Geelong recipients of King’s Birthday honours revealed

Check out the Geelong Advertiser’s full list of honorees.

Margaret Markovic

When police officers knocked on Margaret Markovic’s door in May 2004, her world was turned on its head.

The Lara woman’s 22-year-old son Daniel had been travelling on Kings Way in Melbourne’s CBD when he was hit by a drunk and drug-affected driver.

Daniel, an aspiring musician with the world at his feet, died instantly.

“Our lives were changed completely and totally,” Mrs Markovic said.

“Things will never, ever be how they were.

“Getting through a loss is difficult and hard enough, but as time moves on you realise that there will always be grief in the future.

“There is no way he will he ever be married, we will never have grandchildren and there will be no way for us to know the beautiful, fabulous person he would have become.”

Mrs Markovic’s only other child, her daughter Lisa, was just 18 and about to start year 12 when Daniel was killed.

“She’s a different person, too,” Mrs Markovic said.

She said her daughter’s aspirations and view of what she could achieve all vanished as she became irreversibly consumed by grief following Daniel’s death.

“There is no joy in things for her and it’s not how she ever envisioned things to be,” Mrs Markovic said.

“Daniel and Lisa were so close she really does feel the loss all the time and so much comes back to memory.”

In 2012, after Daniel’s killer was jailed, Mrs Markovic and her daughter decided to use their grief to help others experiencing the immense pain of losing a loved one through road trauma.

They started Road Trauma families Victoria and have dedicated their lives to advocating for road trauma victims and families, educating others and running camps for bereaved siblings.

On Monday, Mrs Markovic will receive an Order of Australia Medal as part of the King’s Birthday Honours.

Mrs Markovic said creating the foundation had been the “best thing” to help her channel her grief into something positive.

“Many people are not able to find enough intrinsic strength to get through trauma and extend out to others,” she said.

“It can be easier to stay quiet. later on they will realise they need help, anything that can help other families get through what they need to get through on that particular worst day of their life and beyond.

“It gives us enormous pride and fulfilment.”

Mrs Markovic said she hoped her musically talented son, who was in the midst of starting a music management company when died, would be proud of all she had achieved.

“He’s around, whether people are open to that or not, we fell that he is with us a lot and doing what we do in his memory means the world to us and many others as well,” she said.

Ian Caldwell

Watching, playing and being involved in cricket feels like magic to Ian Caldwell.

The Belmont man has lived and breathed the sport for decades and is currently the Bellarine Peninsula Cricket Association’s longest-standing president.

In March 1980, Mr Caldwell moved to the Geelong region and remembers having to wait a painful six months before joining his local cricket club for the 1980-81 season.

He estimates it’s the longest time in his memory that he’s gone without playing or being involved in cricket.

“Cricket is one of those games that is magic,” he said.

“The cricket dust sprinkles down upon you and you get involved.

“It’s an individual game within a team game. You play with fantastic people, and you get premiership rewards as well as heartaches.”

On Monday he will receive an Order of Australia Medal as part of the King’s Birthday Honours for his dedication to cricket.

Mr Caldwell has been the director of the Victorian Country Cricket League since 2017 and a member of the BPCA since 1994.

In that time he has been secretary, treasurer, vice president and has held the position of president since 2013.

He was made a BPCA life member in 2008 and the A2 Cricketer of the Year medal is named in his honour.

In 2019, he played his 500th game for Portarlington – joining the likes of Craig D’Arcy, Robert Malcolm and Les Menzies.

While Mr Caldwell’s admits he has never had the natural cricketing ability of those players, he says his longevity and love for the game has shone through.

His on-field highlights included a premiership in 1997-98 in a team nicknamed the Icebreakers on a weekend where three Portarlington teams defeated rivals Drysdale.

Mr Caldwell said he had witnessed the BPCA grow into a premier local cricketing league.

“I feel honoured to be one of the current custodians of cricket in the Geelong local area,” he said.

“Not only have I been able to do that, but I’ve been able to do it as a member of a team – a wonderful team.”

Mr Caldwell isn’t sure how much longer he will lead the BPCA, but remains certain he will have some involvement in the association in the future.

“Succession planning needs to take place. I love the job, but time comes when you need change and that may be in the near future,” he said.

“But I’ll still be there supporting the association.”

Mr Caldwell was also recognised for his work for other professional organisations, including the Australian Bank Employees’ Union, the Australian Labor Party and the Finance Sector Union of Australia.

Margaret Grigg

Margaret Grigg is the first to admit she was “a bit naive” when she decided to specialise as a mental health nurse four decades ago.

The long-time Geelong resident, who was studying as a nurse at Geelong hospital, wanted to do “something different” and thought working in the mental health sphere would be interesting.

She became a community psychiatric nurse, and that role shaped her career – during which she has spent the majority of time working outside hospitals.

On Monday Dr Grigg, now the chief executive officer of Victorian Institute of Forensic Mental Health, will be awarded an Order of Australia Medal as part of the King’s Birthday honours for her services to mental health.

In her current role, Dr Grigg oversees Victoria’s only agency providing clinical forensic mental health services spanning all areas of the mental health and criminal justice sectors.

When the 2009 bushfire devastated parts of Victoria, including King Lake, Dr Grigg oversaw the state’s mental health response.

She was charged with helping to treat people who had experienced immense trauma, including many young children.

She was awarded a National Emergency Medal for this work in 2012.

“My role was to make sure that the (response) was well co-ordinated, to identify gaps and to make sure various services were talking one another,” she said.

“People had experienced deeply traumatic circumstances … there is absolutely no doubt that quite a bit was learned.”

She said children were “disproportionately impacted” by the natural disaster, meaning it was vital to ensure trauma support was integrated into schools and kindergartens.

