MEDIA RELEASE
WEDNESDAY 13 NOVEMBER 2024
2025 AUSTRALIANS OF THE YEAR FOR NEW SOUTH WALES ANNOUNCED
2025 Australian of the Year for NSW - Kath Koschel (Cronulla)
2025 Senior Australian of the Year for NSW - Dr Karl Kruszelnicki AM (Maroubra)
2025 Young Australian of the Year for NSW - Maddison O’Gradey (Bateau Bay)
2025 Local Hero for NSW - Martha Jabour OAM (Carlingford)
The 2025 Australian of the Year Awards recipients for NSW have been announced at a ceremony in Sydney this evening.
The NSW recipients will join those from the other states and territories for the national awards to be announced on 25 January 2025.
The 2025 Australian of the Year for NSW is Kath Koschel, founder of Kindness Factory.
A former professional cricketer and Ironman competitor, 38-year-old Kath Koschel has faced unimaginable hurdles. In her twenties, she broke her back and was told she may never walk again. Shortly afterwards, she lost her partner to suicide. Then, piecing her life back together, she was hit by a 4WD and learned to walk again a second time.
Kath’s resilience helped her to not only overcome these challenges, but to see the good in the world.
In 2015, Kath founded Kindness Factory. The not-for-profit, now based across three countries, has inspired over seven and-a-half million acts of kindness. Its curriculum teaches the power of kindness to children at more than 3,500 schools across Australia and had been downloaded over 60,000 times globally.
Kath’s incredible story of courage and hope in adversity has become a global kindness movement, touching people from all walks of life. She consults to organisations globally, teaching the same principles of kindness.
Science enthusiast and educator, Dr Karl Kruszelnicki AM, is the 2025 Senior Australian of the Year for NSW.
Dr Karl Kruszelnicki AM brings science to life with wit and charm. In 1981, he walked into ABC Radio station Triple J and offered to talk about the Space Shuttle launch. Great Moments in Science ran while Karl pursued his medical career.
Karl may have continued in paediatric medicine had it not been for the death of a baby from whooping cough. At the time, disinformation was circulating that vaccines didn’t work. Appalled by the harm caused, Karl decided to quit medicine and make science communication his full-time career.
Karl presented on Quantum, co-hosted Sleek Geeks and appears regularly on radio and TV. His national weekly, one-hour science talkback show on Triple J, Science with Dr Karl, attracts more than 750,000 listeners, while the podcast downloads are over six million.
He’s authored 48 popular science books and even built a machine to pick up electrical signals from the human retina for Fred Hollows. With infectious enthusiasm, 76-year-old Karl continues his mission to spread the good news about science and its benefits.
The 2025 Young Australian of the Year for NSW is mental health advocate and researcher, Maddison O’Gradey-Lee
Maddison O’Gradey-Lee aims to improve the measurement of mental ill-health for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people through her PhD research.
In 2020, Maddison co-founded the Orygen Global Youth Mental Health Fellowship, a six-month program providing youth advocates with support, mentorship and education modules to increase the impact of their advocacy projects in their communities and globally.
Together with Orygen Global, Maddison facilitated one of the largest global youth consultations on mental health. She heard advocates felt unsupported and lacked training. Within four years, the Orygen Global youth fellowship has trained 76 youth advocates in mental health education, lived experience advocacy and peer support across 42 countries.
Over 21,000 young people have been reached through the direct and indirect impact of the program. At 27, Maddison has created a global community that’s combating taboos around mental health and was the first person from Oceania to win the Dalai Lama Peace Fellowship.
Martha Jabour OAM, co-founder of the Homicide Victims Support Group, is the 2025 Local Hero for NSW.
Martha Jabour OAM helped establish the Homicide Victims Support Group in 1993 to care for families and friends of homicide victims throughout New South Wales. It provides life-changing counselling, support and referrals to more than 4,200 members.
Using her experience across grief, trauma, policy development, strategic planning and crisis management, in 2013, Martha developed a vision for a world-first trauma recovery facility for those impacted by homicide. She inspired politicians, public servants, community organisations and others to raise funds, while land for the facility was donated by Blacktown City Council and the Western Sydney Parklands Trust. Grace’s Place opened in 2023.
In April 2024, Grace’s Place provided care for the overseas families of the victims of a Sydney shopping centre attack, including accommodation, counselling and funeral assistance.
At 61, Martha is also a community member representative on the NSW State Parole Authority, representing the families of homicide victims once an inmate becomes eligible for parole.
National Australia Day Council CEO Mark Fraser AO CVO congratulated the recipients for NSW.
“The NSW award recipients are an extraordinary group of individuals and we look forward to welcoming them to Canberra,” said Mark.
“Kath has demonstrated the power of kindness through her own lived experience and now empowers others; Dr Karl has long been educating us on the wonders of science and making it accessible to all generations; Maddison’s work in mental health advocacy is reaching people around the world; and Martha has founded a world-first trauma recovery service offering support during times of immense grief.”
For more information on the Australian of the Year Awards, visit australianoftheyear.org.au.
ENDS.
MEDIA CONTACT: Nicole Browne on 0414 673 762 / nicole@mediaopps.com.au
PHOTOS: From the awards announcement event can be downloaded as available after approx. 8:45pm Sydney time from this link (credit NADC/Salty Dingo): NSW Media Distribution photos - High res