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Central Australians share in Queen's Birthday honours

A central Australian has been honoured with an Order of Australia Medal for her service to the road transport industry.

Liz Martin has a long history of supporting families of truckers and is now the chief executive officer of the Alice Springs based-museum, the National Road Transport Hall of Fame.

She says her award proves that the hall of fame is on the right track.

"Every other industry is serviced by road transport, even stuff that travels on rail and on road and on sea and in air still has to be carried by road at either end of its journey," she said.

"I think that the big thing that we do here is we've given the industry a place to showcase that and for people to start to feel proud of their contribution that road transport's made to Australia's development."

Two Aboriginal elders and a former community worker have also been recognised with Queen's Birthday honours for helping to wipe out petrol sniffing in a central Australian community.

Peggy Brown, Johnny Miller and Andrew Stojanovski founded the Mount Theo rehabilitation program in Yuendumu.

Mr Stojanovski says he feels honoured to have worked with the elders and to have been involved in the project.

He says when they began setting up the program, there was a belief that petrol sniffing could never be stopped.

"To feel that we had a cause that united us, despite our different cultures, and to be part of that cause and to see that through, just keeping on trying and keeping on believing and keeping our friendships with each other strong, we were able to do something that really made a difference," he said.

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