The president of the Seymour Agricultural and Pastoral Society discovered on Friday, January 9 that he would be recognised with the Medal of the Order of Australia, an acclaim awarded to him for his “service to the community through a range of roles”.
He said, when he initially discovered he had been nominated for the honour, that the unknown person who threw his hat in the ring had certainly done their research.
“I was a bit surprised when it appeared (over email) initially — that was in September,” Mr Beaumont said.
“I showed my daughter at first, and then I kept on reading, and reading. I thought, ‘Someone’s done some homework on me.’”
When he first moved to the area, Mr Beaumont quickly became involved in a number of volunteer roles.
“I came in 1987 to Seymour, and on the first day, the president of the Ag Society came into Elders and said, ‘We’ve got a wine show committee meeting tonight, I hear you’re the new wine man. I expect to see you there,’” he said.
“So that was it. After that, I was part of the Victorian Wine Show for 19 years.
“A few years (after moving), I got onto the Ag Society as a counsellor, which didn’t happen initially, but I’ve been there ever since and I’ve had various roles.”
Throughout his residency in the local area, Mr Beaumont has also been a part of the Rotary Club of Seymour, and was president of the Avenel Kindergarten’s board, where, he said, he served alongside “the most talented group of people I have ever worked with”.
Mr Beaumont is now the chairman of the board of the Victorian Agricultural Society, a group he has been attending the meetings of for about 30 years.
When he was a Rotarian he played a role in the beginning of the widely successful Tastes of the Goulburn event, with a number of other community groups, and, through his involvement with the Seymour Agricultural and Pastoral Society, has been instrumental in delivering the Seymour Show.
The list goes on for the roles assumed by Mr Beaumont, who said, after all these years of contributing to the community, he felt thankful to be recognised in this way.
“I’m very much appreciated and very privileged, and I think it shows something for volunteer organisations, that someone has noticed it,” he said.
“I’m very fortunate, and I’m the one that was recognised, but it takes a lot of ants to make something work.”
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