BETTY Hobbs, who passed away on 7 July, 2021, aged 94, was posthumously awarded the Order of Australia Medal (OAM) in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List for her service to the community of Sawtell.

Betty moved to Sawtell with her parents in 1946 and apart from holidays, never left until her passing almost a year ago.

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In 1952 she married another local identity in Nugget Hobbs, who predeceased her in 2003.

Nugget was also extremely active in community organisations including as a founding member of the Sawtell Surf Life Saving Club and the Sawtell RSL.

Betty was widely recognised and acknowledged as a local stalwart.

She was a founding member of numerous organisations in the town including the RSL Ladies Auxiliary, Torchbearers for Legacy and the Ladies Surf Club.

She was also extremely active in the Sawtell Bowling Club and the Sawtell Reserve Trust for many years.

Betty served these organisations in various leadership positions, in some cases for several decades.

The walls of her modest lounge room were covered in Life Memberships and Certificates of Appreciation from these organisations.

Betty’s Son Willian (Bill) Bird told News Of The Area, “Mum would have been enormously proud but would have also thought that she hadn’t done anything special to deserve it.

“Most of the things she did, she did as part of organisations and she would say that all the other members did just as much.”

Betty was very proud of the work she did with Torchbearers for Legacy Sawtell Group.

“I remember that one of the big projects was raising money to build the Legacy Nursing Home in Coffs Harbour.

“This was not just the Sawtell branch that raised the money, other branches were also involved.”

She was also proud of her involvement with the Sawtell Surf Club post WW2.

“My father Allan and others resurrected the club after the war.

“In those days women could not be members but were associates.

“Mum was part of training the March Past Team and of course in those days women did most of the fund raising.”

Bill said that as a kid growing up with his hardworking, community-minded mum that he was somewhat oblivious to the enormity of the work she and others did.

“You just think that’s life, that’s what people do.

“If the District Hospital needed some new equipment, people worked to raise funds.”

It wasn’t until later years, during conversations with her, that he started to realise how much she did.

“When a family friend said he wanted to nominate her for the award and we started to gather material for his application, the extent of her work hit home,” said Bill.

“Mum moved to Sawtell from Earlwood as a young woman and devoted herself to the community from that time on.

“My brother John George and I are enormously proud of her but are sad that she didn’t live to know that she had been honoured in this way.”

By Andrea FERRARI