Robert Johnson of Bermagui has been awarded the Order of Australia Medal for service to the community.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
He is an active member of the Bermagui Surf Life Saving Club (SLSC) and Rural Fire Service (RFS) and has been donating blood and plasma to the Australian Red Cross since 1976.
His inclusion on the 2024 Australia Day Honours List was not the first time Mr Johnson's work for the community had been recognised.
He received a NSW Premier's Bushfire Emergency citation in 2020 and a National Emergency Medal in 2021.
Volunteering, raising funds for surf life saving club
In June 2019 he was awarded a Community Service Medallion.
In the citation Bega Valley Shire Council (BVSC) said Mr Johnson had proven himself to be a very community-minded person over many years and had made a significant contribution to the Bermagui SLSC.
He was well known for collecting bottles and cans to take to the Return and Earn facility to raise funds for the club.
He was the club's person of the year in 2018.
Last year one resident said he had "raised heaps of money for the community, over $20,000".
Mr Johnson has been a member of the Club Call Out since 2020 and a member of the Same Wave program for children with special needs since 2017.
He was also a MultiLit Reading tutor at Cobargo Public School.
ReBoot in Bermagui
Mr Johnson was one of the original committee members of ReBoot in Bermagui.
ReBoot is a weekend of fun runs, swims and other family-friendly activities held on the October long weekend.
It was an initiative of the Bermagui Area Chamber of Commerce and Tourism to attract visitors to the town outside of the major summer tourism season.
Mr Johnson was on the committee from 2014 to 2018.
At last year's ReBoot he was acknowledged as the only swimmer to have swum in all nine ReBoot swims.
Bermagui Blue Balls winter swimmers
For several years he was a regular contributor to Bega District News writing up the antics of the Bermagui Blue Balls winter swimming group.
He regularly encouraged people with a sense of humour and a sense of adventure - but no common sense - to bring their cossies and dad jokes to join them for a delightful Sunday morning swim.
Mr Johnson and other members of the Bermagui Blue Balls also regularly made the 7.5 hour, 530km commute up the Clyde and down Brown Mountain to donate plasma at the Australian Red Cross Blood Service's Canberra donation centre.
In 2019 BVSC said Mr Johnson had recently made his 708th donation.
At the time, that made him one of only 12 Australians to have reached the 700 donation milestone.
Mr Johnson was one of five Bega Valley residents being recognised with an OAM this Australia Day - the others being AJ Collins of Tathra, Colin Dunn of Pambula, Darrell Hegarty of Merimbula and Michele Bootes of Meirmbula.
