Queen’s Birthday honours: FightMND co-founder among recipients
A pioneering researcher who co-founded the FightMND organisation and later died of the disease, has been honoured with an Order of Australia Medal. Nearly 200 Victorians are among this year’s Queen’s Birthday honours recipients.
VIC News
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A former state premier, medical researchers, business leaders and dozens of local heroes are among the 199 Victorian recipients of Queen’s Birthday honours today.
Melbourne businesswoman and philanthropist Naomi Milgrom was among just three people to receive the nation’s highest accolade – appointed Companion of the Order of Australia (AC).
Ms Milgrom was honoured for her philanthropic leadership and support of the arts, architecture, design and culture, as well as business.
Chief executive of the Sussan retail group since 2003, Ms Milgrom has also served on several arts and community boards and in 2014 created the Naomi Milgrom Foundation to promote art, design and architecture projects.
Denis Napthine, who was Victoria’s 47th premier, was appointed Officer of the order of Australia for services to parliament and to veterinary science.
Dr Napthine, a vet, represented his southwest Victorian electorate between 1998 and 2015 and served as premier between March 2013 and December 2014 when he lost the election to Daniel Andrews.
The same AO honour has been bestowed upon Melbourne University economics professor Ian Harper who is dean of the Melbourne Business School.
Melbourne’s Deputy Lord Mayor Arron Wood can now add AM after his name after being
honoured for services to local government and the environment.
Mildura-born Mr Wood said the honour provided a chance for him to say thanks to the thousands of teachers and students at hundreds of schools who taken part in his environmental learning programs over the past two decades.
“It’s astounding and I’m so proud of what they’ve achieved,’’ Mr Wood said.
Two leaders of the Australian Industry Group – national chief executive Innes Willox and Tim Piper, Victorian head of the AIG since 2002 – received AM honours.
Senior public servant Penny Armytage, who is the chair of the state Royal Commission into mental health, was also made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM).
Melbourne-based Basketball Australia chief executive Jerril Rechter was also made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM).
“I am surprised, honoured and truly humbled to be receiving this award. I consider it a privilege to be able to contribute to the sectors and industries I have during my
career to date,’’ Ms Rechter said.
Ms Rechter has also held leadership positions in health, community, cultural and arts organisations over almost three decades.
People who have served their communities were also saluted today. One of those was Grazia (Grace) Gammaldi, of Altona Meadows, who received an Order of Australia Medal for services to the community.
Ms Gammaldi has been a volunteer at church and community organisations and a blood donor since 1993.
FIGHTMND CO-FOUNDER POSTHUMOUSLY HONOURED
The posthumous honour bestowed on MND campaigner Ian Davis is a bittersweet moment for his family, coming today on the day of the Big Freeze, an idea he helped create.
Dr Davis, co-founder of FightMND, died of the disease in 2018, aged 40.
He is today remembered with Order of Australia Medal for services to people living with Motor Neurone Disease, and to medicine.
His widow Mel Yang told the Herald Sun that the first Big Freeze in 2015 was “our first symbol of hope and became the start of FightMND”.
The Big Freeze was the idea of Dr Davis, footy great Neale Daniher and Patrick Cunningham.
“The Queen’s Birthday took on a very special significance for us in 2015 with the first Big Freeze,’’ Ms Yang said.
“Five years later, we welcome the Big Freeze 6, and the day will take on another very special significance with Ian’s award.
“It is a huge honour and a very special way for us to celebrate Ian on this, of all days.’’
Dr Davis was just 33 when he was diagnosed in 2011 and then dedicated his time to raising money for research, treatment and drug development.
The disease still has no cure.
Dr Davis was also founder of the Australasian Motor Neurone Disease Symposium in 2018 and was a former clinical and research haematologist at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre in Melbourne.
TOTTIE’S DISBELIEF AT AWARD
Tottie Goldsmith finds it hard to pinpoint her proudest achievement.
The singer, actor, ambassador and philanthropist is so humble she even thought twice about accepting today’s Queen’s Birthday honours for service to the community, and to the performing arts.
“I was so surprised that I just kept reading the email, I thought they got it wrong,’’ Goldsmith, 57, said.
“I just went OK, I do a lot of charity stuff and I have been doing this for years.
“I had to either accept or reject it and I had a big impulse to reject because I feel there are others doing so much.
“But if I reject it then I’m not giving myself the platform to keep having a voice for it.
“It was a little nerve racking to be honest. But now that it’s going to happen I think it’s a really good thing and I feel really honoured.”
Goldsmith, who is still touring with The Chantoozies, had her first paid job in entertainment at age 19.
“Apart from having my beautiful daughter (Layla) I don’t have that personality type where I’m proud of myself,’’ she said.
“I feel I can always do better and I’m quite hard on myself.
“I did a play called Sex with Strangers with Sam Johnson. That was the most challenging role I’ve been given. I also got nominated for an Errol (Award) for that, so did Sam, so on a personal level that was a really big achievement for me.”
Goldsmith is also the Goodwill Ambassador for the Olivia Newton-John Cancer Wellness and Research Centre, a role close to her heart as the niece of Newton-John.
