Australian of the Year Awards 60th anniversary

Published: Monday, 20 July 2020

My last, large, in-person networking event I went to in Australia since before the pandemic was the 60th anniversary celebrations for the Australian of the Year awards in Canberra on 25 January. We had a luncheon at the National Gallery of Australia, where three previous Australian of the Year Award winners were interviewed.

 

Then we had the Awards Ceremony at the National Arboretum Canberra.  To celebrate the 60th-year occasion, they invited all the previous Australian of the Year winners to the stage to celebrate. It was totally epic to see 10+ previous Australian of the Year Award winners take to the stage!

National Arboretum Canberra

It was great to meet Aussie maths teacher Eddie Woo and all-time swimming legend Dawn Fraser.


The legend Dawn Fraser

Ash Barty was named Young Australian of the Year remotely in Melbourne. Former Young Australian of the Year Pat Rafter presented her trophy in person. She then went and played tennis the next night in the Australian Open - and won! Amazing! She later on went and became the semi-finalist for the Australian Open that week!

Socializing and seeing other people seems like a long, long, long, long, long, long time ago now.

Here’s some cute dog photos from the dog park from before Covid, to make you smile. :)  (Note: not my dogs!)

About Me

Marita ChengForbes named me a world's top 50 woman in tech & 30 Under 30. I founded Robogals and Aipoly and was Young Australian of the Year 2012. Currently working on robotics company Aubot. I'm the youngest Member of the Order of Australia (AM) and I give speeches around the world.

I tweet @maritacheng and I'm on Facebook.

Subscribe

Enter your email address to receive my latest blog posts: 

 

Random Articles

  • Brain-controlled Teleport

    I was invited to demonstrate my robots on a QANTAS flight from Sydney to San Francisco, while we flew over the Pacific Ocean.  I said yes!  My fellow...

  • Planning things with integrity

    Planning things with integrity means to plan things such that you have done all you can in your base for things to go as smoothly as possible. It...

  • Virtual gigs

    I’ve been giving a lot of virtual speaking gigs recently, so I created this short video to give a glimpse at what my virtual speeches are like.

  • The worst that can happen

    When I was growing up, my mum earned about $20,000 a year to support herself, my brother and I.  By living very frugally and only spending money on...

  • Teleport Brain Control

    We launched Teleport Brain Control, so that people with a disability may attend school or work remotely via our telepresence robot Teleport,...

  • Jevaroo - lift capabilities

    We filmed some more videos of our Jevaroo robot arm in action!  Here it is demonstrating its load and lift capabilities. It can lift 2.32kg at the...

  • The way things go

    You set up a meeting time, ten people email back and say they’re keen, passionate and that they’ll be there.  One person shows up.   So what’s there to...

  • Highlight reel and backstage

    When I became the Young Australian of the Year, I was so excited.  I had a glamorous ideal that my life would change completely!  It changed a lot – I...

  • Everything is perfect

    Whatever anyone does, whatever anyone says, is aligned with how they see the world. And so decisions people make are always perfect for them in the...

  • Shell Eco-Marathon Asia

    I’m very excited to announce that I have been named the 2019 Shell Eco-Marathon Ambassador for Australia. The concept of the Shell Eco-Marathon stems...