Eyes on the future

TWO Yarra Valley visionaries were recognised for outstanding contributions to the community in Australia Day awards last week.
Healesville resident and Wurundjeri elder, Joy Wandin Murphy, was made an Officer of the Order of Australia (OA), the second highest honour for an Australian citizen in the Australia Day honours list.
Yarra Glen resident, and former professor of Botany at Melbourne University, Malcolm Calder, was presented with the inaugural Ian De La Rue Community Leadership Award as part of the Shire of Yarra Ranges Australia Day celebrations last week.
Professor Joy Wandin Murphy received her award for service to the community, particularly the indigenous community through significant contributions in social justice, reconciliation, land rights, equal opportunity and art.
Born and raised in Healesville, where she still lives, Ms Wandin Murphy started to take an active interest in Aboriginal affairs in 1975 when she worked as a secretary with the Victorian Aboriginal Childcare Agency – later becoming a member of the board.
During the past 30 years she has held executive positions with organisations dealing with indigenous Australians in areas of law and justice, equality, land rights and culture. She is an honorary Professor of Swinburne University and, among other current roles, is co-chair of the Victorian Review of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody.
At any time an Australia Day award would be cause for mixed feelings but coming, as it has, just three months after the death of her partner of 25 years, Peter Kaal, those mixed feelings were two-fold.
On Peter, she said he was her strength throughout what had often been a challenging journey and the one who encouraged her to accept the award. Not having him by her side, as was planned, was an overwhelming sadness. She dedicated the award to him.
On the award itself she said: “I chose to be involved so that we are not forgotten. It is an opportunity to get further messages across.
“It is what Peter said, the strong regard in equal status and taking every opportunity to create strong links with other leaders. Others might not agree, but that’s what my life has entailed.”
Ms Wandin Murphy said her ultimate achievement was building awareness and understanding.
The inaugural Ian De La Rue Community Leadership Award, named after the prominent community leader who died last year and was a posthumous award winner himself, was presented to Mr Calder for his outstanding work in developing strong community leadership across the shire.
An active member of the Yarra Glen and surrounding communities, Mr Calder was instrumental in establishing the Steels Creek Community Centre, local bushwalking groups, and had lent his skills and expertise to countless environmental causes.
He is an active member of Healesville Environment Watch and gives freely of his time to conduct classes, groups and activities, engaging all who participate with his enthusiasm and love of nature.
Most recently Mr Calder had worked on the Yarra Glen Values and Visions project and been chair of the Yarra Glen Interim Township Steering Committee.
Mr Calder said was a great honour for him to be associated with Mr De La Rue.
“Ian was the ultimate quiet achiever; a man who worked tirelessly to improve the economic, social and environmental values of the communities in the Yarra Valley,” he said.
Mr Calder joked that the anonymous person who nominated him for the award was “misguided”. “Anything I have done as a community leader is as a member of a highly committed team dedicated to achieve good outcomes for the community of Yarra Glen and the wider Yarra Valley,” he said.
“My purpose as a member of the Yarra Ranges community, and specifically in Yarra Glen, is to encourage those who live here to take some direct part in, and responsibility for how we progress as a society into the future.”
Dr Richard Gutch of Healesville received a Medal of the Order of Australia for service to medicine as a general practitioner and through executive roles with a number of medical organisations including the Asthma Foundation of which he was a founding member.(See storyPage 7.)
MEANWHILE, the contribution made to Upper Yarra communities by two of the area’s most respected and loved community members also was recognised in Australia Day awards.
The late Ian De La Rue received a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in the Australia Day 2006 Honours List for service to business and commerce in the Upper Yarra Valley. The award paid particular recognition to his leading role in establishing community banks. Upper Yarra Rotarian and Launching Place resident, Valda Woodman, 78, received the Shire of Yarra Ranges 2006 Citizen of the Year Award.