Australia Day Awards 2022: Central Coast recipients honoured
A chemist, comedy writer, violinist and a firefighter are among 10 residents honoured with awards this Australia Day. See the recipients here.
Central Coast
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Women have dominated Order of Australia awards on the Central Coast this year reflecting a swing towards the highest per centage of female recipients since the introduction of the national honours system in 1975.
Six woman were recognised for their service to the community and their respective fields of endeavour including Dr Deborah Cockrell, of Forresters Beach, who was appointed to a Member of the Order of Australia (AM).
Dr Cockrell was one of two Central Coast residents to be appointed an AM out of 155 appointed across the country.
A further eight residents were awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) among 545 awarded across Australia.
MEMBER OF THE ORDER OF AUSTRALIA (AM)
DR DEBORAH JANE COCKRELL
Having run a private practice in Ourimbah since 2001 and lectured since 1996, Dr Deborah Cockrell has been at the cutting edge of dentistry in both practice and education for more than two decades.
Dr Cockrell, of Forresters Beach, has been a councillor, director and president of both the NSW Branch of the Australian Dental Association and the Australian Dental Council.
She has also been an associate professor at the University of Newcastle and Sydney University, where she was also a senior lecturer for the Rural Dentistry Faculties of Medicine and Dentistry from 2000-2003.
Dr Cockrell is currently an oral health lead for Concord Hospital’s Centre for Research and Education into Ageing and a fellow of the Academy of Dentistry International.
Dr Cockrell is also the Australasian trustee, president and of the Pierre Fauchard Academy.
The honorary dental organisation was founded in 1936 and aims to improve the professionalism, integrity and advancement of dentistry at the highest level.
Fellowship in the academy is by nomination only and based on contributions to dentistry, dental literature and the community.
PAUL MURNANE
Mr Murnane, of Ettalong Beach, was appointed an AM for his service to the not-for-profit sector, the performing arts, and to business.
The astute businessman who held senior executive roles with Goldman Sachs, Russel Reynolds Associates and Citibank among other financial institutions since the 1980s was a co-founder of Multiple Sclerosis research Australia and the Australian Scholarships Foundation.
Mr Murnane has also been a director of the Australian String Quartet since 2008, a director of The Sydney Institute from 1998-2018 and deputy chairman of the Library Council of NSW.
MEDAL OF THE ORDER OF AUSTRALIA (OAM)
NIELS BOWEN
The Bowen name has been synonymous with pharmacies on the coast since John Bowen opened his first chemist in Manns St, Gosford, in 1956.
His son Niels Bowen was expected to follow in his father’s footsteps but Mr Bowen senior died when his son was graduating from Sydney University.
Virtually penniless, Niels Bowen convinced a pharmaceutical company he had worked part time for to sponsor him and he opened his first Bowens Chemist at Wyoming aged 22.
“There was nothing at Wyoming in those days,” Mr Bowen said of his first traditional chemist shop, which is still operating today.
Mr Bowen worked “9am to 9pm seven days a week” before starting Pharmacy by Mail, a forerunner to him launching his first discount Chemist Outlet.
“When I started it was quite out there,” he said of the discount model.
“It was a more retail focused pharmacy giving customers what they wanted, not what we demanded people put up with.”
While it was not very popular with many rival pharmacies, the discount model took off and today Mr Bowen has 10 Chemist Outlets across the Central Coast and a further 11 across Queensland and South Australia.
Not content to rest there Mr Bowen also started a furniture chain One Stop Pine, a small goods shop and was involved in acquiring the first FM radio licence for Gosford.
“I’ve had a pretty interesting career,” he said.
“But at 73 I’m calling it quits.”
Mr Bowen, who has a lecture theatre named after him at his alma mater in Sydney University, which he has supported financially since 1997, has also been a big supporter of the Flying Doctor Service and the Salvation Army.
He has also provided medicines, training and sponsored cataract operations in Papua New Guinea.
Mr Bowen was awarded an OAM for his services to the pharmacy profession and plans to spend Australia Day on a boat with friends and family at Refuge Bay on the Hawkesbury River.
DOUGLAS WILLIAM EDWARDS
Creator, writer and producer of one of Australia’s longest running syndicate radio programs Doug Edwards has been awarded an OAM for his service to radio.
Mr Edwards, of Gosford, was the brainchild behind the hugely popular political satire How Green Was My Cactus from its inception in 1986 to 2019.
The show, which lampooned ministers and shadow ministers of the Australian parliament for decades, won a score of awards including Best Comedy sketch/review at the Australian Writers Guild AWGIE Awards five times and the best syndicated program for the Australian Commercial Radio Awards rAWARDS three years in a row from 1991.
Mr Edwards also wrote a number of other radio shows and advertisements, including one which won a Goldie Award in 1985 and contributed to television shows such as Kingswood Country and Doctors and Nurses.
ROSLYN MAY ENGLISH
Gosford Musical Society (GMS) life member Roslyn English, of Saratoga, was awarded an OAM for her services to the community of the Central Coast.
