One of the most dedicated and community minded citizens of the Hawkesbury, John William Miller, has been awarded an Order of Australia Medal as part of the Queen’s Birthday Honours List for 2018.
Member for Hawkesbury Dominic Perrottet congratulated Mr Miller for being awarded the Order of Australia Medal and thanked him for his dedicated service to the community.
“John Miller is a Hawkesbury icon worthy of recognition, he is one hundred per cent deserving of this medal and I am proud to call him my friend,” Mr Perrottet said.
“Together with wife Beryl the couple have worked tirelessly to improve the Hawkesbury region for more than 50 years.”
After retiring from farming Mr Miller has focused much of his time in his retirement to improving Tourism and conducting research in to some of the Hawkesbury’s key historical figures.
He and his wife Beryl started the Windsor Ghost Tours in 1998. This project was aimed at increasing tourism in Windsor and the popular Ghost Tours.
The couple also joined the National Parks and Wildlife services as volunteers and were invited to educate rangers and other volunteers in order to enrich their knowledge of the local area.
In 1997 John was nominated for and awarded with the Tour Operator Award for Excellence and the Golden Ambassador Award for helping to train young tourism ambassadors.
The couple’s commitment to the community extends as far back as 1965 when they first joined the local State Emergency Services Branch as volunteers.
John and Beryl worked as communication officers during floods, on the phones, keeping the community up to date and answering questions asked by the community in regards to evacuations and movement of the flood John also served 20 years as an honorary communication officer for the Hawkesbury-Nepean Flood Mitigation Action Committee.