Gold Coast businesswoman Rebecca Frizelle’s bittersweet moment after Queen’s Birthday honour

A prominent Gold Coast businesswoman made a Member of the Order of Australia has revealed just why the honour was a bittersweet moment for her.

IT was a bittersweet moment for Rebecca Frizelle.

The first thing the prominent Gold Coast businesswoman did on discovering she’d been made a Member of the Order of Australia was Google her father, decorated military pilot Hedley Robert Thomas.

“I’m so grateful, but I just wish he was still alive so I could have shared it with him,” she said.

“He passed away three years ago. He had an Order of Australia as well.

“He always set such a high standard and he was a very proud Australian.”

Rebecca Frizelle. Picture Glenn Hampson

Frizelle, who captains the James Frizelle Automotive Group, one of the biggest private dealerships in the country, became the NRL’s first female club chair in 2014 before stepping down to launch her bid to co-purchase the Titans.

Acknowledged for her contribution to both the automotive industry and rugby league, her long list of achievements should make her an easy interview, but she is insistent on passing the ball to those who surround her.

“One person doesn’t achieve recognition like this, honestly it’s a community,” she said.

“This is everybody I work with, associate with – my friends, my family.

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“My husband cried when I told him he was so happy, really happy.”

Frizelle, a driving force behind bringing more women into the NRL at both community and board levels, said she was determined to deliver the Gold Coast – the city she has called home since 1978 - a successful club.

“We have built a really strong team,” she said.

“Our supporters, our members, our sponsors have been so generous, so patient and so loyal and that’s why I do what I do.

“They deserve us to deliver that successful club and we will. We are here for the long-term.”

She said she was particularly proud of the club’s ongoing development and investment in juniors.

Rebecca Frizelle and husband Brett Frizelle, relaxing at her Southport home. Picture Glenn Hampson

“We didn’t have that (in our city) before and now we have such a wonderful junior development program keeping our young people on the Coast,” she said.

Frizelle is equally optimistic about our economic climate as the city emerges from COVID-19 restrictions.

“The Coast has demonstrated it’s an incredible resilient city,” she said.

“When you look at the challenges we’ve already been through, I think we are in a better position to come through this quickly and with less financial damage than the last recession.

“The Coast has grown up a lot. We’ve matured.”