King's Birthday honours 2024: meet the Illawarra recipients

The Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) is awarded for service worthy of particular recognition.

These Illawarra residents can now call themselves companions of the Order of Australia in the 2024 King's Birthday Honours.

Professor Kathy Eagar has been made a Member of the Order of Australia for her "significant service to community through health services research and development, and as a mentor".

The honour comes in the wake of Prof Eagar's retirement after 26 years as head of UOW's Australian Health Services Research Institute. Read more here.

Director of Research at UOW's Early Start Research Centre, Professor Lisa Kervin has been recognised in this year's King's Birthday honours with a Member of the Order of Australia (AM).

At Early Start - which includes children's museum Discovery Space which attracts thousands of young children onto campus - she heads up a team of more than 70 researchers working in diverse areas including psychology, education, to public health and social work. Read more here.

For his volunteer work with Landcare, as well as his medical work in Cambodia and Nepal and subsequent medical education, Bill Pigott has been appointed a member of the Order of Australia in this year's King's Birthday honours.

Living in Berry since his retirement, Mr Pigott has been involved in local Landcare groups for over two decades, and has watched the regrowth of endangered Illawarra subtropical rainforest in pockets of the area, while also tending to a small amount on his own property. Read more here.

Appointed a member of the Order of Australia, Professor Kathleen Clapham says the award is not for her alone, but for the many people and groups she works with.

The Murrawarri woman's research has tracked Indigenous health and in particular the work of community-controlled organisations, such as Coomaditchie and Aboriginal-led community health services in the Illawarra and South Coast. Read more here.

Firefighter Paul Dorin has received the Australian Fire Service Medal (AFSM).

The Corrimal fire captain created the Home Care Disability Fire Safety Program in 2023 to help reduce fire risk in the homes of elderly residents following insights he gained from caring for his mother with dementia. Read more here.

SES volunteer Terrie-Ann Hurt has received the Emergency Services Medal (ESM).

The Albion Park resident has helped communities across NSW during a wide range of natural disasters, including the Kiama tornado/Shellharbour windstorm (2013), Black Summer bushfires (2019-2020), and cyclones Yasi (2011) and Debbie (2017). Ms Hurt also provided operational leadership during an inland flood campaign in Western NSW during 2021. Read more here.

It was 1975 when Greg Crofts and the scouting movement first crossed paths: "My boys got into it, so I did, too."

Almost 50 years on and he's still involved, perhaps not quite as deeply as previously but he's a regular fixture at Kiama's Scout Hall.

From the heady days of the early 2000s when he filled the role of District Commissioner (2004-06) for Shoalhaven and Assistant District Commissioner for Illawarra South (2006-09), Mr Crofts has contributed significantly to the movement in Sydney before finding his way to Kiama with his wife, Maryee.

Initially the group leader, Mr Crofts has "let the younger ones come through" and now sits comfortably as the group's adviser, having rejuvenated not just the membership but the hall, too.

"The hall was in a bad state of disrepair but over 16 years we've raised more than $70,000 - with a lot of help from the Lions and Rotary."

Not many in the Illawarra bowls community wouldn't know the name Kenneth Forbes. After receiving his Order of Australia (OAM) medal for his service to the sport, the Windang Bowling Club life member said he was over the moon to be receiving the honour. "It's certainly not something that happens every week," he said.

Mr Forbes has a number of accolades to his name, most notably being the president of the Illawarra Zone 16 Bowls Association, as well as serving as a Justice of the Peace for 25 years.

While on the Illawarra Zone 16 board, he also served as a delegate and then later vice-president, before taking the role as president in 2008. He also served as president of the Windang Bowling Club from 2001-2007, and has been a member there since the mid 1980s.

Distinguished Professor Stuart Kaye is one of Australia's leading international lawyers.

He is also the Director and Professor of Law within the Australian National Centre for Ocean Resources and Security (ANCORS) at the University of Wollongong.

Being named in the King's Birthday honours "came as a surprise", he said.

"I love my work at ANCORS and no small part of that is the fantastic team of people there, who are all committed to improving the world's oceans. Ocean affairs cover such a wide range of activity - fisheries, environmental protection, maritime security - so every day brings new challenges."

Among a diverse range of roles, Prof Kaye is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Law and appointed to the List of Arbitrators under the Environmental Protocol to the Antarctic Treaty.

He was chair of the Australian International Humanitarian Law Committee from 2003 to 2009, and was awarded the Australian Red Cross Society Distinguished Service Medal.

"Chairing the Australian International Humanitarian Law Committee was a tremendous honour as well as being important work. ... It was extraordinary to work with Australian Red Cross, who nominated me to the role, as their commitment to mitigating the effects of war and helping people is outstanding."

If there's a volunteering opportunity in the Illawarra you can bet Helen Pittman has done it. During her 82 years she's given her time to schools, a historical society, the Red Cross, Scouts, a church op-shop and was also a volunteer during Sydney 2000 Olympics.

Mrs Pittman also volunteers with Russell Vale Public School Parents and Citizens' Association, Russell Vale Junior Soccer Club, and Woonona Women's Bowling Club.

The Woonona great grandmother is in shock at being honoured with a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM): "I don't know that I've done enough to deserve it," she said.

"I just like to think that I'm doing something to help people and I've always been interested in administration work and I've liked to organise fetes," she said.

Colin Rathbone from Kiama was awarded the OAM for his work in the local community.

Mr Rathbone was a foundation troop member of the "Kiama Light Horse Brigade" and was the president of the Kiama District Sports Association for 45 years.

"I'm absolutely stoked, it's something I never expected to do," he said.

"I only ever sort of did my volunteering stuff to put something back to the great community of Kiama."

Helping start the Light Horse Brigade in time for the centenary in 2015 is Mr Rathbone's greatest achievement in his eyes.

He was involved with the Kiama branch of the Australian Red Cross since 2010 and spent 10 years as secretary of the Friends of Blue Haven Aged Care Facility. Mr Rathbone was named Kiama's 2017 Australia Day Citizen of the Year.

Longtime South Coast MP Shelley Hancock has been recognised with an OAM for her "service to the people and Parliament of New South Wales".

Mrs Hancock retired at the 2023 state election after a 20-year career which included an eight-year stint as the speaker of the Legislative Assembly and two as the Minister for Local Government.

The chief executive of South Western Sydney Local Health District, Sonia Marshall, has been awarded the Public Service Medal for outstanding public service to the health district, particularly in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Also included in the King's Honours list was onetime Illawarra Health Service director of nursing Denise Heinjus. She received an OAM for her services to nursing.

Fiona Shewring, the woman behind SALT ( Supporting And Linking Tradeswomen) also received an OAM - for her service to the building and construction industry.

Long-time Nowra social welfare advocate June Stevens receives her OAM for service to the community through social welfare organisations.

Another community champion honoured with an OAM is Ian Hughes. The veteran Lions member, who was a member of the Lions Club of Nowra as it was in 1977, was deeply involved until 2018.

- Joel Ehsman, Nadine Morton, Jordan Warren, Janine Graham