Australia Day Honours, every Canberran recognised

From renowned researchers to “fearless” community advocates, meet the Canberrans and Queanbeyan residents recognised in the Australia day honours.

Canberrans and Queanbeyan residents have been honoured in the 2023 Australia Day Honours. Picture: supplied

Canberrans and Queanbeyan residents have punched above their weight in this year’s Australia Day honours.

The region boasts 6 AO’s, eight AM’s and 22 OAM recipients.

Here’s the stories of just some of the community heroes honoured.

Katrina Roslyn Fanning AO

Katrina Fanning has been appointed an Officer of the Order (AO) for her distinguished service to the Indigenous community through education and health initiatives and for her service to sport.

Ms Fanning was a member of the first Jillaroo rugby league team where she represented Australia, and has advocated for pathways for Indigenous and female pathways in the game.

Additionally, Ms Fanning has held a number of roles in the ACT to advocate for better outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians to access education and health services.

“A lot of that work is getting governments and public servants understanding how the system is delivering poor outcomes for Indigenous people that isn’t necessarily a reflection on any one individual,” she said.

Katrina Fanning AO has been honoured for her service to the Indigenous community and sport. Picture: Supplied

“If you look at Aboriginal people as equals and see they go through the same system but have such a disproportionate level of disadvantage, that means there’s something wrong in the way the system interacts with us.”

In accepting her AO, Ms Fanning acknowledged the work of those who came before her.

“There’s nothing i’ve done in my work career or in the sports area that is solely on your own, it‘s a good opportunity to reflect on all the people that I’ve worked with over that time,” she said.

“(These are) the groups i’ve work for, the teams and players that i’ve seen come through as well as within my own family the generation before me.

She said the sacrifices made by generations before here was a poignant reminder to not waste opportunities when they arise.

“(Being appointed to the Order) is a chance to say to them “thanks for what you did” and confirm they haven’t wasted those opportunities,” she said.

Dr John Francis Angus AM

A Canberra based agronomist whose research changed the way Australians farmed wheat has been honoured for his contribution to the field.

During his career, Dr John Francis Angus worked for Charles Sturt University in Wagga and the CSIRO in Canberra, with most of his research conducted in the Riverina region.

He also worked as a farmer in Stockinbingal for 14 years to “practice what I preach”.

“My research in agronomy has been many fold, but the main result I got was to show that nitrogen fertiliser was effective and efficient when root diseases were controlled in wheat,” he said

“That (disease) control was done by growing a break crop such as canola.

“So wheat growing after canola responded to nitrogen fertiliser whereas wheat growing after wheat hardly responded reliably to nitrogen fertiliser.

Dr John Angus AM has been recognised for his contribution to agriculture research. Picture: Supplied

Dr Angus’s research changed the way the staple crop was grown in Australia during the 90s.

“There’s a real buzz to see one’s research adopted by a lot of people industry,” he said.

“It resulted in increased yields in the 90s and then it was followed by the drought years in the millennium drought but there has been good years since.”

Dr Angus said he was “astonished” to hear he was appointed as a Member of the Order of Australia, and said the honour reflected well on agricultural science’s recognition in the community

“I think there’s still a lot of improvement to be made in the profitability and sustainability of Australian agriculture and crops in particular,” he said.

“That innovative research, particularly on the acidification of subsurface soils is important and I think there’s a lot of improvements to be made in north eastern australia in terms of phosphorous and legumes.”

Dr Michelle Anne Potter AM

Throughout her career in the performing arts, Dr Michelle Potter has “reinvented herself” many times.

“Like a lot of little girls I learned ballet when I was younger and it just seemed I never stopped doing it,” she said.

“But dancers’ bodies give out after a while, and I think people working in dance have to keep reinventing themselves.

“After a bit of performing I did in my later teens and early 20s I started teaching.”

Dr Potter said as a dance teacher she taught an interesting group of kids, and began doing 10 minutes of creative movement.

This new focus on creativity was the impetus for Dr Potter to go back to university and study art history.

“I became interested in designers in the theatre, and after I stopped teaching I started writing,” she said.

Dr Michelle Potter AM has been recognised for her service to the performing arts. Picture: Louis Seselja

“I got a job as a curator of dance at the National Film and Sound Archive, and then at the National Library, and at the Jerome Robbins dance division in New York as part of the New York Public Library.’

Dr Potter said she was pleased to see performing arts recognised by the honour list, and said she’d like to see Canberra’s performing arts scene grow.

“It worries me a little bit that we don’t get visits by big (performing arts) companies. It would be lovely if we could have a bigger theatre for and then they could come,” she said.

“We’ve got a lot of development in dance in the ACT now through the Australian Dance party and Liz Lea’s dance company.

“I hope it keeps going.”

Dr Michael Tedeschi AM

Dr Michael Tedeschi has been honoured for his work in the drug and alcohol field of medicine.

