Winners - 2006 Queensland Multicultural Awards
Individual Category - Community Services
Adam Lo
A full-time mental health worker, justice of the peace, a community volunteer and part-time post graduate student Adam Lo is passionate about devoting his spare time to promoting multiculturalism to youth through the universal language of music and his work at Radio 4EB FM
Mary Gavin
An original founder of not-for-profit organisation, Always People, Mary Gavin has dedicated the past 39 years of her life to helping migrants and refugees settle in Queensland. Mary has also worked with the Society of St Vincent de Paul and been involved in the reconciliation process with Indigenous communities.
Today she is a member of the Police Ethnic Advisory Group. She works in partnership with the Multi-Faith Centre at Griffith University and is chair of the reference group for the Confronting Racism in Communities project.
Galila Abdel Salam
Originally from Egypt, Galila Abdel-Salam arrived in Australia with her husband and son in 1983. She joined the Logan Multicultural Neighbourhood Centre and soon became a member of its management committee and its Vice President. Ms Abdel-Salam went on to found the Islamic Women's Association of Queensland (IWAQ) in 1991, of which she was president for two years. She has spent the past 13 years helping settle new migrants.
Individual Category - Refugee Services
Hassan Ghulam
Hassan Ghulam has lived in Queensland for the past 20 years. For the past six years he has been a dedicated volunteer helping other Hazara people who have fled the ethnic and religious persecution and massacres of the Taliban and other fundamentalist war lords.
Individual Category - Outstanding Young Achiever
Mahya Ghodosi
Kirwan State High School top female student in 2005 at the age of 16, Mahya Ghodosi was accepted into the Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery course at James Cook University for the 2006 academic year. Townsville's Australia Day Junior Citizen of the Year in 2006 and recipient of the 2005 Holden Science and Technology Award, Mahya migrated to Australia with her family from Iran when she was one year old. She helps refugee families and their children and spends her spare time after work and school volunteering for countless charities including the Townsville Ronald McDonald House, the Indigenous Children's Services Unit Townsville and the Townsville Multicultural Support Group.
Community Based Organisation Category
Annerley Literacy Centre
The self-funded Annerley Literacy Centre has been helping refugees and migrants since 2000 when it was known as the Annerley Book and Literacy Centre. In 2003 the book shop was gifted to the Annerley community by Anglicare Refugee and Migrant Services and the Annerley Literacy Centre moved to separate premises. Since then it has become a centre of learning for language, literacy and numeracy as well as computer and internet training.The self-funded Annerley Literacy Centre has been helping refugees and migrants since 2000 when it was known as the Annerley Book and Literacy Centre. In 2003 the book shop was gifted to the Annerley community by Anglicare Refugee and Migrant Services and the Annerley Literacy Centre moved to separate premises. Since then it has become a centre of learning for language, literacy and numeracy as well as computer and internet training.
School Category - Primary School
Zillmere State School
Zillmere State School is one of the most multicultural primary schools in Queensland and in 2002 was the recipient of the Education Queensland Showcase Award for achieving excellence in improving educational outcomes for students, community development and health promotion through cultural inclusion and the arts.
The National Review for Classroom Music Education in 2005 selected Zillmere State School as one of 20 schools across Australia that exemplified best practice in music education.
School Category - High School
Yeronga State High School
Yeronga State High School has more refugees in its classes than any other state high school in Queensland and delivers an inclusive mainstream curriculum. Students represent 40 nationalities and more than 60 cultural groups. For two decades Yeronga State High School has been promoting multicultural education and its English as a Second Language Unit employs native speakers of Dari, Croatian, Vietnamese, Ukrainian and Arabic languages and they double as community liaison officers, bi-lingual teacher aides and refugee industry placement workers.
Government Category
Department of Employment and Training (Multicultural Employment Strategy)
In 2004 the Multicultural Employment Strategy was added to the Beattie Government's Breaking the Unemployment Cycle initiative, with funding of $3.16 million. Community jobs plan work placement projects are structured to meet the needs of job seekers from culturally diverse backgrounds.
Business Category - Small Business
Asian Foods Australia Pty Ltd.
Since starting in1988, Asian Foods Australia has invested in the pursuit of excellence through import replacement of Asian foods. Initially the company supplied the Cairns Asian and Japanese tourist market with speciality foods. As the migrant and Asian tourist population grew so did the business's range of Asian products. In the early 1990s proprietors Sim and Daryl Hayward identified a potential import replacement market for the manufacture and marketing of Asian-style curry pastes, chilli sauces and condiments, Korean Kimchee and Japanese Mume, using primarily locally grown Queensland produce. Today the company carries more than 4000 lines to supply retail, wholesale and food service customers from Mackay in the south to Papua New Guinea in the north and west to Mount Isa.
