Previous winners
2009 South Australian of the Year
Compassion, bravery and leadership are just a few of the inspiring qualities of the 2009 South Australian of the Year, Dr Bill Griggs AM ASM.
Currently working as the Royal Adelaide Hospital’s Director of Trauma Services, Dr Griggs is a passionate South Australian who has shown outstanding dedication in the medical field for more than 20 years.
In 1981, Dr Griggs graduated in medicine from the University of Adelaide where he later lectured as an Associate Professor and authored more than 60 publications.
He has conducted hundreds of aeromedical retrievals throughout his career and is renowned for managing evacuations and victim care after the 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami, Bali Bombings and recent Samoan disaster.
Dr Griggs has played an instrumental role in the State’s trauma services, working as SA Health’s State Controller (Health and Medical) for disasters and assisting to develop South Australia’s new retrieval service, MedSTAR.
More recently, he founded the Roads2Survival community road safety program to educate South Australian drivers about injury prevention.
Dr Griggs was honoured to receive the Award in front of more than 650 proud South Australians at the 2009 Annual Dinner.
“I was born in South Australia and have lived here for the majority of my life. I am extremely proud of all South Australian achievements,” said Dr Griggs.
2009 Young South Australian of the Year
Julian O’Shea is an inspiring young leader within the engineering profession, the Australian Defence Force and the wider community as an active volunteer.
He has an outstanding academic background having completed a Bachelor of Engineering with Honours in the field of telecommunications from the University of Adelaide, a Masters in Engineering Science from the Australian Defence Force Academy and is currently completing a Masters of Business Administration from the University of South Australia.
His professional expertise has seen him represent Australia at international conferences, serve as an officer in the Royal Australian Navy and represent young engineers on the National Information, Telecommunications and Electronic Engineering College Board.
Julian also received the 2009 Advertiser Pride of Australia Medal in the Serving Australia category, in recognition of his extraordinary courage and devotion to duty under extreme circumstances.
