Pride of Australia: Queensland finalists
FROM an international surfing star to a teenagers who help the homeless, this year’s Queensland Pride of Australia Medals finalists are an inspiration.
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FROM an international surfing star to a teenager who helps the homeless, this year’s Queensland Pride of Australia Medals finalists are an inspiration.
Now in its 11th year, the medals recognise ordinary Queenslanders across 10 categories who have put others before themselves through their actions.
Meet your finalists below and don’t forget to vote for your Queensland People’s Choice Medallist who has the chance to win $5000 for their favourite charity.
ENVIRONMENT
Greg Grimes
Greg Grimes has established a novel way of preserving the environment for future generations — by teaching them conservation skills. Greg established Lockyer Valley and Toowoomba Junior Landcare and works with over 50 schools.
He teaches students how to establish vegetable gardens so they and their families can eat fresh produce. He visits all schools and kindergartens involved in the program three times a year to deliver seedlings and applies for grants to grow the gardens. Greg also coordinates tree-planting initiatives, including the “Koala Kitchen Project”, helps schools develop environmental plans and leads a team to establish an environmental park and outdoor education centre that provides sustainable living and environmental practice studies.
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Jennie Gilbert and Christian Miller
Fifteen years ago, marine biologist Jennie Gilbert became an accidental mother to 52 turtle eggs at a Cairns vet clinic. The experience ignited a passion for saving turtles and has led to the establishment of the Cairns Turtle Rehabilitation Centre, which she operates with acclaimed wildlife photographer Christian Miller. The pair spend their free time volunteering at the centre to care for sick or injured turtles, raising money to keep it operating and promoting ways to preserve the creatures. These days, Jennie and Christian are the driving forces behind rehabilitation centres in Cairns and on Fitzroy Island, work with a roster of 200 volunteers, have turtle rescue and triage centres at Cooktown and Cowley Beach, take international students for research and perform satellite tracking of turtles once they are returned to sea.
Jana Gorski
Finding a good home for good food — and preventing it from going to the tip — consumes a large chunk of Jana Gorski’s week. The 34-year-old Cairns naturopath loathes seeing perfectly good food dumped while needy people go without. She not only helps the environment by distributing food that would otherwise go to landfill but she also helps charities that provide fresh fruit and vegetables to those who can’t afford it. Jana has diverted 15 tonnes of food — or the equivalent of 30,000 meals — since launching REAP Cairns in September last year, an offshoot of Sydney organisation Oz Harvest. She began by contacting stallholders at Rusty’s Markets — now she collects 500-1000kg a week and has the help of 25 volunteers.
FAIR GO
Adam Lo
Adam Lo started volunteering when he was still at school, doing everything from door knocking and fundraising to community broadcasting on Radio 4EB FM, where he has served as a youth representative, group convener and board director. He also served several years in the Youth Committee and as the National Youth chairman for the National Ethnic Multicultural Broadcaster’s Council. Now an occupational therapist specialising in mental health, he is involved in Occupational Therapy Australia Queensland Division while also a reservist officer with the RAAF. He has served as a junior vice-president at the Sunnybank branch of the Returned and Service’s League and is a member of the Australians of Chinese Heritage War Memorial.
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Aquilar Luki
For Aquilar Luki, education is the way to achieve a better lifestyle, and the father of six has made it his mission to encourage other Pacific Islanders to stay in school.
Born on Niue and living in Australia since 1986, Aquilar was the first of his family to graduate from university and he has used his connections to break down cultural barriers to participation in education by establishing the Home Connectedness Program. As a result of his work, attendance rates at Woree State High School for Pacific Islander students have increased and absenteeism decreased. The program has been extended to Woree Primary School and Bentley Park College.
Dr Cuong Bui
Dr Cuong Bui was a doctor in the Vietnamese army before the war forced him to flee to Australia as one of the original boat people in 1975. After sitting for Australian exams, he worked as a doctor at Brisbane’s Royal Women and Royal Children’s hospitals and opened a GP practice in Mt Gravatt in Brisbane’s south where he still practices. He also has been a member of the Federal Government’s Australian Refugee Advisory Council for Refugees; the Queensland Migrant Settlement Council of Boat People and on the Australian Aboriginal Reconciliation Council of Queensland.
