Maryborough’s Carmel Murdoch honoured with Medal of the Order of Australia

Maryborough community champion Carmel Murdoch attributes being awarded with Australia’s highest civilian honour to her two great loves - family and her Heritage City.

Maryborough's "Queen of the Marys" said her family and the kind-hearted people of her beloved community are to thank for her recognition with the Medal of the Order of Australia.

When Maryborough’s “Queen of the Marys”, Carmel Murdoch, found out she would be receiving the Medal of the Order of Australia, the only catch was she was not supposed to tell anyone until Australia Day.

But, typical of the woman who has given a lifetime of service to her beloved hometown, Mrs Murdoch did things her own way and made sure her family knew she had been awarded Australia’s highest civilian honour before it became public knowledge.

On Thursday Mrs Murdoch told her proud family she would be receiving the Australia Day honour.

“I wasn’t allowed to tell anybody about the award until yesterday, but I wanted my family to know, I just felt that was important,” she said.

On Thursday her family gathered at her home in person and via the phone while Mrs Murdoch, with an Australian flag scarf wrapped around her neck, read out the award she had received via email from the Governor-general’s office on January 4.

“They were just absolutely thrilled for me,” she said.

“I’m so very happy for my family who are so proud of me and what I do.”

While Mrs Murdoch also feels proud, she said the honour was a “double edge sword” when balanced by the humility she felt at the thought of many other worthy recipients in the community.

“While I feel absolutely honoured, I also feel humble about the whole thing,” she said.

“There are so many people in Maryborough who equally should be getting this award and not me.”

Mrs Murdoch is perhaps best known for her work as tourism ambassador for Fraser Coast council, appeared as Mary Poppins Mary Heritage and Mary Widow through a 23-year career.

Mrs Murdoch is perhaps best known for her 23-year stint as tourism ambassador for Fraser Coast council, during which she appeared as Mary Poppins (whose creator PL Travers was born in Maryborough), Mary Heritage and Mary Widow, the latter of whom hosted ghost tours through the town’s cemeteries and purportedly haunted old homes.

But she said one of her proudest achievements was as instigator of Maryborough’s 2005 centenary celebrations, which brought extensive publicity and tourism revenue to the town through the world town criers' competition and an international motor home rally that attracted more than 1000 motorhomes to the Maryborough Show Ground.

While Mrs Murdoch retired from her role as “Queen of the Marys” in 2021 she has been keeping busy managing the 90 volunteers who help with maintaining the Cistern Chapel, one of Maryborough’s biggest tourism drawcards, and helping the Rotary Club with running the Maryborough Markets.

She said community service comes as second nature to the people of Maryborough, citing her single-parent father, who raised her, as the biggest influence and inspiration for her own life.

Mrs Murdoch said 161,222 people had visited the Cistern Chapel since it opened in May 2022.

“Dad did community work for so many people,” she said.

“If somebody’s car was broken down, Dad would go and fix it; if the mail truck was bogged or was broken down, Dad would go and fix it and then help deliver the mail.

“That’s how I grew up ... It’s just something that we did, and I guess something that I’ve continued to do.”

While that sense of community spirit may have declined in broader society with changing values and a faster pace of life, Mrs Murdoch said there was still something special about the people of Maryborough.

“I think that still goes on in Maryborough, people here seem to have a real heart and they are only too happy to help,” she said.

But Mrs Murdoch acknowledges her dedication to her beloved hometown has gone far beyond most in the community.

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“Dad always said to me, ‘if you’re going to do something, you do it properly’,” she said.

“You don’t half do things, you get in and you do it properly.

“I guess I’m just one of those people, I’ve had a good life and I love making people happy.”