SELFLESS AND HUMBLE – THE REAL HEROES
Self-adulation and the limelight are the furthest things from the minds of the volunteers and do-gooders who put in the hours to make this city a better place to live
THEY are the unsung heroes who make life better. Or at least give it a go.
There’s Cornelia Babbage of Arundel – honoured for services to the multicultural community – who has been involved with organisations championing the rights and welfare of the migrant community.
That’s not to mention more than a decade in top roles as well as being a board member for the Domestic Violence Prevention Centre Gold Coast.
There’s Kenneth Clark of Elanora. Just call him Mr Surf Lifesaving. He’s got a CV of surf lifesaving club memberships and positions that’s so long if it was typed out on A4 paper it would concertina down to the floor.
Ellis Beach. Point Danger. Surf Life Saving Queensland. Surf Life Saving Australia. He’s been a member of them all, holding every post spanning more than 40 years from first aid examiner and jet ski duty officer to life member.
Don’t forget Mr Alan Thomas. The veteran sports and racetrack caller who lives at Main Beach and after a distinguished 50-year career calling racing, State of Origin, Commonwealth Games events, Sheffield Shield cricket, boxing and golf decided to give back to the discipline that gave him great pleasure and forged a major part of his life.
He founded the Academy for Young Race-Callers to help smooth the path for those wanting to follow his footsteps.
“I’ve mentored and spent time with young callers to make them as good as they can be,” he told the Bulletin last weekend.
The list on the Queen’s Birthday Honours roll continues.
Tennis club servant Frank Tudball of Elanora. Choral music enthusiast and theatre director Alice Walters of Currumbin Waters. Bowls club and Probus club stalwart Margaret Whittaker of Burleigh Waters.
Then there are the more well-known names on the honour role but no more or less deserving of the accolade.
We all know Soheil Abedian and his towering (excuse the pun) achievements. But how many know that the man behind Sunland and responsible for the city’s tallest tower, the Q1 in Surfers Paradise, or perhaps its most glamorous hotel, Palazzo Versace, played a key role in the professional tennis career of Gold Coast golden girl Sam Stosur.
When a school principal approached him about a rising young tennis prodigy on the student roll and that a new court was needed, Mr Abedian didn’t blink and simply asked how much do you need and wrote a cheque.
Now Stosur is a household name, one of Australia’s most accomplished professional athletes and has a singles Grand Slam title to her name, the US Open – her run to the trophy saw her topple perhaps the greatest player of all time, Serena Williams.
The people on the list are so impressive and humbling to read about. But it’s not just their achievements and silent contributions that stand out – it is the fact they go about what they do without the intention of seeking the limelight.
And in today’s increasingly self-obsessed world where the act of self-adulation and promotion has turned into a business for many, the Queens Birthday Honours recipients stand seemingly even taller now than ever.
Their commitments, often
in a volunteer or unrewarded capacity financially, and contributions are to the things that make life and society better.
Sports clubs. Beach safety patrols. Conservation. Community amenity building, which flows from organisations like Rotary.
On the Gold Coast these are the things which only enhance our city and quality of life and quality of interaction in our communities and villages.
They help oil the interaction and social fabric.
For a success story like Mr Abedian, he sees the honour as something he hopes sends a powerful message to others like him who have come from overseas to live here and build a life here.
“It is an honour not just for me as a person but for all the immigrants who have come to this country and made a small step for the betterment of it,” he noted in Monday’s Bulletin.
For him, being named a Member of the Order of Australia was as much about the significance for fellow immigrants and what was possible than it was about his contribution being recognised.
Similarly, fellow new Member of the Order of Australia Tony Cochrane – the outspoken and flamboyant Gold Coast Suns and AFL stalwart, among many other things – continues to help kick goals for not just the city but
state – and by association, the country.
He was instrumental in Queensland hosting the bulk of the AFL matches and teams and then the grand final during the pandemic-affected previous season.
The man dubbed ‘Cocho’ – who once spoke so passionately in favour of his at-times beleaguered Suns that a Bulletin headlined summarising it screamed “COCHO DOES HIS BLOCKO” – has never wavered when it comes to backing the growth of the code locally.
You need that sort of energy and drive to develop a code – and coalesce supporters around you – in a tourism city that can feel disconnected at times.
To those communitydriven achievers who go about their days with the right intentions and in service to their fellow citizens, the pleasure and the honour is indeed all ours.
Recipients stand seemingly even taller than ever