Ruth McGowan, who is originally from the North East, said women made up just 29 per cent of recipients of Queen’s Birthday honours around Australia this year and the group was working to increase the number.

The Border’s figure of 8 per cent was well below that nationwide average.

Benalla's Liz Chapman was the only local woman on this week’s list, honoured for her role in forming the Tomorrow: Today Foundation, which helps disadvantaged children through education programs.

Ms McGowan said there were many other women worthy of such an honour.

“Women have made a significant contribution up there in the mental health service, in tourism, in agriculture,” she said.

“Women are often shy and humble and say ‘it was a group effort, it wasn't just me who did it’.”

But Honour a Woman wants to make it easier for them to be nominated.

One of the difficulties of nominating is the subject cannot be informed, but the application needs detailed information about them and their achievements, plus three high-profile recommendations.

Ms McGowan said the Honour a Woman had many helpful tips, plus anyone could contact them for advice.

She called on both men and women to nominate other women and give them the recognition they deserved.

The lofty goal was for honours to be split 50-50 by the year 2020.

But the time to start was now - the Order of Australia committee often takes up to two years to assess the merits of a nomination.

Ms McGowan recruited sister and Indi MP Cathy McGowan to be the first North East ambassador for Honour a Woman - both women are OAM recipients.

The MP said the best way to make sure women’s achievements were recognised was to nominate them.

“While many women have been duly honoured, women are still underrepresented in our national awards system,” she said. “The Queen’s Birthday honours are a wonderful way to acknowledge the impact of the generous work people do.”