After almost half a century in broadcast, Queensland weather presenter Jenny Woodward has been recognised in this year's Australia Day honours list.
Woodward, one of Australia's longest-serving weather presenters, has received a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for her service to broadcast media.
Loading...She said she was "delighted and thrilled, and a little bit surprised" by the honour.
For more than 35 years, Woodward has been a familiar face of the ABC, guiding the audience through countless natural disasters involving cyclones, bushfires, floods, and extreme heatwaves.
"It was never a job that I aspired to, but I fell into it," she said.
"And I suppose I've grabbed it and ran with it."
The veteran sky watcher, with a background in acting, began her television career after auditioning for Channel 10-4-5a in Toowoomba in the 1970s.
She produced and directed children's variety shows and special events and presented the news and weather for the regional Queensland network.
Woodward said she knew "nothing about the weather" at the time.
"I've really had to learn that on the job," she said.
"I had to plot my own map … and literally draw it up on the screen."
After a stint at Channel 7 as assistant producer for the award-winning children's show Wombat in the 1980s, Woodward joined the ABC in response to an advertisement for a weather presenter in the newspaper.
"It's been a wonderful career for me," she said.
The Bureau of Meteorology has even honoured Woodward with an Outstanding Broadcasting Award for her contribution to delivering important weather information.
Woodward said it was incredibly important to provide the audience with as much information as possible so they could make their own informed assessment.
In 2021, she shared her anecdotes and behind-the-scenes revelations of weather presenting in a one-woman theatre stage show called Weathering Well.
"The joy of that production was that my son Alex produced it for me," Woodward said.
She has also been involved and supported many community groups, such as the Queensland Country Women's Association (QCWA), Queensland Spinners and Weavers and Fibre Artists, and The Rotary Club of Ashgrove/The Gap's Christmas concerts.
The Queensland icon said she has no plans to retire from weather presenting.
"I'm hoping, as an older woman, to stay in television for a bit longer," she said.
Woodward is one of over a thousand Australians who have received honours and awards for their contributions this Australia Day – including many Queenslanders who have been recognised for their strides in education, health and sport.
Tertiary education leader
The University of Queensland's (UQ) Vice-Chancellor, Deborah Terry, has been made a companion of the Order of Australia (AC) for her service to tertiary education as an institutional leader and academic.
Professor Terry has been recognised for her involvement in the "strengthening of higher education through collaboration and innovation, and to the community".
She began her academic career at UQ's School of Psychology in 1990 after completing a PhD in Social Psychology at the Australian National University (ANU).
In 2014, she became the vice chancellor and president at Curtin University, returning to UQ in 2020.
Professor Terry previously served as Chair of the Board of Universities Australia and was appointed Officer of the Order of Australia in 2015.
Experimental criminologist
Criminology professor Lorraine Mazerolle has been made an AC for her contribution to education, the social sciences, and the development of innovative policing reforms.
Professor Lorraine Mazerolle is an international leader in evidence-based policing and specialises in experimental criminology, drug law enforcement and crime prevention.
The UQ researcher fellow received the Distinguished Criminologist Award from the Australian and New Zealand Society of Criminology in 2020.
Pioneering female surgeon
One of Australia's first female heart surgeons, Associate Professor Julie Mundy, has been recognised as a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for her significant service to medicine.
The Queensland cardiothoracic was the founding director at the Princess Alexandra Hospital (PAH) in Brisbane and was the former vice president of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons.
Indigenous health trailblazer
For her service to Indigenous health and cancer research, Professor Gail Garvey has been recognised as a Member of the Order of Australia (AM).
She was among the researchers who helped identify the substantial impact cancer has on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
Professor Garvey is a research leader at the National Health and Medical Research Council and has been an Indigenous health professor at the University of Queensland since 2021.
Award-winning sacked principal
Former Brisbane principal Dr Paul Browning, who controversially lost his job last year, received the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for his service to education.
The award-winning Brisbane principal began his career in 1990 and was named Australian Principal of the Year in 2018.
Most recently, Dr Browning was the headmaster of St Paul's School from 2008 until he lost his job in 2023.
Dr Browning had been planning to raise money for child sex abuse survivors prior to the sacking, but the Anglican Schools Commission (ASC) chair, the Right Reverend Jeremy Greaves, said it was a "broken relationship" that led to his dismissal.
Paralympian and professor
The Paralympian and law professor Paul Harpur received an OAM for his service to people with disability.
Mr Harpur represented Australia at the Paralympic Games in Sydney in 2000 for goalball and in Athens in 2004 for athletics.
He was awarded Blind Australian of the Year in 2022 and has been an academic at the University of Queensland since 2011.
Three-time olympian
The late Richard Mitchell, known as Rick, has been honoured with an OAM for his sports involvement as an athlete and administrator.
Mitchell won an Olympic silver medal in the 400m in 1980 and was flag bearer at the Brisbane Commonwealth Games opening ceremony in 1982.
The three-time Olympian and four-time Commonwealth Games medallist was honoured in the Australian Athletics Hall of Fame in 2011.
At age 66, Mitchell passed away from prostate cancer in 2021.
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