Queen's Birthday Honour for Maisie Scott

The Queen’s Birthday 2017 Honours List recognises a diverse range of contributions and service across all fields, including professional endeavours, community work, Australia’s Defence Force and emergency services.

Mrs Scott’s OAM medal was for services to the community of Bathurst, and it pays respect to the many decades of volunteer work she has undertaken.

“My dear husband taught us to work, to do something for your community,” she said.

Her late husband Charles ‘Mac’ Scott would have been proud of her she said while speaking with the Western Advocate.

“He’d say ‘I don’t know how you did it’, He’d be proud,” she said.

Mr and Mrs Scott may have had seven children and raised them at their Meadow Flat property where she still lives, but she said volunteering has always important to her during her lifetime

Mr Scott was once a councillor of Evans Shire and Lithgow, and also a president of the Blaxland Shire, all community roles that Mrs Scott said inspired her to do her own bit for the community.

“I think seeing what my husband did, he’s done so much for the community, I wanted to do my bit as well,” she said.

Among the wide variety of volunteering roles she performed was at various show societies and progress associations, the Country Women’s Association, Legacy, Bathurst Hospital Auxiliary, Bathurst Blood Bank, Red Cross, Can Assist, Macquarie Care, Pink Lady and the Bathurst Eisteddofd.

In 2015, she was also inducted as one of Bathurst’s Living Legends during the city’s bicentenary celebrations.

Mrs Scott said while she was deeply honoured and proud to receive an OAM, she said each of her volunteering roles had been very much a “team effort”.

“I’ve met so many people through volunteering, it’s a great way to meet friends,” she said.

Mrs Scott said she found out she had been nominated for an OAM when she received a letter in the mail.

She will receive her medal at a ceremony in Government House later this year.

“I feel as though I’m leaving something for my kids to be proud of,” Mrs Scott said.