He said he fell into his field “by accident” after applying for a role at Canberra Hospital focused on drugs and alcohol, and rapidly realised it was his calling.

“I found it challenging, and at times difficult and demanding, but I enjoyed it,” he said.

“I had a really good mentor and the long and short of it is I’ve been there now for 38 years.

“In 1985, we were pioneers – we didn’t feel like pioneers a the time but looking back it was very early days in the field.

“We had twenty patients in Canberra on methadone at the time, and now there are around 1000 patients on opioid treatments.”

Dr Michael Tedeschi AM has been recognised for his service to medicine. Picture: Supplied.

Dr Tedeschi said he felt humbled for being recognised and said kindness goes a long way in his field.

“(Drug and alcohol medicine) is a field where patients have often experienced hostility, they’ve experienced rejection,” he said.

“If you show people kindness, respect, understanding and patience they respond extremely well.

“This is a marginalised group of people who’ve experienced negative reactions from the medical profession and from other sources, and you get incredible respect back from then when you treat them well.

“Anyone can develop a drug or alcohol problem, it doesn’t mean you’re a bad or mad person.”

Geoffery Donald Page OAM

Canberra based poet Geoffery Donald Page was awarded an OAM for his contribution to Australian Literature.

“I think the honour is not so much for me personally it's a recognition of the importance of poetry in general culture, ”Mr Page said.

“(Poetry and literature) is something which isn’t always clearly recognised.

“If a poet such as myself gets such an award it helps promote the profile of poetry, and that makes more people more likely to read some of it.

Poet Geoffrey Page OAM has been recognised for his service to literature. Picture: Supplied

“I don’t take it as a great personal thing, it’s more that I’m a representative of a group of people who have been interested in poetry for a long time and have worked hard.”

Mr Page describes the poetry scene as a “Broad Church” and said he was sympathetic to most streams of the art form in Australia.

The renowned poet has lived in the Nation’s Capital since 1964 and describes the city as “excellent”.

“I think it's a terrific place that is much undervalued by the people who don’t live here,” he said.

“It's gotten bigger, but its always been good.

“I’ve never grown sick of it.”

Carmel Weatherburn OAM

Carmel Weatherburn began playing netball when she was ten, and began umpiring the sport aged only 11.

She has been awarded an OAM for her services to the sport.

“I think one of the things is to make sure you’re fit enough to actually umpire the game level you want to umpire,” Ms Weatherburn said.

“That has changed over the time I’ve been involved; you have to be a lot fitter now because the game itself has evolved to be quite a fast-paced sport.”

Carmel Weatherburn has been recognised for her service to Netball. Picture: Supplied

Ms Weatherburn says she’s been umpiring for over 50 years, and has raised concern about the flack directed at young umpires.

“I think umpires are more abused now, (there are) parents on the sideline (who think) their child hasn’t done anything wrong,” she said.

“When I first started that behaviour was very rare.

“One of my jobs on the Saturday as an umpire coach and mentor is actually protecting the young umpires, or the umpires starting out, from abuse. “

She said she was lucky to be involved in a sport that has always recognised the contributions of women.

“When I’m an umpire I don’t think of myself of being a female umpire, I’m an umpire,” she said.

“I think it‘s a fantastic sport, the community is very welcoming and it's like a family.”

Connee-Colleen Cameron OAM

The late Connee-Colleen Cameron has been posthumously awarded an OAM for her service to the Queanbeyan community.

Her son Owen Cameron described the late artist and community hero as a “private” woman who was also “very passionate and energetic” about her local community.

“When she moved to Queanbeyan in the mid 70s, she originally had no plans of being a community advocate and enthusiast,” Mr Cameron said.

“She said she got roped into helping preserve a cottage that was being demolished and they won that round with council.

“It became apparent the same problems were going to come up again and again, so it snowballed from a one time thing to a passion for preserving the history of the Canberra and Queanbeyan area.”

Connee-Colleen Cameron OAM has been posthumously recognised for her service to Queanbeyan. Picture: Supplied

Mr Cameron said his mother was a fierce advocate for the recognition of John Gale, the founder of the Queanbeyan Age newspaper, to be regarded as the father of Canberra.

Her advocacy led to a sculpture of Mr Gale being erected outside the Queanbeyan Courthouse.

“The location of the sculpture is (on) NSW state land because she was battling the (former) Queanbeyan City Council at the time,” he said.

“They weren’t a fan of her for all sorts of political reasons.”

Ultimately Mr Cameron described his mother, who passed away in late 2021, as “fearless”.

“If she didn’t know who to talk to to resolve something she’d talk to somebody, basically hassle them and be a thorn in their side till they helped her out, or found someone who could help her out,” she said.

“(Be it) state government, or Queanbeyan City Council – where she got kicked out and got security call on at least once.”