Business Category - Large Business
Central Queensland University
With students and staff from more than 130 countries, Central Queensland University is one of Australia's most culturally diverse universities. It is the number one education destination of choice for students from 33 countries and around 52 per cent of students are international students, the highest proportion of all Australian universities.
In 2005, Central Queensland University was named Exporter of the Year at the Premier of Queensland's Export Awards and the Australian Export Awards, acknowledging the university's business success and its dramatic 38.6% increase in international enrolments compared with the national average of 4.6%.
Multicultural Achievers
Sim Hayward
Sim Hayward's company is the winner of this year's Small Business Award. Cairns resident Sim is a business woman of Malaysian Chinese heritage and she arrived in Australia in 1973 to study and became an Australian citizen in 1984. In 1998 she established Asian Foods Australia Pty Ltd, ranked as one of Queensland's top 400 privately owned businesses for 2003 and 2004. Sim has used the cultural knowledge of her multicultural workforce to develop business and export markets in Asia and the Pacific. She holds a Bachelor of Business Hospitality and has a passion for promoting Cairns region cuisine and tourism.
Angelo Puglisi
Of Italian descent and the owner and founder of Ballandean Estate near Stanthorpe, Mr Puglisi has been influential in the creation of the Queensland wine industry. He has won numerous awards including: a 2002 award for outstanding contribution by an individual to the Queensland wine industry; a 1999 Australia Day Council award for services to the community; and, a 1999 Yellow Pages Directions Award for contributions to the wine industry. In 1977, Angelo won a Churchill Scholarship to study the wine industry in Italy, Germany and France. Ballandean Estate was inducted into the Queensland Tourism Hall of Fame in 2002. Premier Peter Beattie declared Mr Puglisi a Queensland Great in 2003, describing him as a living legend and true pioneer of his industry.
Sarina Russo
Sarina Russo came to Australia from Sicily as a five-year-old. Today she is managing director of the Russo Institute of Technology and Sarina Russo Job Access. The Russo Institute of Technology is one of Australia's largest privately owned vocational education institutions. Sarina Russo Job Access is a provider of recruitment and employment services for employers and jobseekers offering services from government funded assistance to executive placement. She was appointed to the Queensland Premier's Business Advisory Board in 2000. In 2002 she was appointed to the Queensland Education and Training Export Board and Queensland Tourism Board. In 2005 she was appointed to the Council for Multicultural Australia.
Frank Farina
Frank Farina was the first Queenslander to be a national soccer coach. His illustrious sports career saw him represent Australia on 86 occasions before he retired from international competition in 1993. In a 17-year playing career, he played 360 league games in five countries and scored 167 goals.
When he returned to Australia in 1995 to play with the Brisbane Strikers, he wanted to give something back to the game. In 1996-97, he became player-coach of the Strikers and guided them to victory in the National Soccer League Grand Final in May 1997. In November 1997 he was named coach of the year by the Queensland Sports Federation.
He was appointed as the first permanent, Australian-born coach of the national team and served between 1999 and 2005 and this year has been recognised as an Australia Day Ambassador.
Minister's Regional Communty Commendations
Mahya Ghodosi
Ms Ghodosi is also the winner of this year's Outstanding Young Achiever Award
(see above for information on her achievements).
Maria Rickertt
Maria is a Local Area Multicultural Partnership Program (LAMP) worker at Rockhampton City Council and this award recognised the role that LAMP workers play in regional communities. Maria is also a community volunteer and President of The Central Queensland Multicultural Association. She joined community Radio station 4YOU in the early 1990s and volunteers in support of Central Queensland University's Multicultural Fair. She also organised and presented the Parade of Nations, a popular part of Rockhampton's official Australia Day celebrations.
2006 Multicultural Champion
Nick Earls
Author of a number of bestselling novels including Zigzag Street, with a new novel, Monica Bloom, due out in July and 48 Shades, the film adapted from his novel 48 Shades of Brown, due in August, Nick is a strong advocate for multiculturalism and refugees. He was the founding Chair of the Australian arm of international aid agency War Child. Nick was born in 1963 in Northern Ireland and his family left in 1972. His work with War Child and other agencies reflects his belief that we should all do whatever we can to assist disadvantaged members of our community and the global community, particularly children whose lives are disrupted by conflict and displacement.
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