By GEORGIA WESTGARTH
CARL Strachan’s Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) all started with a beer at the Berwick Inn 35 years ago.
That beer has paid dividends for the south-east region’s welfare support service, Windermere, and has meant a new and improved watering hole for Berwick.
So it may not have been through his chain of thriving pubs, from his first in Cooktown to his second in South Melbourne, that has earned Carl his OAM, but it sure did set him on the right path.
A month away from his 80th birthday, the businessman from Cohuna who has two sons, recalled what has brought him to receive such “humbling” recognition.
“Then in my fifties, I called into the little Berwick Inn on the corner – it was just sitting there with vacant land behind it – to have a beer one Saturday, and I thought it was an interesting little spot,” Carl said.
And before he knew it, Carl had bought the little pub on the corner.
“I bought it not knowing what to do with it, and I thought, ‘let’s restore it and build it up as Berwick grew’.”
But it was Berwick’s growing welfare needs that struck a chord with Carl 24 years ago more than a beer at the corner pub.
“Windermere, who I’d never heard of, came to me and asked me for some money.
“They told me their story, and I thought it was nice, so I went down and had a look at what they did every day and it shocked me,” Carl said.
“I thought ‘this can’t be happening in our community’.”
Carl, who then lived in Harkaway, has since worked with Windermere as it expanded from 10 staff members, some working for free, to about 200.
And the current CEO at Windermere, Dr Lynette Buoy, is thrilled for Carl’s OAM.
“He has been an inspiration to everyone he meets, both professionally and personally and has always gone above and beyond to support, guide and promote Windermere’s interests and its role in the community,” Dr Buoy said.
A previous chairman at Windermere, Carl said he was “extremely humbled” to be awarded an OAM.
“There are a lot of other people who do a lot more work than I do and probably not recognised,” he said.
Now residing in Middle Park, Carl is also responsible for founding and funding Windermere’s Achievers Program and the Kids Becoming Champions program.
Carl was also the founding chair of the Embryonic Stem Cells International and an advisory board member at the Institute for Reproduction and Development.