Former presidents, committee member and musical director of 15 productions Ms English was appointed a life member of GMS in 2006.
Ms English has been the CEO of the Association of Community Theatre since 2019 and is a past music teacher at Central Coast Grammar and Central Coast Conservatorium.
Ms English has also been instrumental in raising awareness and advocating on behalf of cancer sufferers as chairwoman of the Central Coast Cancer Advocacy Network and keen supporter of the Daffodil Day and Relay for Life fundraising events.
Ms English has been awarded many accolades for her service over the years including being inducted into the Association of Community Theatre hall of fame in 2018, a Local Hero Award in 2019 and the Worthy Woman Award from Gosford Regional Community Services in 2020.
CHARMAIN GADD
Violin virtuoso Charmain Gadd, of Copacabana, has been awarded an OAM for her service to music.
The former artistic director of the Crossroads Chamber Music Festival and Australian Festival of Chamber Music, Ms Gadd remains a parton of the Central Coast Conservatorium of Music and was a founding member of both the Trio Concertainte and the Macquarie Trio.
After travelling the US and Europe as a professional violinist for 23 years, Ms Gadd returned to Australia in 1988 after spending 10 years as an associate professor with Duquesne and Western Washington universities before being appointed head of strings for the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and Canberra School of Music.
REBECCA HOOKE
When Lifeline telephone support counsellor and shift supervisor Rebecca Hooke fell pregnant and was told she could no longer donate blood or plasma to the Red Cross she learned she could donate breast milk for premature babies too young to take formula.
After the birth of her first child Ms Hooke went about donating a staggering 12L of breastmilk.
Giving is in her DNA.
A volunteer crisis support counsellor with Lifeline since 2010, Ms Hooke went on to become a clinical lead at Medibank Health Solutions where she was managing a team of councillors before going on maternity leave.
The born and bred “Gosford girl” said her first involvement with community health was not very glamorous or stemmed from any great desire to save the world.
Instead she said she had a lot of friends who were struggling with mental health issues and she became the person they confided in but she felt “unskilled” and feared saying the “wrong thing”.
The desire to be there for her friends, in turn, led her to Lifeline and a career helping others.
Ms Hooke has been awarded an OAM for her services to community health, which she said “meant the world” to her.
“I’m still trying to put this to best use,” she said of her accolade.
Ms Hooke said while she had planned to attend an Australia Day event on Wednesday, she realised she was booked in to give blood instead.
Ms Hooke said whether it was being an organ donor or volunteering at a local service, there were lots of ways people could “be useful” in their communities even if that just meant rolling up their sleeves and giving blood.
“Not everyone can donate lots of time and money. I think a lot of people don’t know what they can do,” she said.
Ms Hooke is currently planning a year-long fundraiser for Lifeline in which she intends to walk 2.5 million steps towards a goal of raising $100,000 for the charity.
MONICA LEITH PERRY
A stalwart of the Girl Guide movement Monica Perry was awarded an OAM for her service to youth and the community.
A member of the Girl Guides NSW ACT, & NT since 1969, Ms Perry was a former district leader and ranger guide leader at Mona Vale in the late 1980s.
Ms Perry has been a member of the Brisbane Water Trefoil Guild, an organisation which looks to connect women involved or who have a history in the guides, since 2019 and a founding member of the Alpine Trefoil Guild since 1988.
Ms Perry helped form the Girl Guides Ski Club in 1977 and was awarded a life membership in 2003.
She is also heavily involved with the Rural Fire Service, having been a life member since 2018, and is a course co-ordinator with U3A Central Coast and a member of the Central Coast Triathlon Club.
ROSS THOMAS BECKLEY
Highly decorated firefighter Ross Beckley was awarded an OAM for his service to community health and in particular first responders.
Mr Beckley joined what is now NSW Fire & Rescue firefighter 1993 and served as a deputy captain from 1996 until 2014.
Mr Beckley was awarded the 10 Year Good Conduct medal in 2003, National Medal in 2008 and meritorious service commendations in 2007 and 2009.
Having witnesses countless horrors first hand Mr Beckley was diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder in 2009 but remained in the job until he was medically discharged win 2014.
In 2013 he and his partner Veronique Moseley established Behind The Seen to raise awareness and implement strategies to reduce the impact of incident related and career specific stress on emergency services personnel and their families.
In 2016 Mr Beckley received the Dobell Community Champion Award and last year was named the Westfield Local Hero Award.
SUSAN JANE O’NEILL
Terrigal’s Susan O’Neill was awarded an OAM for her service to the international community through medical and humanitarian programs.
Ms O’Neill founded the Pink Umbrella Foundation in 2010 to provide medical and dental equipment to health professionals in Uganda, Congo, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Vanuatu, South Sudan and Timor.
The foundation’s primary mission is to address social inequities in developing countries and increase the number of people with access to education, health care and sustainable livelihoods.
The current vice president and international director of Brisbane Water Rotary Club, Ms O’Neill has previously been awarded Rotary District 9685’s Inspirational Woman of the Year.
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