Australia Day full Honours list 2024: Recognising our national treasures and the way they shaped the country

From groundbreaking researchers to TV hosts, politicians, musicians, community heroes and volunteers, Australians from all walks of life have been recognised in the latest Australia Day Honours List.

For the second time, women outnumber men, accounting for 373 of the 739 recipients named in the list which was made public Thursday night.

The highest honour, the Companion of the Order of Australia (AC), was appointed to four people: scientist and chemical engineer David Boge, University of Technology Sydney chancellor and CSIRO chair Catherine Livingstone, University of Queensland vice-chancellor Deborah Terry, and criminologist Lorraine Mazerolle.

Ms Livingstone — honoured for her service to business, education, science and the arts — said while she was involved across multiple sectors, they were all linked.

“They’re all mutually reinforcing, the education is linked to science and technology which is linked to innovation and creative thinking and the arts,” she said.

“It’s a recognition of the interconnectedness of all those areas.”

Fellow AC appointee Professor Mazerolle’s long-standing research in Australia and the US has led to evidenced-based policing reforms.

She said being named on the Honours List was recognition of decades trying to reduce crime and bring fairness to the justice system, noting that since she was a teenager she wanted to be a criminologist.

“I grew up in the ‘70s and ‘80s in Adelaide and there were lots of significant and high-profile child abductions occurring and high-profile murders, and as a young teenager, I couldn’t understand why these events were happening,” she said.

Since then, Prof. Mazerolle has gone on to run large, randomised trials to test practices used by police to reduce crime levels.

“From an economic point of view, it’s important for police to focus on those interventions to bring about a better crime control outcome without harm, and look at police practice that reduce crime but don’t harm individuals,” she said.

WA’s anti-corruption boss John McKechnie and noted burns specialist Professor Fiona Wood were the only two Western Australians awarded the country’s second highest honour — Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) — out of 38 across the nation.

Former Victorian chief health officer Brett Sutton, who led the state through the height of the COVID-19, was appointed an AO as well as the late Bob Maguire, also known as Father Bob, for his community service, following his death in April 2023.

Other West Aussies included former Gallop Government minister Dr Judy Edwards and Sheila McHale, who were both recognised as Members of the Order (AM), while former Road Safety Commissioner Iain Cameron received the Public Service Medal.

WA Tourism pioneer Patricia Strahan and soprano Fiona Campbell were also recognised.

Despite a push from the State Government to nominate more West Australians, just eight per cent of nominees in this round of honours have been given to sandgropers.

Retired Paralympian Ellie Cole was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for her services to sport, while former Sunrise host David Koch’s citation noted his “significant service to media”.

Musical director John Foreman was also honoured with an AM on the 2024 list, alongside Pamela Allen, the children’s author behind classics such as Who Sank the Boat?

Tasmania’s first female premier Lara Giddings made the list, while other political recipients include WA Liberal MP Wilson Tuckey, former Liberal MP Sharman Stone, and former Nationals senator John Williams.

Governor-General David Hurley said the people recognised in the honours list are outstanding individuals.

“Recipients come from all parts of the country. They have served and had an impact in just about every field you can imagine; their stories and backgrounds and diverse,” he said in a statement released ahead of Australia Day.

“Recipients have made a difference and had an impact at the local, national or international level. Individually, they are inspiring and collectively they speak to the strength of our communities.”

The youngest recipient on the Honours List is 32, and the eldest is 100.

Alongside the more than 739 people recognised in the Order of Australia, a further 303 are honoured for work in the military, along with emergency services and the public service.

The Australia Day Honours List also recognised 49 people for their role in the response to COVID-19.