By Callum Ludwig
On the first King’s Birthday in 72 years, two local residents have been recognised for their contributions to the community and beyond.
Yellingbo resident Gaye Gadsden has received the Order of Australia (OAM) for her conservation contribution, and Toolangi CFA Captain Dawn Hartog received an Australian Fire Service Medal (AFSM) for her 18 years with the CFA.
Ms Gadsden OAM said it’s a great honour and she appreciates that her peers felt her contribution was worthy of a nomination.
“I’ve been living in the Yarra Ranges for 30 years now and my first job out of university was working with Friends of the Helmeted Honeyeater, I’ve always had a very strong interest in the protection of wildlife,” she said.
“I have held various roles with Friends of the Helmeted Honeyeater in volunteer coordination, habitat planting event management, community education and managing the indigenous plant nursery at Yellingbo, then the middle of my career was with the bushland team at Yarra Ranges Council before going full circle back to Friends of the Helmeted Honeyeater and working with local landholders in the Woori Yallock catchment.”
Ms Gadsden OAM is a life member of the Friends of the Helmeted Honeyeater (FOHH) group having first joined in 1993.
Ms Gadsden OAM said her last professional role as the Beyond Yellingbo program facilitator, was the most satisfying.
80 per cent of the remaining bushland in the mid Yarra area is actually on private land, so there’s a lot of habitat there to help protect,” she said.
“I worked with landholders to help them protect and increase nature on their properties and I found that most landholders wanted to do something to protect nature on their properties, they loved the birds, frogs, the butterflies, the wallabies that they live alongside.”
Ms Gadsden held the Project Officer role for Beyond Yellingbo from 2017 to 2021.
Ms Gadsden OAM said she has always enjoyed doing voluntary work on top of her professional conservation work.
“I started a Landcare group in The Patch, I’ve done Land for Wildlife assessing as a volunteer, which is another scheme that helps protect habitat on private land and I’m currently on the Nangana Landcare Network Committee and collect seeds and cutting material on Tuesday mornings for the Yellingbo nursery,” she said.
“Anything that recognises that conservation is absolutely vital and promoting different ways people can help with conservation is a positive thing, perhaps having an OAM after my name will help with the advocacy work I do.”
MS Gadsden OAM was involved in the creation of the FOHH Indigenous Plant Nursery and still volunteers there now.
Ms Gadsden OAM said while the award is for her individual conservation efforts, anything worthwhile takes a whole village.
“In all of my work, I’ve been surrounded by people who share a deep love, passion and commitment for the natural world, it has been satisfying working with incredible people,” she said.
“We have destroyed some 70 per cent of biodiversity on the planet in my lifetime, so to work with groups like the Friends of the Helmeted Honeyeater, who have helped enormously to bring the birds back from a very perilous state to a healthier population, has kept me going.”
Ms Hartog AFSM first became involved with CFA as a Community Development Coordinator in 2005. After living through the Black Saturday bushfires in Kinglake, she joined up to become a volunteer firefighter herself with the Toolangi CFA in 2012.
Ms Hartog AFSM said she had to read the email about her receiving the medal three times to make sure it was correct.
“I then thought of all of the people before me who have been awarded an AFSM – the award that is the highest accolade we can receive in the sector – and I was humbled that I was considered for such an award,” she said.
“I still feel like I have so much to give and being recognised for what I have already contributed is a true honour.”
Ms Hartog AFSM became Captain of Toolangi CFA in 2017 and was appointed to the CFA board in 2019, assisting with the period of change following the Fire Services Reform. All the while, she was even deployed as part of strike teams for the 2019-20 fires and still actively and often attends callouts locally.
