Three North Queenslanders receive Good Australian Awards
AVIATION pioneer Peter Collings, sugar cane industry advocate and negotiator Allan Parker, and North West Queensland sheep and cattle man and rugby league administrator Grant Lillyman, have all been presented with Good Australian Awards by Townsville City Council Mayor, Jenny Hill.
The Good Australian Award, instituted by Kennedy MP, Bob Katter, recognises hardworking and honest North Queenslanders, and recipients of the award can use the post-nominal letters G.A. after their name.
Bob Katter said Peter Collings received his award for creating a major Australian airline to service North Queensland which always has been owned by North Queenslanders.
“This has been an amazing achievement,” Mr Katter said.
“Peter has kept the family station going for most of his life and he has provided a safe and wonderful service to the people of North Queensland through his original airline Mac Air. He now owns SkyTrans alongside Johnathan Thurston.”
Peter Collings said the Award was a shock and a big honour.
“My heart is in the bush and my heart is in the Cape and that’s where our airline services,” he said.
“I grew up on a cattle station south of Mckinlay, and in my early 20s I bought a plane. I went out and did my commercial licence and loved the industry. When Cannington Mine popped up down the road we expanded with them and became a serious business.”
Bob Katter said Ayr’s Allan Parker had a huge team of people, but he was the person most involved in negotiations for the restoration of a protective marketing system in the sugar industry, and that is why he has received his Good Australian Award.
“Sugar is an industry that is totally owned by foreign companies that some people would call a monopoly situation over the growers,” Mr Katter said.
“Farmers were very fearful that we could end up with the miller paying us a devalued farmgate price. The Sugar Code of Conduct drawn up by Allan and his team, has restored a level playing field for growers, but it wasn’t set up to disadvantage processors. Allan was a key negotiator in Canberra and Brisbane for the state legislation.
“An industry that was deregulated has fought back. We had 230,000 farmers in Australia and now we have 80,000. We’ve been slaughtered. Only the sugar industry out of The Burdekin and Ingham and the farmers from Mareeba have fought back against deregulation.”
Allan Parker said he was overwhelmed that he had been singled out for an award.
“A lot of other people have played huge roles in the sugar industry and getting the Code of Conduct. They’ve realised for a better outcome we need guidelines,” he said.
Bob Katter said Richmond’s Grant Lillyman received his award for bridging the class divide in North West Queensland and for his services to rugby league.
“In the days of the Mid-West sheep industry there was an unfortunate social class division subject to many books, stories and songs,” he said.
“It created an unpleasant divide between the sheep cockies’ and the shearers and townies. Grant Lillyman contributed to the breaking down of this barrier.
“He and his wife were prominent in all sports, shooting, rodeo and rugby league. They were able to use the immense power they had, through their deep Christian beliefs, to treat all people the same.
“Grant ran the Mid-West rugby league for 20 plus years. His grandson Jake played for QLD, Australia and in the NRL. Grant owned cattle stations and just surviving on the mid-west plains is a giant achievement. God Bless you Grant and your late wife, Rita.”
Grant Lillyman said he was very honoured and humbled to receive the Good Australian Award.
“Whether I’ve contributed that much is not for me to judge, but I made great friends in the Mid-West and reared a family there,” he said.
“We went through a lot of tribulations from shearers’ strikes, to trying to keep the banks off our back. We come from a land where the dingoes are prevalent so it’s not always an easy life.”
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