Activist urges change
Order of Australia recipient and Aboriginal rights activist Neville Oddie would rather his Australia Day honour was conferred on another day.
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Mr Oddie was awarded an Order of Australia Medal for his service to conservation and reconciliation on Thursday.
The Snake Valley farmer and longtime CFA volunteer said his decades of activism were “unremarkable” and he felt “humbled” to receive the award.
Mr Oddie said he felt conflicted by the date of Australia Day, which marks the arrival of the First Fleet at Port Jackson.
“I feel uncomfortable about receiving this award at all but particularly on Australia Day,” Mr Oddie said.
“It does provide an opportunity for me to get out of my comfort zone and say some of the things that may need to be said.
“It was the start of the dispossession of Aboriginal people of this country, and if anyone has any sensitivity at all to Aboriginal history, then we are conflicted by Australia Day being on that day.”
Mr Oddie urged people to be active in challenging prejudice.
He also acknowledged the work of the Ballarat and District Aboriginal Co-op and Wadawurrung people in their support of the Ballarat Aboriginal community.
“We can’t afford to lack courage in the face of extreme views, we’ve actually got to go out and counter that with views that are based on evidence and based on truth and are in fact more sensitive to the real lived experience of Aboriginal people.”
Mr Oddie said advocacy for the environment and Aboriginal rights were intertwined.
“For me it’s been the two things have gone together because the land and the environment are very much part of Aboriginal Australia, as it was, as it has always been and as it still is.”
Asked how he remained hopeful of making a difference despite environmental degradation, Mr Oddie said an activist had to be optimistic.
“If you’re working at the coal face and you’re doing things that are making a difference at least in your own patch, then you can point to others and say ‘I’m making a difference in my own patch, other people can do the same’.
“You've got to have that hope and actually present that hope to the broader public so they can see there is a way, and there is something better.”
OAM for devoted public service
Phil Roberts hasn’t spent his entire life in Ballarat, but certainly the life of Ballarat has been much enriched by his living here.
Mr Roberts has been awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia for his services to the community of Ballarat, services which include volunteering his time to Rotary, Scouting, the Ballaarat Mechanic’s Institute, the Ballarat Golf Club, Ballarat Sportsmens Club, Avenue of Honour Committee (invited historian) and the Ballarat branch of the Australian College of Educators.
In his ‘spare’ time Mr Roberts has also written 16 books on topics as diverse as the history of the Oliver Boot business, the histories of the Ballarat High School, the Ballarat Agricultural Pastoral Society, the North Ballarat Football club and the Mechanic’s Institute, among others.
His history of the Haymes Paint business, Paint Flowing Through Your Veins, sensitively revealed the story of David Haymes’s exploration of his adoption and reunion with his birth families.
“I've always had an interests in history and heritage,” Mr Roberts says.
“When I was studying at school and university I was drawn to it, and it was probably by accident I started to write books.”
Mr Roberts began his writing career commemorating the 75th anniversary of Ballarat High School in 1981, a job given to him by the-then principal Laurie Sedgwick, who allocated Mr Roberts a day a week to it.
“I think he was thinking of a booklet, but I got interested in it. I went down to the Public Records Office, and it was a great project. We had Geoffrey Blainey, who was a former student of the school, write the foreword; Neil Trezise, who was a former student and in the government at the time, launched it; and an Archibald Prize winner, Wes Walters, who was also from Ballarat, did the cover. Since then I’ve written a book a year.”
The discipline of writing is notoriously difficult, and Mr Roberts says he doesnt have any set patterns for achieving his output. If it requires him to wake at 3am with an idea in his head, then he gets up and does the work before returning to bed, he says.
“That has happened when I’m in the heat of the battle,” Mr Roberts said.
Mr Roberts paid particular tribute to his wife Geraldine. “She’s key. I can’t spend the time researching and meeting people, without her support and counsel.”
“Ballarat is a fantastic place for having an interest in history,” Mr Roberts says.
‘All about teamwork’
Geoff Smith has never sought accolades, but after more than three decades serving the community it comes with the territory.
Mr Smith retired from local government in October after 32 years.
He joined the Hampden Shire in 1982 and following amalgamations became the inaugural north ward councillor for Corangamite Shire in 1996, including two stints as mayor.
The Derrinallum farmer has been credited with cementing a positive and cohesive culture at the council. “You are the culture of Corangamite Shire,” mayor Jo Beard said at Mr Smith’s final council meeting.
It is an honour the 85 year old is quick to deny.
He believes, like most things in local government, that his success is down to good teamwork and his latest honour – an Order of Australia Medal – is no different.
“The key to it is teamwork. It doesn’t matter if it’s a family, a football team or a council, when people work together relations are good and results are good,” Mr Smith said.
“If there’s any conflict anywhere or disrespect things are not so good. You don’t enjoy it and you don’t get the results you should be getting, or that the public deserves to get. It doesn’t mean you have to agree, but it does mean you have to respect other people’s points of view.”
Mr Smith was awarded the Australia Day honour for his many years of service to local government, but he is remaining humble.
“This is more a reflection on Corangamite Shire and not so much on me,” Mr Smith said.
“I just appreciate the time I had there. If I hadn’t enjoyed being there I wouldn’t have stayed so long and there was such a great team to work with. I met a lot of great people out of it right across the shire.”
Knowing he has made a difference is Mr Smith’s greatest reward.
“I do appreciate the opportunity to be able to do that. You like to think that you’ve had some impact on society and on the public, we all like to know that it has been appreciated.”