It's how the Albury deputy mayor sees being awarded the Order of Australia Medal for service to the community of Albury-Wodonga.

The confessed lairy larrikin is well-known to many Border region locals not just as Albury's deputy mayor but for his zany DJ presence.

"I call it the boomerang theory - what you throw out is what comes back," Cr Bowen said. "This is a big example of the boomerang theory right now.

"You don't throw out to get back, you throw out because it feels good to do so and then, in return, often things come back.

"It doesn't matter what you throw out in life, if you throw out enough bad stuff you'll get bad stuff back but if you throw out enough good stuff, then good stuff comes back."

Cr Bowen, who was egged on by social media netizens to be a Twin Cities "local legend" for an airline's promotion competition, has lived in Albury from the age of two.

After humble beginnings as an apprentice fitter and turner, and a "failed singer" who turned to spinning records as a DJ to make up for it, he became deputy mayor earlier this year.

"I've grown up here and been around this region all my life," he said. "I always wanted some type of stage career but I was a terrible singer so becoming a DJ was a good option.

"I travel a lot, I travel nationally and I do DJ events in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.

"Everyone seems to think you need to be from a big city to strive and have a best style of entertainment or business or career, but it doesn't really work that way. The boomerang theory is something I live by, it's something that allows me to wake up every day with a purpose."

A founding member of Country Hope Trust, Cr Bowen has been an award-winning volunteer firefighter and was inducted into the Hall of Fame at the Albury-Wodonga Business Awards last year.

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STUART Dye was nonchalant about being awarded an OAM - he has precious memories saving people from near-deadly scrapes as an emergency worker but remains haunted by his experiences as a body retrieval diver on the Murray River.

He is adamant he wants to use any influence his profile might bring - he has received several awards as recognition for his work as a rescue worker and for his time with the NSW Rural Fire Service - to urge education and encouragement for parents to protect and nurture their children.

Mr Dye, who was born and raised in Howlong, said the best thing he had ever done for the Border region was saving lives as the Albury and Border Rescue Squad captain.

"I've been heavily involved in road crash rescue," Mr Dye said. "The best thing I've ever done is saving someone's life ... I mean what more do you need? But as a diver, I just helped bring closure to families who had lost loved ones - it is heartbreaking. I tell you, looking for someone in the river, it can be a week sometimes, it's hard going.

"Every drowning is tragic, of course, but some stay with you. I remember recovering the body of a three-month-old baby - that will never leave you."

Mr Dye went to Albury High School before he "did lots of things", including interstate truck driving, working on properties as a jackeroo and becoming a qualified plumber. He loves his footy and has been a lifelong supporter of the Howlong club but he says he will never shake the memories of recovering dozens of people from the Murray in his decades with the squad.

"The biggest thing I'd like to see is for parents to have some awareness of their children." he said. "I saw a couple who had bought floaties for his kid from the two-dollar shop - for a two-year-old kid. I said to this chap, 'Is that all you think your child's life's worth?' They spend more than that on alcohol. Invest in your child's safety, especially around water.

"It's better spend your money on your child's safety than a pint of beer at the pub - my kids would be worth a lot more than that."

PUTTING the hell of the Black Saturday fires that savaged Victoria 13 years ago to the back of his mind, Lyndon Hart now focuses on more relaxing activities, like teaching kids to swim. The physiotherapist, 49, was awarded an OAM for his services to the community at Yarrawonga in a range of roles with the Country Fire Authority, several sporting clubs and as a past president of Victorian Young Farmers but swimming has always been his passion.

"I've been in the CFA for nearly 20 years, secretary and captain for about six," Mr Hart, who has lived in Yarrawonga for 19 years, said.

"I was involved in helping out with the horrific fires in rural Victoria in 2009, it was a pretty bad summer that one. I spent 11 days away from home with that.

"I was there from the first day for Black Saturday down at Broadford with the team that was sent down from our district. At the time we were just doing our job, we had been trained for it and you just go along with the flow.

"But when you sit back and look back on it, it was quite daunting and at one point there we thought we were in trouble with the way the fire behaved.

"But we were charged with stopping the fire getting to Broadford and that's what we did."

Mr Hart has his own physio clinic at Yarrawonga which keeps him busy, but he still finds time to help people, especially young people, learn "one of life's basic skills".

"Swimming is my number one when it comes to sport, I'm passionate about it - I've been involved in swimming since 1990 in some way, shape or form," he said.

"I was already keen on swimming before I came here - it's a life skill for kids, and adults too, so they can look after themselves in the water. I do these things in the community to improve people's swimming abilities but I'm still heavily involved with the fire brigade.

