Humble heroes honoured for inspiring all of us
NEALE Daniher has been recognised for his brave fight against motor neurone disease in the Queen’s Birthday Honours. Hundreds of other great Australians have also been honoured.
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HUNDREDS of great Australians who have informed, served, educated and inspired us are recognised in Monday’s Queen’s Birthday Honours.
Victorians on the annual list include America’s Cup winning skipper John Bertrand, motor neurone disease campaigner and footy great Neale Daniher, plastic note inventor David Solomon and former Royal Children’s Hospital chairman Tony Beddison.
Other recipients include evergreen singer Kate Ceberano, Walter and Eliza Hall Institute director Professor Doug Hilton and arts promoter Andrew Kay.
Professor Solomon and Mr Beddison are recognised with the nation’s top gong, the Companion of the Order of Australia.
They join an elite group of 13 AC recipients that includes former Reserve Bank governor Glenn Stevens and Ros Packer, widow of Kerry, who was honoured for her charity and arts work.
Governor-General Sir Peter Cosgrove saluted the 771 award recipients in the list.
“Their qualities — compassion, dedication, generosity, selflessness, tolerance and energetic ambition — inspire and motivate us,’’ he said.
Daniher, who was diagnosed with motor neurone disease in 2013, says being appointed as a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) was more about the recognition of others.
The former Essendon AFL player and Melbourne coach has been the public face of the Cure for MND Foundation’s push to raise awareness of the disease and to raise money for treatment and to find a cure.
“It is recognition for the Cure for MND Foundation which is a volunteer organisation creating awareness and helping so many people,’’ Daniher said.
“It’s a recognition for current MND sufferers too, so they know they are not alone.’’
Other high-profile Victorians honoured with the Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) include Roman Finkelstein, QC, former Victorian treasurer Alan Stockdale and The Australian newspaper’s foreign editor Greg Sheridan.
Champion jockey and two-time Melbourne Cup winner John Letts, racehorse trainer Colin Alderson, radio and TV host Amanda Keller and Melbourne motorsport veteran Tim Schenken were also honoured for their achievements.
Schenken, who is one of only five Australians to stand on a Formula One podium, is the clerk of the course at the Albert Park grand prix circuit and is the V8 Supercars race director.
Melbourne science journalist Elizabeth Finkel received an AM for her journalism as Cosmos magazine editor-in-chief, as well as her support for not-for-profit organisations.
The OAM award for Ballarat-born Olympian Jared Tallent starts a week of celebration for the 31-year-old walker.
On Friday in Melbourne, he will finally receive his Olympic gold medal from London in 2012. Tallent finished second in the 50km walk but has since been upgraded to gold after Russian winner Sergey Kirdyapkin was stripped of the medal for doping.
One of nine Victoria Police officers getting the Australian Police Medal is the force’s top counter-terrorism cop, Assistant Commissioner Ross Guenther.
Another to be honoured is Superintendent Stuart Bateson, who played a prominent role in ending Melbourne’s gangland war during his long stint in the elite Purana task force.
I’M SO PROUD TO BE PART OF THIS
(In his own words: Neale Daniher AM)
WHILE I’m humbled to be recognised in the Queen’s Birthday Honours, I really do believe the AM is a recognition for the Cure for MND Foundation and the great work its people do.
The foundation is a volunteer organisation creating awareness and helping so many people and I’m so proud to be a part of what they do.
Also, the honour is a recognition for current MND sufferers so they know they are not alone.
Being able to raise the profile of what this disease called MND is and what it does has assisted people with MND who struggle daily with this beast of a disease.
I want to also acknowledge the dedication of the people whom I call the Freeze Army — the volunteers and donors who keep the research momentum going and are helping to raise millions of dollars. And of course, none of this would be possible without the love, support and devotion of my wife, Jan, my children, Lauren, Luke, Rebecca and Ben, and all my family and friends.
The sporting community and the public in general have been so generous with their time, commitment and money. They have reached out to me and the cause.
Just look at the 11 big-name celebrities who will willingly (kind of) slide into iced water at the MCG today, showing great generosity of spirit.
The people at the heart of the foundation make all this happen. Dr Ian Davis, founder and president of the foundation who also has MND, and members Pat Cunningham, Bill Guest and Rebecca Daniher have been terrific.
Being included in the Queen’s Birthday Honours is overwhelming because the list always features so many great Australians whom I admire.
It’s truly amazing to be considered in that company. But like I said, I haven’t done it on my own, and without the general community’s ongoing support, we won’t find a cure.
