Loretta Carroll received her AM for significant service to the livestock industry and the community, while Allan Curtis has scored his for significant service to environmental management education and research.

A Mudgegonga cattle and sheep farmer and breeder, Ms Carroll is a Victorian Farmers Federation branch secretary and was on the inaugural board of the Australian Meat Processor Corporation.

The Black Saturday inferno in 2009 burnt 80 per cent of her farm with flames near the doorstep of the home and 40 cows destroyed.

That experience resulted in Ms Carroll becoming involved in the Victorian Bushfire Appeals Fund and helping found and then chair Into Our Hands Community Foundation which assists places hit by that tragedy.

Ms Carroll's drive for lobbying began when she became entangled in meat levy and quality assurance concerns while bookkeeping at Myrtleford's abattoir.

OTHER HONOURS RECIPIENTS:

"It's nice to help people out, if we all did it we would all be more happy," she said.

"It's good for your own soul and health and wellbeing."

Dr Curtis' laurel caps an education career that began at Tallangatta High School in 1977 and took in Albury's Xavier High School, before nearly 30 years at CSU where he has been an adjunct research professor since 2017.

"I don't feel my contributions are very different to lots of other people, it's as much a gong for other folks I've worked with," he said.

A long-time interest in the environment evolved from his teaching, having initiated the first Australian secondary schools Landcare education project in 1986.

While in the tertiary sector, Dr Curtis has supervised 25 completed PhDs and written or co-authored 129 journal articles, 27 book chapters, four books and 136 technical reports as well as contributing to 133 major conferences

He was head of the Albury CSU campus from 2008 to 2011, recalling he developed protocols for student behaviour and complaints about partying from neighbours to the Thurgoona campus.

Dr Curtis, who grew up at Orbost, also played football as a rover, winning a premiership with North Albury in 1980 and coaching Holbrook to a draw in the 1983 Tallangatta league grand final against Kiewa-Sandy Creek before losing the replay.

Former MP for Riverina Kay Hull has also been honoured as an Officer of the Order of Australia for distinguished service to rural and regional communities via health, skills development and agricultural bodies.

Ms Hull is the chair of AgriFutures and the National Advisory Council on Alcohol and Other Drugs.