Service to community recognised with OAM

By Wendy Shaw

Kings Meadows parishioner Kevin Watkins has received a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for service to the community of Launceston.

Mr Watkins, 82, of Norwood, traces the origins of his volunteering and community service work back to his late teenage years when he was a member of the under-30s Knights of the Southern Cross. The Knights of the Southern Cross is a Catholic lay organisation dedicated to promoting the Christian way of life and serving the wider community and those in need.

Among the early projects he was involved with was a highly successful fruit cake fundraiser and the building of the first block of flats for Southern Cross Care in Hillside Crescent, Launceston.

“The Southern Cross Cake made thousands for different charities,” Mr Watkins said.

“The cake was made by R.T. Fish Bakehouse at Oatlands. We distributed them from Launceston and they went statewide quickly through the Knights of the Southern Cross movement.

“We might have sold a thousand cakes in the first month. Other clubs were buying and on-selling to make money for their clubs, to do things for charity.

“That was beginning for fundraising in my early life.

“Through all my life I could quickly recognise someone who needed help and did what I could to help them. That is a bit of my mother in me, I think. She did a lot of that.”

He said he was proud to be involved in the building of the first Southern Cross Care accommodation in Tasmania.

“That is where the whole concept was instigated,” he said.

“I feel good that I was part of that.”

Mr Watkins, who started Watkins Removals with his brothers in the 1960s, is a former president of the Tasmanian Transport Council and a former member of the Australian Road Transport Federation.

He and wife Pam, who received an OAM four years ago, have a shack at Weymouth, on the north coast. He is a life member and former president, executive member and committee member of the Weymouth Progress Association. He is a former chairman of both the Seawall and Boat Ramp Construction Subcommittee and the Boat Owners’ Association.

He is a has been a member of the Rotary Club of Launceston since 1985 and is a former president, former representative on the Launceston Council Tree Strategy Group, and a former Agfest volunteer.  He has received Rotary’s Paul Harris Fellow award.

He was vice president and a board member of Spurr Wing Incorporated, which provides accommodation for patients and families near the Launceston General Hospital.

 Mr Watkins is also a former branch president of the Royal United Services Institute, Launceston, a former member of the Weymouth Main Beach Recreation Area Sub-Committee (George Town Council) and a former volunteer firefighter.

Mr Watkins said he was surprised to receive the Australia Day honour, adding that he did not feel he had done enough to deserve the award and that wife Pam was more deserving of her OAM than he was.

“My motto all along has been ‘do unto others as you would have others do unto you’,” he said.

“Pam is also still involved in many things and has been all her life. Both of us are pretty happy people.

“Going in the Catholic Standard you better say g’day to Fr Damien [Sladen] and our friends at Kings Meadows Parish—we attend Mass as often as we can.”

Mr and Mrs Watkins have four daughters and one son, 12 grandchildren and one great grandchild.

His advice to anyone looking to volunteer is to take that first step.

“Walk into St Vincent de Paul [Society] and say, ‘Is there anything I can do?’,” he said.

“That is a good place to start for anyone who has the time.”