Queen’s Birthday Honours: Retired Darwinite Jan Grice’s extensive charity work sees her awarded OAM

PROMINENT Darwin business identity and former Barge Express owner, Jan Grice, has been awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for service to the Darwin community

Retired Darwin business woman and former owner of Barge Express, Janice Grice, has been awarded an OAM for service to the community of Darwin. Picture: Katrina Bridgeford

PROMINENT Darwin business identity and former Barge Express owner, Jan Grice, has been awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for service to the community of Darwin.

Mrs Grice, 81, and her late husband John became pioneers in the northern coastal shipping industry after starting Barge Express together in the 1960s.

Supplying cargo to remote Aboriginal coastal communities across the Top End, the service was the lifeblood for many people with regular deliveries of groceries, petrol, cars, newspapers and even live animals.

Mrs Grice has also done a lot of charity work during her life and has been a big supporter of the MAGNT Foundation, Rotary, St John Ambulance, Somerville Community Services, The Smith Family and Red Cross.

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Mrs Grice said she was “overwhelmed” about being awarded with an OAM for her work.

“My husband and I had a wonderful adventure establishing a barge business, supplying Aboriginal coastal communities, being part of the effort of rebuilding Darwin after Cyclone Tracey and raising our family in this truly amazing part of Australia,” she said.

“I am totally overwhelmed with pride to receive this prestigious award and it’s truly special honour to receive it as part of the Queen’s Birthday Awards.”

She said their business, Barge Express, had humble beginnings in 1967 with the purchase of a small ex-army vessel, which Jan and John personally drove from Warwick, QLD to Darwin on a truck.

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The couple added four more vessels over the years and aptly named one of their largest barges the ‘Lady Jan’.

The couple continued running the barge business until its height in 1994, when they decided to concentrate on other interests and sold the company to Perkins Shipping.