He was the founder of the Queensland Multicultural Council and many Vietnamese professional associations.
OUTSTANDING BRAVERY
Lincoln Sherlock
Springfield Lakes tradesman Lincoln Sherlock made international headlines for saving the life of a man trapped in his sinking ute in the Brisbane River on July 14.
Shayne Wood, 51, fainted while driving on Kingsford Smith Drive, at Newstead. He lost control of his vehicle, which plunged into the icy cold river.
Lincoln, a 39-year-old roofer, saw the accident and gave little thought to his own safety when he swam out to pull Shayne free.
A passing boatie ferried the pair to safety.
Lincoln, a single father, left the scene before police arrived because he wanted to make it to work on time.
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Scott Hammond
While driving to the hospital to be treated for an arm wound, Gympie man Scott Hammond saw a four-wheel-drive veer off the Mary Valley Highway, flip, then catch fire.
While a truck driver used his extinguisher on the flames, Scott smashed the back window and climbed into the 4WD. He found a distressed female driver, undid her seatbelt and, with his injured arm, pulled her free from the smoke-filled car.
He saw children’s bags in the vehicle, so he went back in to search. However, the woman’s young son was already out. While rescuing the woman, his arm wound ruptured so he drove to hospital for treatment.
Julian Wilson
Australian surfing star Julian Wilson has been hailed a hero by the international community for risking his life to help rival and close mate Mick Fanning as he was being attacked by a great white shark in the J-Bay final in South Africa on July 19.
Rather than fleeing for the safety of the shore, Julian, of Coolum Beach, paddled towards the shark as it knocked Mick off his board and tried to bite him.
He later said: “I was like, ‘I’ve got a board, if I can get there I can stab it or whatever. I’ve got a weapon’.” The 26-year-old won admirers for his humble and emotional interview following the attack.
COURAGE
Neil Cadigan
After Gold Coast man Neil Cadigan lost his son Andrew in a tragic motorcycle accident, he was determined to carry on his legacy. Andrew walked solo around Australia over two years to raise money for the Cancer Council and Leukaemia Foundation in honour of a friend who died from a rare blood cancer. While in Thailand to write a book about the experience, he was in a motorbike accident caused by another driver and put in a coma. Before he died, Neil, an award-winning journalist and author, promised him he would complete his book for him. He fulfilled the vow and earlier this year With Every Step was launched, with part of the proceeds donated to Andrew’s chosen charities. Neil has also launched an annual memorial walk on the Central Coast to continue raising money.
Kerrie Keepa
Kerrie Keepa, who has lost five close family members to suicide, has campaigned tirelessly to ensure those looking for help can get it.
Kerrie created a petition calling for emergency staff to be better educated on mental health after the tragic death of her 21-year-old son Christopher who was turned away from Redland Hospital. The petition garnered more than 65,000 signatures. Recently the Queensland Government announced hospital staff would be trained to recognise and treat people presenting with mental health issues as a result of Kerrie’s appeal. There is nothing more heartbreaking than losing a child and Kerrie has worked so hard so that other suicide deaths may be prevented.
Timothy Wilson
Timothy Wilson is a former soldier from 6RAR at Enoggera who has overcome significant mental and physical injuries from a bomb blast while serving in Afghanistan in 2010 to inspire others to achieve greatness.
Still battling post-traumatic stress, he helped lead Nova and Channel 7 on a Kokoda trek in April. On this trip Tim shared his story for the first time and featured in a documentary which aired in Brisbane during the Anzac Day long weekend. After leaving the army he’s now focused on raising awareness for Mates For Mates.
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CARE & COMPASSION
Dr Deborah Mooney
Dr Deborah Mooney is the founder and director of the Gold Coast Specialist Bereavement Service. She started the organisation in 1993 as a pro-bono agency but it has since developed into a small business. Dr Mooney, an expert in nursing, has almost 40 years’ worth of training in the field of grief counselling and is one of three Australians to achieve the status of Fellow in Thanatology, the study of death and bereavement.
Mark McDonnell
Mark McDonnell is a mental health nurse who cares for dementia patients and the elderly and has been recognised for his charity work at West End.
