Medal for work at Forbes

Wagstaffe resident Mr Clive Thomas has been awarded an Order of Australia Medal in the general division in the 2013 Queens Birthday Honours List.

Mr Thomas was awarded the OAM for service to the community of Forbes and to conservation.

"I retired from all my many public duties in 1999, so this Order of Australia medal has been awarded for the years of community service I gave while living in Forbes for the first 67 years of my life," said Mr Thomas.

"The various roles I filled ranged from community welfare in the early 70s to Local Government in the 80s," he said.

Mr Thomas was also an elected councillor of Forbes Shire Council for 10 years including four terms as shire president (now called mayor)

"I also spent a decade as a pioneer in the then new field of Natural Resources Management, Total Catchment Management, Murray-Darling Basin affairs, Landcare, Greening Australia, a CSIRO Consultative Council and a term on the Council of what was then Orange Agricultural College.

"These were not local activities in Forbes. They ranged from the regional, through NSW State Government organisations, multi-state for the Murray-Darling Basin and the National arena," he said.

Mr Thomas said he was "most surprised" when he was notified of his award.

"These services were quite some time ago, but I was delighted too, for my services to still be remembered by somebody.

"I was awarded the National McKell Medal for Land and Water Conservation back in 1994 and I felt at the time that was recognition enough."

Mr Thomas was modest about his award and said he shared the honour with hundreds of committed men and women he worked with over many years, whose dedication would never be acknowledged publicly.

"Not just the community volunteers like myself but the career administrators who worked above and beyond the call of duty, the scientists and the elected members in the State and the Commonwealth Parliaments," he said.

Mr Thomas was the announcer for Forbes Pastoral, Agricultural and Horticultural Association Show for 20 years, secretary of the Australian Birthright Movement, Forbes Branch from 1973 to 1977 and a polocrosse commentator for the Sydney Royal Agricultural Show from 1965 to 1970.

He was also chairman of the Community Advisory Committee for the Murray-Darling Basin Authority from 1996 to 1998 and a member from 1992 to 1998.

He was the inaugural chairman of the Lachlan Total Catchment Management Group from 1988 to 1989, project manager for the Community Development of Perennial Grasses Program in 1996, a member of the Lachlan River Advisory Committee from 1981-1987, a member of the CSIRO Land and Water Division for the National Consultative Council, a NSW community representative for National Landcare Council and the NSW chairman for Greening Australia.

Kaitlin Watts, 4 Jun 2013

Interviewee: Clive Thomas

Email, 3 Jun 2013

Susan Fischer, Honours Secretariat