Last night, the 2025 Australians of the Year for NSW were announced at a ceremony at Sydney’s Museum of Contemporary Art.

Kath Koschel is the 2025 NSW Australian of the Year, Dr Karl Kruszelnicki AM is the NSW Senior Australian of the Year, Maddison O’Gradey-Lee the NSW Young Australian of the Year and Martha Jabour OAM the NSW Local Hero.

The 18 nominees have made remarkable and diverse contributions to NSW.

These inspirational members of our NSW community have overcome unimaginable challenges, demonstrated resilience, and have made a positive difference to our state and nation.

The NSW recipients will join those from other states and territories for the national awards ceremony in Canberra on Saturday, 25 January 2025.

For more information on the Australian of the Year Awards, visit: https://australianoftheyear.org.au/

NSW Premier Chris Minns said, “To all NSW finalists and recipients: thank you for your extraordinary contribution to our state and nation.

“While the ultimate reward for these exceptional Australians isn’t any formal honour or award, this recognition is completely deserved.

“These remarkable people have changed NSW and the nation for the better.

“To our NSW Australian of the Year, Kath Koschel: NSW will be cheering you every step of the way between now and the national awards.

“Kath’s resilience is inspiring, while her campaign for kindness is a message of positivity we need in our world.

“These are people that help others, overcome challenges, aim for excellence, and represent the very best of what it means to be Australian.”

The 2025 NSW Australians of the Year

The NSW Australian of the Year is Kath Koschel, a former professional cricketer and Ironman competitor, who 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 more than 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.

The NSW Senior Australian of the Year is Dr Karl Kruszelnicki AM. Dr Karl 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 shows 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. At 76-year-old, Dr Karl continues his mission to spread the good news about science and its benefits.

Maddison O’Gradey-Lee is the NSW Young Australian of the Year. Maddison 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 that 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. More than 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 is the NSW Local Hero. 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. 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.