe, played with the Royal Caledonian Association and written for TV’s Full Frontal.
Mr Ward has also headed up ethics advisory committees for, and holds the rank of Commander with, the Royal Australian Naval Reserve.
And he has done it all while working as a barrister at Edmund Barton Chambers – a feat he attributes not to himself, but to his wife and fellow lawyer Amanda.
“I’ve done a lot of stuff and I’ve lived a long life, but that’s only because of the support of Amanda and our family,” he said.
– Sean Fewster
Rona Sakko
It was dissecting a frog in school that sparked a lifelong love of science for Rona Sakko.
Ms Sakko has been awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia for her service to science education.
During her professional life, the now retired Ms Sakko worked in medical laboratory science, specialising in microbiology.
But when Ms Sakko, 74, had her three children, all in their 40s now, she faced the challenge of inspiring in them the same passion for science.
“I was looking around for something for them on the nature side of things for starters and there just wasn’t anything around,” Ms Sakko, from Bellevue Heights, said.
“Do I sit and complain or do I do something about it?”
She started the Junior Field Naturalists South Australia in 1983, a science club for children Ms Sakko still runs today.
“It’s just wonderful watching them learn,” she said.
In 1999 she became the co-ordinator of the CSIRO Double Helix Club in SA and highlights included leading children on tours of the RAAF Woomera Range Complex and the volcano Mauna Kea in Hawaii.
“Their interest being sparked, and then shooting out all these questions at the presenter and getting excited about it all … you feel as if it’s all worthwhile,” Ms Sakko said.
From 2004 until 2022 she was also the chair of the SA National Science Week Committee.
“It’s about getting people who have no connection with science, the general public and showing them what scientists do,” Ms Sakko said.
Following in the footsteps of their mother, Ms Sakko’s children have established themselves in STEM careers in the medical and computing fields.
– Shashi Baltutis
Dr Arnold Gillespie
After spending his life advocating to people’s right to chose when they die Arnold Gillespie decided to die on June 28 2023 sipping French champagne, eating Pringles and telling his family he loved them.
A fierce voluntary assisted dying advocate, gynaecologist and obstetrician, Dr Gillespie has been honoured with a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for his service to medicine.
His wife Debra Millikan said her husband was always an extremely caring person.
He dedicated his life to being a doctor before being diagnosed with osteomyelitis and septicaemia in November 2022 and choosing to go through with voluntary assisted dying himself.
Unfortunately Dr Gillespie was dealt a series of further medical complications including a rare sarcoma which made him seek out voluntary assisted dying.
“He never wanted us to mourn his life,” Ms Millikan said.
“He would always say he had a wonderful life and he lived it well and he was forever grateful for it.”
On the day Dr Gillespie was administered the medication that would end his life he was surrounded by family as they said their final goodbyes.
“He died while he was telling us he loved us,” Ms Millikan said.
“He just drifted off to sleep while he was telling us he loved us and how grateful he was for us and how grateful he was for the life he had.
“You could not have asked for a better death.
“It was just beautiful. If a death can be beautiful, it was.”
Ms Millikan said her husband would be humbled by the knowledge receiving the Order of Australia would provide more awareness to voluntary assisted dying.
Dr Gillespie founded Doctors for Assisted Dying Choice.
– Evangeline Polymeneas
Sally Neville OAM
Doing her bit to help feed people in need, including the homeless, is one of Sally Neville’s greatest career achievements.
Ms Neville has close to four decades experience in the hospitality sector.
For 20 years she ran restaurants and cafes, such as hotspots Boltz, in Rundle St, and Unley’s Caffe 48 in the 1990s.
She was also Restaurant & Catering SA’s chief executive for many years, and later appointed the organisation’s national deputy CEO.
During her time with Restaurant & Catering, Ms Neville helped pave the way for food rescue leader OzHarvest Australia to make inroads into South Australia.
“We lobbied the state government and Attorney-General’s department to allow for the donation of left over food by restaurants to OzHarvest and other food charities,” she said.
Ms Neville has been awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia service to the hospitality industry, and to business.
“I am very grateful, honoured and inspired,” she said.
Since 2022, Ms Neville has been the American Chamber of Commerce SA general manager.
Still passionate about South Australian food and wine, hospitality and tourism, she is now focused on the state’s exports in space, defence and net-zero energy.
– Anna Vlach
Sam Crafter
Sam Crafter spearheaded the team that introduced Elon Musk’s “big battery” to South Australia and now is overseeing the next energy revolution – hydrogen.
Mr Crafter receives the Public Service Medal for “leading energy project delivery” and significantly reforming the state’s energy sector.
In his first public sector stint from 2017-19, the former Santos manager led the Energy Plan implementation team for Labor and Liberal governments.
This included Mr Musk joining the-then premier Jay Weatherill in Adelaide in 2017 to launch what was then the world’s biggest lithium-ion battery, near Jamestown.
Under Steven Marshall’s Liberal government, he spearheaded a Grid Scale Storage Fund and Home Battery Scheme.
Now, Mr Crafter is the Office of Hydrogen Power SA’s chief executive officer, overseeing the planned $593m hydrogen power plant at Whyalla.
Mr Crafter, the son of former Labor state education minister Greg Crafter, told The Advertiser: “It is a privilege to work as part of a dedicated team in the public service, making a positive impact on people’s lives across South Australia every day.
“While individual recognition is humbling, this is truly a recognition of the hard work of many people that I have had the pleasure working with in government, helping to fast-track the energy transition in South Australia.”
– Paul Starick
Joy Nugent
Since Joy Nugent was a child she understood that death is part of life – rather than it’s natural opposite – and that knowledge was the overarching belief which spearheaded her founding a private nursing practice centring on palliative care.
Ms Nugent said she was three-years-old when she was “given a life lesson about compassion to those experiencing loss” after her dad would drown the cat’s litter and Ms Nugent would console the grieving “mummy cat”.
Ms Nugent graduated as a nurse and worked around the world including Canada, Scotland, England and America and founding the Mary Potter Hospital from abroad.
But took a pause from her healthcare work to focus on her husband and four children.
But domestic life caused Ms Nugent to feel restless.
In 1986, she took a refresher course at the Royal Adelaide Hospital and then came to work at Mary Potter Hospice as a nurse.
“I was at the Mary Potter Hospital for about 18 months and I still wasn’t fulfilled,” Ms Nugent said.
“I remember, one of the sisters asked me ‘what’s wrong Joy?’ and I told her ‘I’m used to being boss,’ – but I was told that was never going to happen.
“I disagreed with the sister, so at 50-years-old I set up my own practice and called it Private Palliative Care Services before changing it to Nurselink.”
It was a progressive and innovative model which linked the nurse with the patient in a home-based experience; allowing the pair to develop a connection and have open conversations.
Ms Nugent’s development in palliative care is the reason for the Order of Australia award at the age of 85.
Now she is the Director and Public Officer at Soul Talks which focuses on the person’s energy.
– Dasha Havrilenko
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