He has also been awarded a Queensland Police Credit Union Local Hero award for his work with his homeless charity, Community Friends. He rented out his apartment to homeless people at a very low rate about four years ago. Community Friends provided 55,000 meals for the homeless at West End. He is also a patient ear for the people he helps.
Ruth Jebb
Ruth Jebb, a clinical nurse consultant at Princess Alexandra Hospital’s emergency department, is a Red Cross aid worker who has been on 10 international missions in the past 12 years. Ruth was selected to co-ordinate the community health response in Nepal following the magnitude 7.8 earthquake that killed more than 8000 people on April 25. Just after she arrived in Kathmandu, a magnitude 7.4 earthquake struck, causing more widespread devastation.
INSPIRATION
Lucy Strickland
Lucy Strickland has dedicated her career to improving the quality of life for children in war and disaster zones. For the past 15 years she has worked in more than 20 countries for several international non-government organisations, including UNHCR, World Vision, CARE, Oxfam and the Norwegian Refugee Council in the areas of educational development and reconstruction in post-conflict and disaster zones. She has co-ordinated emergency drought response in Ethiopia, and worked in Haiti at the height of the cholera outbreak in 2010. She established a school of the air in Sierra Leone to help children excluded from formal education due to the Ebola crisis. She worked with the Nepalese Ministry of Education after the earthquakes to establish temporary learning spaces and trained teachers in psychosocial support of children. In the past 12 months, her role as the UN’s Global Education in Emergencies Specialist has taken her to northern Iraq where she designed an education program for 160,000 children in refugee camps.
Professor Jennifer Martin
University of Queensland’s Institute for Molecular Bioscience lead researcher Professor Jennifer Martin has made a number of significant advances for gender equity in science in Australia. She has addressed the severe under-representation of women in senior positions in Australia by mentoring young women and encouraging positive stereotypes of women scientists. As a member of the National Health and Medical Research Council Women in Health Sciences she has campaigned for gender equity on peer review panels for funding options and proposed part-time options, and introduced the Elizabeth Blackburn Fellowship to recognise outstanding women. She has received numerous awards and is the founding member of the Australian Academy of Science’s Science in Australia Gender Equity Forum steering committee.
Cathy Hains
As the head of faculty for differentiated learning at Brisbane girls school Lourdes Hill College, Cathy Hains has inspired numerous schoolchildren to reach their full potential and enhance their individuality. Her background is in remote and regional Queensland, starting school herself in an indigenous community in the Torres Strait and now oversees the education, support and development of gifted and talented students, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students and those who require learning support for disabilities. She shows an intuitive knowledge of her students and creates a supportive learning environment.
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YOUNG LEADER
Jesse Kelly
Five years ago at only 15, Jesse Kelly co-founded a charity to help the homeless from his parents’ house in Burpengary, north of Brisbane.
As the managing director of Moreton Bay Regional Community Response, he handles 150 volunteers helping 4000 people per month on top of his day job. Mum Pauline, who nominated him along with husband Darren, said Jesse is the charity’s “unsung hero”.
Nathanial Leigh
What started as a simple Christmas Eve barbecue for a small number of homeless people in Palm Beach turned into a three-course dinner for 200 with entertainers such as Troy Cassar-Daley and Adam Harvey for Gold Coast teenager Nathanial Leigh. Now 17, Nathanial began organising the Christmas lunch as a 14-year-old, using Facebook and local radio to spread the word about the event.
While the lunch will not take place this year, Nathanial continues his community service work with his involvement in the Australian Anti Ice Campaign.
Emma Simpson
Somerville House Year 11 student Emma Simpson has motivated a group of her peers to hold monthly afternoon tea with war veterans. Held at St John’s Anglican Church at Bulimba, they organise games, music, food and transport for them. She was inspired to start the group, Connect 2 Veterans, after her grandfather, a war veteran, passed away and she realised others did not have the family in their lives that her “Poppy” did.
