11 more of our local acheivers recognised

Jay Fielding

A TURTLE expert, a Commonwealth Games gold medalist, a top bureaucrat and a woman lauded as Queensland’s “unofficial poetess laureate” are among the 11 new additions to the Maryborough Walk of Achievers.

The Maryborough Walk of Achievers recognises the prominent and famous people who have come from Maryborough, and there are many of them, Fraser Coast Mayor George Seymour said.

Fraser Coast Mayor George Seymour said the walk consisted of more than 90 brass plaques, each celebrating a different achiever from the Heritage City.

“It is a great way to show everyone, particularly young people, that you don’t need to be from a big city to achieve extraordinary things,” Cr Seymour said.

“One of the real key things for this, I think, is for children, for young people growing up in a regional area, to see previous generations doing amazing things,” he said.

The Maryborough Walk of Achievers project started in 1999 and was a long-time dream of Ken Bennett, Grieg Bolderrow, Barbara Hovard and Margaret Wroe.

The first 20 bronze plaques were laid in pavers in Wharf Street on January 26, 2000.

Some of the new recipients and family members representing them arrived at the historic wharf precinct aboard the Mary Ann steam train for Thursday’s unveiling.

Among them was Mary River turtle expert and conservationist Marilyn Connell, whose plaque is fittingly next to that of fellow environmentalist John Sinclair, who led the fight to end logging and sand mining on Fraser Island.

Ms Connell thanked collaborators and volunteers from organisations such as Landcare who had helped in her endeavours to understand and protect the rare local species.

The 11 inductees are:

Warren Persal: Businessman and philanthropist who built high-power transmission lines to places such as the Ok Tedi mine in Papua New Guinea and used his financial success to become a generous benefactor to causes throughout the Fraser Coast region.

Dr Neil Baumgart, PhD: An educator who grew up on a cane farm and became a leader in improving education in developing countries.

Emily Bulcock, OBE: A poet and journalist who had her first work published when she was 12, was awarded an OBE in 1964 and, on her death in 1969, was called Queensland’s “unofficial poetess laureate”.

Andrew Grant: Indoor volleyballer selected for the Australian Olympic Team to compete at London in 2012.

Grace Hodge: A trailblazer in women’s education, the scholar and educator was born in 1888 and attended Sydney University, where she was one of Australia’s first female university graduates. She taught throughout Europe before returning to Maryborough Girls’ High School.

Robert Nioa: Businessman who spent his youth working at his family’s fuel stations and a small gun shop they started in 1973. The shop became the modern company NIOA Group, which supplies firearms, weapons, and munitions to the Australian and New Zealand defence forces and the law enforcement communities.

Dr Paul Bates, PhD: Professor Emeritus, USQ, an internationally recognised aviation authority who developed a new Bachelor of Aviation program and a suite of postgraduate aviation programs.

Adrian Pitman: A technical director at the Australian Department of Defence, he joined the RAAF in 1962, aged 16, before moving into the Defence Material Organisation (later the Capability Acquisition and Sustainment Group). Now a director of the department, responsible for purchasing, supply chain management and sustaining military equipment and material for the defence force.

Julie Brims: A World Masters athlete who began competitive running in 2002 at 36 and has become an advocate against ageism and discrimination in women’s athletics. She has broken more than 30 national Australian Masters’ records across multiple divisions and has 27

World Masters Athletics Championships medals.

Grace O’Hanlon: A 2020 Olympian, the skilled field hockey goalkeeper trained with the Hockeyroos for two years before moving to New Zealand, with whom she won gold at the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games and was a member of the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Team and the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games teams.

Marilyn Connell: Wildlife conservationist regarded as one of Australia’s foremost freshwater turtle authorities and who has led the Mary River Turtle Conservation Project.

Eleven more of our local acheivers were recognised with plaques on Wharf Street.

(From top) JULIE: World Masters athlete Julie Brims with Mayor George Seymour.

MARILYN: Freshwater turtle authority Marilyn Connell with Mayor George Seymour and Tiaro Landcare volunteers.

ADRIAN: Department of Defence director Adrian Pitman. (Jay Fielding)