Honours announced for Australia Day

Press, 26 January 1988, Page 16

Honours announced for Australia Day

By

DON WOOLFORD

NZPA-AAP Canberra

Six High Court judges, the former head of the A.I.D.S. Task Force, the Queen’s private secretary and former New South Wales Premier Neville Wran are among the new Companions of the Order of Australia (A.C.) in the Australia Day Honours.

There were 13 A.C.s — the highest award — in the General Division and one, to the Defence Force Chief, General Peter Gration, in the Military Division.

The awards of Officers of the Order of Australia (A. 0. Members of the Order of Australia (A.M.) and Medal of the Order of Australia (0.A.M.) were spread through every walk of life, ranging through the professions, commerce, the trade union movement, the arts, sport, news media and voluntary service. •

The High Court Chief Justice, Anthony Mason, and Justices Brennan, Dawson, Deane, Toohey and Wilson receive A.C.s, as does the Chief Judge of the Federal Court and former Commonwealth Attorney-General, Nigel Bowen.

Other recipients are:

© Professor David Pennington, former chairman of the A.I.D.S. Task Force who resigned last year upon becoming ViceChancellor of Melbourne University. His successor on the Task Force, Professor Anthony Basten, receives an A.O.

© Major General Paul Cullen, the president of the N.S.W. Royal Blind Society since 1978 who has also worked for many international welfare bodies. ® Dr David David, the head of the South Australian . Cranio-Facial unit who has done pioneering work on facial surgery in Asia.

© The long-expatriated Sir William Heseltine, who has been the Queen’s private secretary since 1986. Sir William, once private secretary to a Prime Minister, Sir Robert Menzies, has worked for the Queen since 1960. ® Sir Eric Neal, former managing director of the Boral group of companies and Chief Commissioner of Sydney City Council since the elected council was dissolved last year. ® Neville Wran, N.S.W. Premier for 10 years to 1986 and chairman of the

C.5.1.R.0. Among those to receive the A.O. are a gold and silversmith, Stuart Devlin of London, whose work includes the design of Australia’s decimal coins and the recent “Nugget” coins for the Western Australian Government.

Ralph Sarich of Perth, the inventor of the orbital engine; Police Commissioner of N.S.W., John Avery; Judy Cassab, artist, of Sydney; Eve Mahlab, a Melbourne businesswoman and prominent feminist; and the top Sydney Q.C. and former Commonwealth Attorney-Gen-eral, Tom Hughes, also receive A.O.s.

Sporting awards tended to go to coaches and administrators, rather than current players. The Davis Cup captain Neale Fraser and Kevin Parry, head of the Kookaburra Syndicate which unsuccessfully defended the America’s Cup, were awarded A.O.s.

The National hockey coach, Richard Aggiss, and the former captain, Trevor Smith; Ken Arthurson, rugby league administrator; the head of the N.S.W. Bowling Association, Jack Ball; Max Basheer the long-

serving S.A. National Football League President; the former top jockey, “Scobie” Breasley and the Wallaby coach, Alan Jones received A.M.s. O.A.M.S went to the veteran Victorian cricketer, Ray Bright, Canterbury (Sydney), and the former Australian rugby league half, Steve Mortimer, the Wallaby captain, Simon Poidevin, the national netball captain, Anne Sargeant, the former top amateur golfer, Tony Gresham, the multiple gold-medal winning disabled athlete, Deahnne Mclntyre of Canberra, and the world gliding champion, Ingo Renner, of Tocumwal, in southwestern N.S.W.

Ken Cowley, the managing director of “News, Ltd,” and the veteran “Sydney Morning Herald” theatre critic, Harry Kippax were awarded A.O.s.

The former editor-in-chief of Western Australian Newspapers, Dan O’Sullivan, received an A.M. while O.A.M.S were awarded to the broadcasters Ron Casey and Bill Collins and the Melbourne racing writer John Elliott.

Two couples received

A.M.s. They were Edna and Thomas Lloyd of Norfolk Island who run the local paper and are active in community affairs there and George and Maude Tongerie of Oodnadatta, in the far north of South Australia, who are longserving members of many Aboriginal bodies. Ruth Skillicorn, a missionary in India and Bangladesh for 35 years, was awarded an A.M.

Among the O.A.M.S were former top shearer John Allan, of Kyle Bay, N.S.W., who established the Australia-New Zealand shearing tests, and the administrator of martial arts, Anthony Jackson, of Margaret River, W.A. Most of the honorary awards were given to foreign nationals who had helped build relations with Australia.

They were headed by two honorary A.C.s, Sir Peter Gadsden of Chathill, Northumberland, for service to Australian/British relations, particularly as chairman of the BritainAustralia Bicentennial Committee, and Eishiro Saito of Tokyo, for service to Australian/Japanese relations.