HORSHAM Rural City councillor John Robinson has been awarded an Order of Australia Medal.
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Cr Robinson received an OAM for his services to the community of Victoria, including serving as a Victoria Police chief inspector and as a Country Fire Authority volunteer for 35 years.
Cr Robinson has been involved in emergency services in south-west and western Victoria for decades and helped establish the WestVic Helicopter Rescue Service at Warrnambool.
“While the award has my name on it, I’ve had the very great fortune to either create, lead or be a part of some terrific teams,” Cr Robinson said.
“The most greatest team of all, one that I couldn’t have any of this without, has been my wife and two sons Ben and Matthew.
“I’ve had the fortune to have been a high-profile member of the police force and I used that position as best I could to reflect the community good.”
Cr Robinson said the rescue helicopter took 13 years to achieve with his wife Sue and others, but he had to give up his position chairing the campaign.
“At about the 10-year mark I had to make some strong statements about a government minister wrongly reporting on the needs of the west of the state,” he said.
“Having made those statements, I had to resign.”
Cr Robinson said philanthropist Geoff Handbury and Country Fire Authority and State Emergency Service volunteers played a large role in creating and maintaining the rescue service.
“It was a very big team, without which, none of it would have happened,” Cr Robinson said.
Cr Robinson is a board member of Brophy Youth and Family Services and helped bring the Koori Court to Victoria.
“Sue did a lot of research into the court and I grew sick of seeing young Aboriginals go through the justice system with their community having no ownership over the system,” he said.
“It was, in effect, white man’s law.
“The two key attributes of the Koori court is that it is no longer white man’s law and it promoted the position and integrity of the elders, which is a great preventative thing.”
Cr Robinson said it been a win to see Aboriginal elders able to turn some young offenders’ lives around.
“To achieve those things required standing up for the community, sometimes against people in high positions who didn’t want to see the change, didn’t see the need for change or had interests elsewhere,” he said.
“You don’t stand up and maybe take hits along the way without the support of the community.”
Cr Robinson said he was pleased to have been part of the team which set up the Country Fire Authority air unit in district five at Hamilton and Warrnambool.
“I’ve come up to the Wimmera in the past two and a half years and basically done the same thing,” he said.
“We now have water bombers at Edenhope and Nhill with volunteers to load them.
“To bomb a fire in the west Wimmera taking off from Stawell is about a 40-minute turnaround for each aircraft.
“To do it out of Nhill or Edenhope, it cuts it down to minutes.”
Cr Robinson said he was grateful for the help of volunteer firefighters and officers in helping set up the air unit.
“Once again, it was a team effort and I’m exceptionally thankful for the support from the community and volunteers,” he said.
“It’s about teamwork and the other thing that’s important for community support is integrity and working for the community’s interest and not some other interests.
“I have tried to do everything with integrity and I think I have won a fair amount of support from like-minded people and in the west of the state your word is your bond.”