Dr Grigg said a failure to response to trauma when children were young could lead to greater lifelong challenges.

She likened the challenges faced in 2009 to the psychological trauma many young people had experienced during and following Covid-19 restrictions.

Dr Grigg described herself as a champion of the findings from the 2021 Victorian Royal Commission into Mental Health, and many of the changes implemented could help to shift the trajectory of peoples’ lives.

Dr Grigg, who will depart the Victorian Institute of Forensic Mental Health in August, said the biggest change she had seen across mental services was the understanding that people with lived experience can work in the system and bring about change.

“I have learned so much more through people who have been through it than I have through a book,” she said.

Professor Raymond Adams

An Australian researcher who has led efforts to improve the global monitoring of educational standards has been recognised in the King’s Birthday honours list.

Professor Raymond Adams, who lives at Fairhaven, has been made a Member of the Order of Australia for his research into the measurement of educational outcomes and his leadership of national and international studies of student learning.

A researcher with the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER), Professor Adams

led the conceptualisation and introduction of the OECD’s three-yearly Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) from 2000 to 2012.

This involved testing, analysing and reporting on the reading, mathematics and science learning of 15-year-olds in 65 countries.

Professor Adams’ scientific and technical leadership of PISA included mobilising hundreds of

experts, educators and scientists from around the world to build a global assessment program

that has become the world’s premier yardstick for comparing quality, equity and efficiency in

school education and an influential force for education reform. He is now supporting ACER’s

implementation of PISA in more than 90 countries in 2025.

Professor Adams has also made significant contributions to the assessment and monitoring of

the outcomes of school education in Australia.

He has provided expert advice as chair of the

Measurement Advisory Group of the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting

Authority (ACARA), the body responsible for Australia’s National Assessment Program, which includes NAPLAN.

Mr Adams, who lives with a profound disability, said he could not achieved what he had without the support of his permanent carer and wife Kathie Adams.

“The true honour in this is as much hers as mine,” he said.

Ian Graham, Grovedale

Former police officer Ian Graham has been awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia in the King’s Birthday Honours for his service to the community.

Mr Graham has been a member of the Australian Volunteer Coast Guard Association, has been involved in international service club the Kiwanis and has volunteered with other organisations including the Country Fire Authority, the Geelong Naval Cadets and the Ocean Grove Surf Life Saving Club.

Lorraine Griffiths Lorne

Lorne woman Lorraine Griffiths has fostered more than 140 children since joining Mackillop Family Services as a foster carer in 2002.

She has been awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia in the King’s Birthday Honours for her service to children as a foster carer.

She has been a member of the Foster Carer Association of Victoria since 2004 and joined Foster Care Plus in 2021.

She has won multiple awards including MacKillop’s 2020 Excellence Awards,

Councillor Rosemary Hodge, Jan Juc

Former Surf Coast Shire Mayor Rose Hodge has been recognised for her service to local government, and to the community.

She has been awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia in the King’s Birthday Honours.

Ms Hodge has been a member of the Surf Coast Shire council since 2004, is a member of the

Torquay Community Impact Advisory Committee and serves as representative for the Municipal Association of Victoria.

Allan Holmes, Apollo Bay

Veteran Apollo Bay life saver Allan Holmes has been a member at his local life saving club since 1967.

He has now been awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia in the King’s Birthday Honours

for his service to the community through a range of organisations.

He has been a life member of the club since 1980, served as a chief instructor and served as the club’s president from 1981-83 and again from 1986-89.

Mr Holmes has been the club historian since 2001.

Leslie Kelly, Lara

Lara’s Leslie Kelly has been a member of the Country Fire Authority for more than 50 years, and has been a District 7 brigade captain since 2008.

He has now been awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia in the King’s Birthday Honours for service to the community through emergency response organisations.

Mr Kelly has been a CFA safety co-ordinator since 2018. He formerly held various executive roles, including group officer and communications officer at Geelong Fire Brigade, and was captain of the Lara Fire Brigade from 1999-2006.

Dr Susan Lester, Highton

Highton general practitioner Dr Susan Lester has dedicated much of her life to medicine.

She has now been awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia in the King’s Birthday Honours for service to the community through emergency response organisations.

Dr Lester has been a volunteer medical officer at the Grace Center for Children and Families Foundation in Ethiopia since 2012, has performed with amateur production company

Medimime Productions since 1994 and has been a GP at Highton Clinic since 1996.

Sylvia Stewart-Muir, Thomson

Sylvia Stewart-Muir, known as Fay, is a Boon Wurrung Elder of the Yalukut Weelum of the Boon Wurrung, Wamba Wamba and Wergiai clans.

She is a First Nations’ community leader, Koori Court Elder, a Boon Wurrung and Wemba Wemba language specialist and works as a prison educator in First Nation languages and as a creative language revival consultant and collaborator.

Fay has served the Victorian community for over 40 years and has now been awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia in the King’s Birthday Honours for service to the Indigenous community of Victoria.

Fay worked as a nanny before pursuing her passion from childhood, nursing.

She started her nursing journey at Fairfield Hospital, then worked as a nurse in Geelong for more than 30 years.

Rieny Nieuwenhof, Portarlington

Vietnam Veteran Rieny Nieuwenhof has dedicated much of his life to supporting fellow veterans and families.

He has now been awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia in the King’s Birthday Honours for his service to veterans and their families, and to the community.

The former schoolteacher has been president of the Vietnam Veterans Association of Australia Geelong and District sub branch since 2013 and a life member since 2017.

He was a leader during the Vietnam Veterans’ Avenue of Honour restoration from 2015-17 and has been the inaugural chairman of the Community ANZAC Day Dawn Service Committee, Eastern Beach Geelong since 2017.

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