“Being part of it before the hospital even got built, it’s been an extraordinary journey for 12-13 years now,’’ Goldsmith said.
“To be able to help (Olivia), because she’s in America and she needs choices made on the ground here, so being entrusted by her is a really beautiful feeling.
“Not just her as my aunt, but for a woman who has such force to help with a journey of a cancer patient, is really special.
“People are still donating but I’m looking forward to bringing the attention back to all of the kind charities that need the attention and support.”
– Jackie Epstein
SOFTBALL SUPERSTAR RECOGNISED
Olympic Games folklore is littered with startling moments of achievement, ones that stay long in the memory and often enthral many unfamiliar to the sport.
One such moment was Australian softballer Peta Edebone clouting a home run in the 13th innings to snatch victory from the USA at the Sydney Olympics.
Twenty years on from that afternoon of joyous celebration, and Edebone, 52, has been honoured for her services to the game with an OAM.
Included in halls of fame at home and abroad, Edebone won medals at all three Olympics and played more than 300 games for her nation.
The Sydney Games remain her highlight event.
“It was on home soil, and you spend a lot of time away from your family and friends because for softball you had to go to the northern hemisphere to play,’’ she said.
“When the Olympics were on, it gave everyone an opportunity to turn up and they watched and we put on a show and we came home with a (bronze) medal.’’
Edebone grew up playing the sport on the fields of Melbourne.
“My dad played baseball for Australia and my mum played A-grade softball so it was kind of in the genes.
“I’m sure that they would have let me play any sport but obviously when you’re taken off for training with your father at 18 months old and given a bat and a ball, you kind of learn early.’’
Victoria’s elite softballers now compete every season for the Peta Edebone Cup.
Softball is due to return to the Olympics schedule in Tokyo next year after a 13-year hiatus.
PIONEER JUDGE SURPRISED BY ACCOLADE
Trailblazing lawyer and retired judge Carolyn Douglas has received the
Order of Australia Medal for her services to the law and to the community.
Beginning her time in the law in 1977, Judge Douglas’s career spanned 40 years, specialising in criminal law.
It was not the career one of her teachers had earmarked for her – as a typist.
In the 1970s, a career in law wasn’t the usual step for a woman.
But times were changing, slowly, as women moved into the legal industry, most commonly into family and civil law, where the future judge got her start.
Her move to becoming a barrister, and into criminal law, was less orthodox.
Judge Douglas established a reputation as a meticulous, no-fuss barrister, who could handle the hardest cases and take on the toughest criminals.
In 1986 her biggest break would come when she was appointed a Crown prosecutor, a role she thrived in for 11 years.
It would open up possibilities, appearing in high-profile cases in the County and Supreme Courts, and even contesting cases in the Court of Appeal.
But although it was enthralling work, it wasn’t for the brittle.
Judge Douglas recalls crime matriarch Kath Pettingill’s sharp tongue during the prosecution of her daughter-in-law, Wendy Peirce.
“Ay, why aren’t ya home doing the washing?’’ Pettingill snapped at her.
Undaunted, then Crown prosecutor Douglas would get her conviction of Peirce, who had derailed the trial against her husband, Victor Peirce, and his cohort over the murders of two young police officers ambushed in Walsh St, South Yarra, in 1988, by recanting on her statements.
Pettingill’s swipe, however, was far easier to brush off than the tirades of unhinged criminal Hugo Rich during a 1995 trial, who threatened to blow her up in a car.
He even said he had taken a $30,000 contract out on the soon to be appointed County Court judge.
“Hugo Rich threatened to kill me,” Judge Douglas said.
“But the reality is that if you’re going to kill someone, you don’t tell them.
“He was just trying to intimidate me.’’
As a prosecutor, she refused to withdraw from the case in which Rich even abused the judge.
In 1997, Judge Douglas was appointed to the County Court bench, presiding over cases for the next two decades.
During that time she was also a part-time member of the Adult Parole Board.
But despite seeing the worst society can produce, Judge Douglas never expected to be recognised with an OAM.
“I’m just very honoured,’’ she said.
“It comes as a complete surprise because what I did, I enjoyed.
“I was just doing my job, but I felt what I was doing was important.’’
After hanging up her wig in 2017, Judge Douglas is now a part-time law lecturer at Australian Catholic University.
– Anthony Dowsley
BIKE KING HONOURED
It maybe a bad pun but it is true that Giant is a big name in bicycles in Melbourne.
The Mulgrave-based company has been synonymous with cycling in this city for almost three decades.
And with lockdown restrictions meaning more people are pedalling their way to fitness and to their destinations, the distinctive Giant name in block letters has been seen more than ever.
Today Giant’s general manager and managing director since 2014 Darren Rutherford has been lauded with an Order of Australia Medal for service to the community and to business.
Mr Rutherford has also been an ambassador for the KIDS Foundation and a volunteer since 2009.
He has also supported the MS Cycle, the Melbourne ride to raise money for Multiple Sclerosis research, which this year held a virtual event with participants riding on their own for the cause.
Originally founded in 1972, the Giant brand is sold from hundreds of outlets around Australia and around the world.