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CHILD OF COURAGE
Kaitlin Relf
When her family’s car was swept off the road in raging floodwaters at Munruben, south of Brisbane, Kaitlin Relf, 9, showed incredible courage and reflexes to save her three-year-old sister Tara from drowning. The force of the wall of water had shunted their mother, Andrea, out of the vehicle, which began sinking quickly. Kaitlin realised she had to move fast so she undid her sister’s seatbelt and grabbed Tara’s arm, pulling her out the window. As the car sank, Kaitlin swam for the surface, pushing Tara before her. The girls ballooned up in front of their mother, who was clinging to a tree.
Keely Johnson
Despite battling cancer, Burdekin country crooner Keely Johnson found time to raise $500,000 to fight the disease. She has been diagnosed with a rare brain tumour and spends much of her time receiving treatment in Brisbane. In April, the 16-year-old founded the Golden Octopus Foundation, which supports oncology families and raises money for cancer research organisations. She started Bambini Gift Service to make and sell jewellery, donating some profits to childhood cancer groups. Last year, courtesy of the Make a Wish Foundation, she recorded a song about cancer titled Turn This To Gold with her idol, country superstar Lee Kernaghan. All song profits have gone to the Make a Wish Foundation. Since she started campaigning, she’s raised about $500,000.
Henry Snowball
Babinda youngster Henry Snowball saved an 11-year-old boy from drowning by showing courage and composure beyond his years. The child was trapped at the entrance of a drain while swimming at Babinda Creek. Other children watched on in shock as Henry, 15, jumped into the creek, swam to the side of the drain to avoid the torrent of water and reached out for the boy, while making sure he kept him calm. After about two minutes, he managed to pull the boy free.
COMMUNITY SPIRIT
Casey Lyons
After losing his best friend to suicide in 2013, Casey Lyons started a registered charity, LIVIN, which aims to break down the stigma of mental illness and offer support for those struggling with mental health issues. The charity, which he runs with friend Sam Webb, uses fashion and social media to get people talking about mental health. While Casey works full time as a carpenter, he still finds time to pack merchandise orders and attend events and seminars most weekends.
Shaune Watts
Since his mother was diagnosed with leukaemia in 2008 and then his youngest child, Noah, was born in 2011 at 10 weeks premature weighing only 1090 grams, Shaune has dedicated his spare time to raising money for the Leukaemia Foundation and Mater Little Miracles. He organises and hosts the annual Charity Golf Day, which raised more than $28,000 in 2015, and Charity High Tea, which this year hosted
200 attendees. He has raised more than $200,000, which has allowed the Mater Little Miracles to buy state-of-the-art twin Kanmed Babybeds and other equipment, including cots, humidifiers and 17 new Premier Recliner Recovery Chairs. Plus he has raised a large sum for the Leukaemia Foundation.
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Lyn Glover
Lyn Glover contracted polio when she was five years old after being immunised with a faulty batch of the Salk vaccination in 1958. Since then, she has been a driving force to help others in their post polio condition. She started the Gold Coast Post Polio Network in 2007 with five members and now holds monthly meetings with 30 active members. She also volunteers at the Gold Coast Hospital, carries out home visits and is a member of Polio Australia, Spinal Injuries Australia, Spiritus Gold Coast and is proactive in promoting the importance of immunisation.
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HEROISM
Darrell Thompson
As the paramedic on duty in the small north Queensland town of Ravenshoe on the day of the horrific Serves You Right cafe explosion in June, Darrell Thompson had to deal with a scene of mass destruction.
Jake Sullivan, Clinten McCarthy, Peter Hackwood, Nathan Thompson, Adam Pearson
Charleville police officer Adam Pearson was driving home when he saw the town’s auxiliary fire trucks rushing to what had been reported as a grass fire. On the Mitchell Highway about 30km from the western Queensland town lay a truck rolled over, loaded with more than 50 tonnes of volatile ammonium nitrate. Volunteer firefighters Peter Hackwood, Nathan Thompson, Jake Sullivan and Clinten McCarthy were tending to the driver when there were two explosions. Pearson was knocked unconscious but when he came to, he drove for help.
Steven Robertson
Winching people injured in the bush or at sea is all in a day’s work for Queensland Ambulance Service CareFlight paramedic Steven Robertson. During his
25 years’ service, he has winched into all types of terrain, including spending a night in Lamington National Park caring for a patient with a broken leg.
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