TELLING more stories about rural and regional Australia’s champions, including those involved in agricultural pursuits, will continue to be a growing focus of the Australian of the Year Awards, by improving the annual harvest of nominations.
National Australia Day Council (NADC) deputy-chair Robbie Sefton said she was “delighted” that 11 of the 32 finalists for this year’s awards hailed from rural and regional Australia.
But Ms Sefton - who runs the Tamworth based rural and regional marketing communication specialist agency Sefton & Associates - and NADC CEO Chris Kirby, say they want to build on that strong return with more work throughout 2017.
Mr Kirby resides on a small property in rural NSW that he says is not quite a farm but the location enhances his lived-experience of what it means to be an Australian; country style.
“What you see in country towns is this real, amazing expression of Australian values,” he said.
“When I think of Australia, I think it’s built on values like egalitarianism, tenacity and optimism and you see that expressed in country areas in a different way than it is in the cities.
“What I’m keen to do is to go out more and find these stories, from throughout rural and regional Australia, that we can tell which bring those qualities to life.”
Mr Kirby said the 2017 awards were underpinned by a dedicated nominations drive throughout regional Queensland, NSW and Victoria last year which involved visiting local towns, including meeting Mayors and other residents, to uncover stories about local champions, to harvest nominations.
“That’s why we’ve had such a diverse spread of nominees and winners this year including those people working in agriculture,” he said.
“We’ve always harvested nominations from rural and regional Australia but what I’ve done is to try and put a bit more focus on that aspect of what we do and some more energy behind it and this year we’ll being doing another nominations drive.”
Mr Kirby said the NADC wasn’t currently considering creating a new, specific category to acknowledge the achievements of rural and regional Australians.
He said the awards started out 57 years ago with just one category and had now evolved into four major awards.
But he said the local hero category and the senior Australian of the year awards often attracted nominations for rural and regional Australians who became eventual winners.
At last nights’ awards presentation in Canberra, Biomedical scientist Emeritus Professor Alan Mackay-Sim was named the 2017 Australian of the Year in a glittering ceremony headed by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.
The Award recognised Professor Mackay-Sim’s lifetime of dedicated research and international leadership which has led to ground breaking advances in the treatment of spinal cord injuries.
Community fundraising champion Vicki Jellie from Warrnambool in Victoria was awarded the 2017 Local Hero prize after she helped raise $5 million in her local community, to help fund a radiotherapy treatment centre, for regional patients.
Mr Kirby said another example of a regional Australian who won deserved-recognition was the 2017 SA Local Hero winner; agriculturist Reginald George Heading.
Mr Heading was acknowledged for 25 years working in Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Oman, Bahrain and Bhutan to equip local farmers with technical and practical knowledge, helping them apply modern Australian dryland farming techniques to improve the sustainability of their pastures and livestock health.
Mr Kirby said another great example was 83 year-old Josephine Peter from Broken Hill in NSW who was that state’s local hero award winner for 2017.
He said Ms Peter started out on a life-time of volunteering at age seven, by knitting socks for soldiers who went to World War Two.
“She knitted one sock and found it really, really difficult and her mum said, ‘I can’t send a soldier off to war with just one sock – you need two socks to go to war’,” he said.
“Josephine found the second sock a lot easier to knit and 450 socks later she thought, ‘This is what it’s all about; I need to give something back to my community’ and has spent 70-years volunteering.
“She’s one of those amazing country women who’s on every committee - she volunteers every day and runs her family and does absolutely everything and she’s the glue of these societies.
“I love telling those stories and I think they’re awesome stories for the rest of Australia to hear and would love to see more of these stories, and lots of other different types of stories told, from right across the country.”
Ms Sefton said she’d served on the NADC board for the past six years and due to her professional and personal background viewed her role as helping to serve the interests of rural and regional Australians.
She said she wanted to see greater understanding an appreciation of the diversity of life in Australia - especially in rural and regional areas - by acknowledging “some of our unsung heroes”.
“I want to see more people nominate; especially those local people who are doing really amazing things and just by nominating, it makes a big difference,” she said.
Ms Sefton said about 25 to 30 per cent of all winners in the different states and territories came from country areas so, “the work we’re already doing makes a difference”.
She said the annual awards were also undergoing transition by shifting the focus away from most of the activity being held on Australia Day, towards more of a “conversation throughout the year of what it means to be Australian”.
Ms Sefton said in her view, being Australian was all about: tenacity, resilience, being robust, authenticity and being curious, highly capable and positive.
“We want to find those stories about rural and regional Australia and what it means to be Australian and unearth them every day rather than just having the Australian of the Year awards and other Australia Day activities,” she said.
“I’d like to see more people nominating to be Australian of the year and that’s easy to do; it’s just online.”
Ms Sefton said she also encouraged increased diversity in leadership for rural and regional Australia; whether that’s more women or people from non-English speaking backgrounds “or whatever”.
She said often, non-metropolitan Australia’s leadership model was, “a couple of steps behind where we could be and where we need to be”.
“In my mind being Australian is also about leadership and bringing people with you about where we want to go, without all of the bullshit,” she said.
“If you look at the 32 Australians of the Year, every single one of them has got something done and they’re achieving something that’s making a difference to their community or industry.
“I think we as rural and regional Australians could really learn from that.
“We certainly get a lot done in the bush but also we don’t celebrate people who are going really well and doing a good job.
“I think there’s a lot of unsung heroes in the bush that we’re not acknowledging for doing a really good job and they’re often the quiet ones working away behind the scenes and not out thumping the table.”
Mr Kirby said the NADC had conducted research on whether traditional Australian values like, ‘a fair go and egalitarianism’ still held true due to “a massively different population” than 40 or 50 years ago, in terms of ethnic backgrounds.
He said for example, 30pc to 40pc of Sydney’s population either wasn’t born in Australia or their parents were born elsewhere.
That research found those traditional values still hold true but are expressed in different ways these days, he said.
“That’s a conversation we want to go out and have with people about this idea of a fair go and this idea of being optimistic and that you can achieve what you want to achieve if you set your mind to it, here in Australia,” he said.
“I think nations are formed around ideas and around principles and around values and that’s how our nation is formed.
“I’d like to hope anyone can hold those values dear whether they are left or right politically or north or south geographically - these values are what unite us.
“What I’m interested in is; how do you have conversations about this?
“Instead of it being about what I think or what my research says - how do you have conversations about this right around the country?”
Mr Kirby also addressed the ongoing controversy this year involving the City of Fremantle wanting to move its Australia Day ceremony away from January 26 and regular debate about the final Australian of the Year award winners.
He said more events to celebrate Australia Day had been registered on the NADC’s web site this year, “than we’ve ever had”.
Most people also understand different opinions exist and most of them are respectful of those views, he said.
“But 65pc of Australians do something on Australia day that’s specific about Australia Day - that’s about 14 million to 15 million people - and 80pc of Australians think that Australia day has some special meaning,” he said.
“I think it’s good that people are talking openly and respecting different views and that should continue; so long as that conversation remains respectful.
“There’s always good robust discussion about the Australian of the Year and I reckon that’s awesome – that’s who we are as Aussies.
“To just sit back and say, ‘oh yeah’ and just take it is not very Aussie so it’s really great to have robust discussions about these things.
“But from our research, 80pc of Australians support the awards and believe they are well regarded and in very robust health.”