CHAMPION FOR HOSPITAL
TONY Beddison speaks with unshielded emotion when he remembers the opening of the new Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne.
Mr Beddison was chairman of the hospital for the transition to the new site and knew what a difference to sick children’s lives the new creation would make.
“It was an extremely emotional time. There were so many people who were involved and it would be wrong of me to take the accolades for that,” he said.
“It’s the doctors, the nurses, the subcommittees and people giving their views and that’s how we developed the vision for the hospital.’’
Mr Beddison, 67, received the nation’s highest honour, a Companion of the Order of Australia, in today’s Queen’s Birthday awards.
He met the Queen at the opening of the hospital in 2011, walking side by side, showing Her Majesty around the new centre.
But while the project was huge, Mr Beddison said it was sometimes the smaller things that helped to make a difference — the meerkat display, no queues at the outpatients and single rooms for children and their families.
He was chairman of the hospital for 10 years until 2013, overseeing the move into new premises on Flemington Rd.
He was also director of the RCH foundation, which raises funds for the hospital. Mr Beddison is honoured for his charity leadership, philanthropy, as an advocate for corporate responsibility and to improving children’s health.
Mr Beddison’s other main community commitment was working for veterans’ causes, being chairman of Australia Remembers — a commemoration of 50 years since the end of World War II.
He was then invited on to the council of the Australian War Memorial.
The businessman has run the Beddison Group and associated companies for about 40 years.
TIRELESS IN HELPING SPORT, KIDS
JOHN Bertrand’s name will be forever linked with his America’s Cup yachting triumph but today’s Queen’s Birthday Honour acknowledges his work since that famous day in 1983.
Bertrand has been recognised with an Order of Australia (AO) for his charity work and sports administration roles.
Bertrand is president of Swimming Australia, chairman of the Sport Australia Hall of Fame and for the past 14 years, he has been chairman of the Alannah and Madeline Foundation, which helps protect children from violence and bullying.
“This honour is a wonderful accolade from your country, particularly for the work I’ve done
since the America’s Cup,’’ he said.
But at 69, Bertrand’s competitive sailing juices still flow. After the Olympics in Rio, he will compete in the Etchells World Championships in southern England.
“Not only do I enjoy it, but’s it’s also my meditation. I love it,” he said.
“I love being out there competing at a high level in an area that I know extremely well.’’
Bertrand represented Australia in five America’s Cups and two Olympic Games.
He will be in Rio for the Olympics in his role as president of Swimming Australia, a position he has held since 2012 and will continue until the Games in Tokyo in 2020.
He said the swimming team carried the hopes of the nation.
“The sport represents five million people in this country so it’s one of the biggest participation sports.
“There’s massive opportunities. I often think if you take the lid off, this thing will fly.’’
He said swimming was looking at innovation in many ways.
“It’s about taking our blinkers off and projecting into the future.”
Bertrand’s executive leadership at the Alannah and Madeline Foundation has guided the organisation to help 1.5 million children in need.
“We’re hoping to present to the United Nations on world’s best practice for cyber safety. That’s part of our dream,” he said.
“We tend to visit the internet but our children live in the internet and it’s a game changer totally.’’
PLENTY TAKE NOTE OF OUR CELEBRATED SINGER
A SELLOUT tour, an album in the charts and today a Queen’s Birthday Honour — Kate Ceberano has every reason to feel just a little bit pleased with herself.
The 49-year-old singer-songwriter was delighted and moved by the latest addition to her list of achievements spanning her 35-year career.
“When you start out, you don’t ever have an expectation of ever kicking a goal like this. Or having anyone notice for that matter,” Ceberano said.
“That someone bears witness to something that you’ve done that’s been of value of society, it’s an amazing thing.”
Melbourne-born Ceberano was honoured with a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for her service to the performing arts, particularly music, as a singer, songwriter and entertainer, as well as to charities.
The three-time ARIA winner is promoting her Anthology album — a digitally remastered collection of 53 tracks.
And Ceberano is also on the Good Times Tour with Daryl Braithwaite, John Paul Young and Jon Stevens.
Ceberano said the secret to longevity was hard work. “When it all comes down to it, it’s whether an artist is delivering, Jimmy Barnes or Daryl Braithwaite or any of the acts I’m travelling with, if you couldn’t deliver any more, people would stop showing up.’’
Her first album was Bear Witness, recorded with her band I’m Talking in 1986. Her 2014 biography carried the title I’m Talking: My Life, My Words, My Music.
Ceberano is starting work on a new project, connecting young unsigned artists to work on versions from her back catalogue.
She is also a Victorian ambassador for the National Breast Cancer Foundation.
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