Charlotte Varcoe
“I HAVE to recognise my wife because she is the most important person in my life and this award is not only for me but also recognises her as well,” Mount Gambier’s Graham Carter told The Border Watch as he spoke about receiving the Order of Australia Medal (OAM) in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List.
Mr Carter explained it was not only he who had received the award despite his name being engraved on it, but it was also his wife of more than 50 years, Rosemary, who had supported him in his numerous and significant volunteer roles.
He said in reality, he would not have been able to achieve any of the volunteer roles he had done in his lifetime, some of which included being a founding member of both the first South East Field Days and the Stand Like Stone Foundation.
“My wife and I have been married for over 50 years and that is the thing with marriages or partnerships, sometimes one has to take a step back and it is the other person’s turn,” Mr Carter said.
Speaking on receiving the award, Mr Carter said he never thought he would have had the chance to be acknowledged on such a level.
“I never thought I would receive an award like this and when the email first came through I thought it was a scam, because it said to click on a link to accept the award,” Mr Carter said.
“It wasn’t until I called the number there and when it went through to the right people that I realised it wasn’t a scam and that it was official.”
It was at the age of 17, in 1958, that Mr Carter received the first taste of volunteer work when he helped his father with the Lucindale district ambulance.
After watching his father raise funds for a new ambulance in the small town, Mr Carter spent a further 23 years with the ambulance service where he would answer calls.
In 1974, Mr Carter became part of the committee which formed the Lucindale Lions Club a club with which he remained until moving to Mount Gambier 22 years ago.
Soon after forming the local Lions Club, members came up with the idea of the iconic yearly event, the South East Field Days.
“The initial idea was to have the field days and the tractor pull on the same day in the same area back then,” he said.
“However we soon learned that everyone would go to the tractor pull instead of the field days so we separated the two events.”
Labelling the field days as one of the South East’s biggest events hosted by the region’s smallest community, Mr Carter was pleased at how it had grown over the decades, still making the effort to attend most years.
“The field days went from being the Lions Club event to the community’s event because the Lucindale community really started taking ownership of it very quickly,” he said.
“It also involved a number of not-for-profit organisations from across the region who were able to help and that influence was just an extension of the Lucindale community itself.”
Also during his time with the Lucindale Lions Club, Mr Carter initiated the Youth Affairs program, which helps students in Lucindale learn how to write a resume and do job interviews, before serving two terms on the Lucindale Council prior to its amalgamation with Naracoorte Council in 1998.
He said despite believing that Lucindale could stand on its own, the two councils joined to form what become what is now known as the Naracoorte Lucindale Council.
Not long after the amalgamation, Mr Carter and his wife moved to Mount Gambier for Ms Carter’s career where the two remained dedicated volunteers to a number of services.
“When we moved to Mount Gambier I transferred my Lions Club membership to Mount Gambier Lions Club and for the first few years I took on the role as zone and regional chairperson as well as president,” he said.
“I also received the Melvin Jones Fellowship at some stage [2013] which is one of the highest compliments you can get as a Lions Club member.”
Mr Carter said he remains on the Lions Club Mad Minute committee, which encourages primary school students to learn skills in public speaking.
“When I first moved to Mount Gambier I also ended up on the local Show Society’s board as treasurer and one of the biggest things I helped with was getting a substantial sum of money from councils to help with the society’s electrical system,” he said.
“I also helped organise a number of other events including the Computer Competition – This is the Show, On with IT and the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats where people from outside the society would attend meetings with us and discuss a range of different topics.”
Through the computer competition – which was organised with Grant High School’s IT manager – Mr Carter soon found himself on the Grant High School’s governing council as a community representative for several years.
Mr Carter was also a member of the Mount Gambier Men’s Shed including as Treasurer.