"The CFA is a voluntary organisation - we're all part of the unpaid team. In the CFA, we put countless hours outside of what we normally do, we run workshops, we educate people on how to prepare their property for the fire season and about fire plans and how they are going to implement them."

He said teaching people to swim came with a few obstacles, for example finding a place for them to practise, especially as the cold months descend on the region.

"I'd love to see an indoor pool built at Yarrawonga," he said. "At the moment in winter we have to travel to Barooga to use the facility there - it would be very beneficial to community to have one here - we have our own committee to push for this.

"We also need more people to volunteer - one or two hours a week and that can make a huge difference."

WHILE there are several pressing issues that need to be sorted out with government policy such as affordable housing, Iris Mannik says being involved with the community is the best starting point to solving problems.

As a volunteer working with the Beechworth community for nearly 30 years, Mrs Mannik, 78, said many much-loved projects in the town and the surrounding region wouldn't have been possible without unpaid people pitching in.

The mother of six and proud grandmother of 15 said youth held the key to keeping this going, but there were hurdles.

"Getting the young ones to come on board to the Lions Club is hard these days - they think we're a bunch of old fogies," she said with a laugh.

"I just think people are so busy and nowadays some people have to work three jobs to support themselves, it really amazes me. It's especially an issue in the North East because of tourism."

Mrs Mannik was awarded the OAM for outstanding service to the Beechworth community in her volunteer roles with Keep Australia Beautiful, Beechworth Boomerang Bags, the National Trust and, especially, the Lions Club.

"I've been involved in the improvements at Lake Sambell and it's amazing that everybody thinks the shire council did it, and yet we moved a road, we built the beach area, we built the first play equipment," she said.

"But everybody thinks council did it when it's more to do with the volunteer groups - they're the people who just get in and do it and that deserves recognition - they're the volunteers you don't hear about.

"But our shire has been very supportive of me, I go to them and tell them what's happening and they support us and get us there. I'm lucky to know them (councillors), I watched a lot of them growing up. The sense of community in the Border region is amazing, if you want to get to know people in the community, volunteer!"

A HOMECOMING to the Border region three years ago turned from elation to horror for Catherine Marriott, who was confronted with some of the worst bushfires in the nation's history.

The chief executive of farmer support group Riverine Plains arrived to her old stomping ground of Albury two days before blazes razed surrounding rural land.

However, Ms Marriott, 41, who received an Order of Australia Medal for services to primary industry and regional development, was still delighted to be home.

"I love and I miss WA but my family's here and I've got a very close family and so it was time to come home," Ms Marriott said.

Ms Marriott, who grew up on a farm in Benalla and attended The Scots School Albury, was taken aback when she found out she had received the honour.

"Never in my wildest dreams did I think that I would ever be nominated for an OAM," she said.

"If only the teachers at Scots knew I had an OAM they would be ... well, some would wonder why I'm not in jail," she said with a laugh.

The Western Australia Rural Woman of the Year recipient said she felt blessed to have grown up in a rural area and loved the sense of belonging for which bush people are renowned.

"I often think about how blessed am I to have lived and grown up in rural communities because fundamentally you're a part of the people around you," she said.

"People in the bush have got such a sense of integrity, of generosity and of contribution and I think that's infectious, right?"

As Riverine Plains chief executive, Ms Marriott's role is to bring farmers together to share knowledge and experience and contribute to the overall wellbeing, growth and happiness of society.

"Our purpose is to build prosperity through sharing knowledge and skills," she said.

"I love our motto which is 'farmers inspiring farmers' - so farmers lead the direction of the organisation and we'll put together all the bits and pieces to make sure that they're filling the gaps in their knowledge.

"I think my passion is being around happy people because happy people are productive people - and they make the world that we live in a much more vibrant and enjoyable place."

Her job in Yarrawonga was to "break down silos".

"I guess my mission in Yarrawonga, and I'm only reasonably new there, is to break down the silos that sit within society so that we're all working together towards a common goal," she said.

"So often I come across two different organisations that are working towards the same thing - linking up groups to create a richness of ideas and projects and the richness comes from sharing and working together."

MYRTLEFORD local Kevin Pitts, who was named Alpine Shire's No.1 citizen in 2014, has won an OAM for services to veterans and their families.

Mr Pitts has been involved groups such as in the Myrtleford RSL, Melbourne Legacy, the Myrtleford Combined Services Club - as president for six years - and Rotary and Lions clubs.

He was a member of the Australian Regular Army from 1963 to 1969 and is a life member of the RSL.

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