A FORMER Monivae College student, is among those listed in the Australia Day Order of Australia Honours’ list.

James Andrew MacKenzie of Port Fairy was recognised as an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in the General Division for his extensive and distinguished service to business, and to public administration through leadership roles.

His service to the community through numerous roles, both government and executive, includes currently serving as chair of the advisory board of the Suburban Rail Loop Authority, and Development Victoria.

Among the lengthy list of achievements, Mr MacKenzie previously served as chair and a director of both Worksafe Victoria and the Transport Accident Commission.  In the private sector he currently serves as chair of Slater and Gordon and has done so since 2018.

In the education sector, locally, he was the founding director of the Monivae College Foundation serving between the years 1998-2005 and is also currently chair of the Monivae College Board, since 2021, and has been a director, since 2020.

In 2003, Mr MacKenzie received a Centenary Medal for his many contributions to the community.

Mr MacKenzie humbly accepted the most recent honour and said former students of Monivae had received high honours in the past but as the current chair of the board, it was particularly validating to the school and the school’s community.

Mr MacKenzie said he had received some national calls in relation to the honour but was especially pleased to be speaking to the Hamilton Spectator in the same town as Monivae.

He said he wasn’t at all expecting the award.

“I think obviously it’s all a bit surprising when it happens,” Mr MacKenzie said.

“It’s not as if you think this will be the next thing happening in your life - then you get an email from the Governor General’s people … do you accept?

“It’s wonderful and really humbling.”

Mr MacKenzie’s family was having a double celebration, with his wife, Flavia Gobbo also receiving a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in the General Division.

Ms Gobbo was recognised for her service to business, and to public administration.

She has been chair of Workcover in Queensland, and also chair of Emergency Services Telecommunications Authority, both since 2017.

Ms Gobbo has also been a non-executive director of Worksafe Victoria since 2020.

She has previously served as deputy chair and a director of Rowing Australia and has also made a significant contribution through a food distribution charity, SecondBite.

She was equally humbled but more thrilled for her husband receiving recognition.

“It’s pretty amazing,” Ms Gobbo said.

“His is the big one, that’s really … fabulous recognition for him for such a long career in business and working for government.”

Maria Cameron, also of Port Fairy, received a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in the General Division, for her service to veterans, and to the community.

Mrs Cameron’s work specifically involves war graves where she has been integral to tracing grave sites and identities of previously unidentified soldiers killed during World War I and II, including the Battle of Bullecourt and Fromelles battlefields mass grave discovery, 2009.

Mrs Cameron said she was thrilled to be recognised with this esteemed honour and wasn’t at all anticipating it.

“I’m flabbergasted,” she said.

“I’m totally overwhelmed by it all - I never expected it.

“Initially I thought it was a scam.

“I didn’t bother replying - I thought I’m not answering that (email) … that’s rubbish. 

“I said to my daughter - ‘the scammers are getting really good’.  She said ‘it’ s not a scam mum’.

“My daughter was in on it because she had to answer some questions, so she knew.”

She is very humble about the work she does.

“I didn’t think I was deserving - I just do what I do and go onto the next project,” Mrs Cameron said.

“I don’t go around telling everyone what I do.

“It’s not dinner part stuff talking about graves and dead people all the time.”

Mrs Cameron said one of the biggest achievements she was most proud of was getting the law changed to make sure that returned service people don’t have limited tenure on their graves.

“I was on the ministerial board,” she said.

“When I first brought it up - it went down like a lead balloon.

“I thought it was immoral to charge service people limited tenure on graves. 

“Someone said ‘do you know how much this would cost?’

“I pushed it, and it went through the lower and upper house in the (Victorian) parliament … Denis Napthine said it was the quickest bill he said he had ever seen go through.”

The law became colloquially known as ‘Maria’s Law’.

“It’s terrible that people (weren’t able to) rest in peace after serving their country.”

Mrs Cameron said after that success she was asked to go to South Australia and Western Australia to fight for the same.

“The work I do is still ongoing,” she said.

“I do it for the soldiers.”

Another of Mrs Cameron’s achievements included being asked by the French to trace the descendants of seven servicemen who were killed in action in a Lancaster bomber over France.

“One (descendant) was in America,” Mrs Cameron said.

“One old chap in Queensland, he cried when I got in touch with him.

“He said ‘my mother had to bring us up without any pension’ because his father was listed as ‘missing in action’ … the injustice.”

Mrs Cameron has also travelled to Ireland, all self-funded, to help match descendants with those killed in action.

“I was there for three weeks trying to find relatives - unfortunately, parish records had been destroyed - we had to use mitochondrial DNA.

“I ended up speaking with an Irish accent,” she laughed.

She was also an ardent advocate for the cancellation of a wind farm being built on the World War I Bullecourt battlefields (Pheasant Wood).

For the Victorian Government, she served as a former board member of Cemeteries and Crematoria, and as a former member on the Sustainability Sub-committee.

Locally, Mrs Cameron is currently serving as chairperson of the Port Fairy Cemetery Trust where she has been a trustee since 2004.

She has also served as a former president for 20 years of the Port Fairy Genealogical Society and is now a Life Member, was a former member of the Yambuk Auxiliary for Moyne Health Service, is currently serving as a host of the Cemetery Ghost Tours - Port Fairy Cemetery and is a former supporter of Codrington Fire Brigade.

Mrs Cameron said the OAM was only a title but she hoped to be able to use it as leverage to lobby the Department of Health for a shed at the Port Fairy Cemetery.

“We keep getting knocked back, but we’ll keep trying,” she said.