This was published 4 years ago
Good Weekend's 40 Australians Who Mattered 2020: the local heroes who rose above the pack
The heroes of 2020 have been ordinary people doing extraordinary things, in a year when random acts of kindness proliferated.
Not every single entrant this year is homegrown, but they’re all certainly local heroes.Credit:
Editor's Letter
Who mattered in 2020? As Amanda Hooton writes in today’s second annual “Who Mattered” issue, we all did. When I look back at the stories we’ve run in this, a year unlike any other, it’s clear how many of them celebrate ordinary people doing extraordinary things.
Like the volunteer firefighters who risked their lives to save humans and homes over summer; and the health workers who similarly worked through exhaustion, for our collective sakes, when COVID-19 struck. It was a year in which random acts of kindness seemed to proliferate, too, and a time when scientists, typically far from the public eye, were celebrated.
There were some who rose above the pack to deserve special mention, and it is they who are the subjects of this year’s lists, which span 10 categories, from health and science to sport, film & TV, and social media; from business, politics and social justice to the environment and food. Not everyone on the lists are homegrown (hello, Sam Neill), but they’re all certainly local heroes, and most importantly, ones we want to claim as our own.
- Katrina Strickland
Health and Science
Politics
Sport
Film & TV
Social Media
Business
Social Justice
Environment
Food
To read more from Good Weekend magazine, visit our page at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and Brisbane Times.