The QPP Honour Board
About the Honour Board Committee
The Honour Board Committee is established by the QPP board in April each year and consists of a board member, a staff member, and a current volunteer. The recommendations made by the Honour Board committee are then approved by the Queensland Positive People Board.
About the QPP Excellence Awards
Our Honour Board recognises individuals from Queensland for exceptional contributions made to the work and development of Queensland Positive People and for efforts to improve the lives of people living with HIV. This award is called the Queensland Positive People Excellence Award and nominations for consideration are called for each year.
QPP members and others are encouraged to nominate a community member for this award which features on the Queensland Positive People Honour Board. Eligible persons may be any individual, clinician, advocate, volunteer, previous staff and/or board members. Posthumous nominations are also eligible.
QPP Excellence Award Recipients
Phil Carswell OAM
Phil Carswell was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia in 2015, and since the early 1980s has been a long-term political advocate for the PLHIV and LGBTIQ communities. Phil’s unwavering dedication to the community, government and political sectors spans over 40 years. He was the founding President of the Victorian AIDS Council and an inaugural member of the Australian Federation of AIDS Organisations, as well as a founding trustee of the AIDS Trust of Australia. He skilfully bridged both community and public service, holding positions with the Department of Health and serving on the boards of community organisations and national peaks, including representing the gay community on the National Advisory Committee on AIDS, chaired by Ms Ita Buttrose.
In his role as a community member, Phil has made significant contributions and brought positive influence on Victorian, Queensland and Australian politics; in particular to: marriage equality, the age of consent laws, the exoneration of people who were criminalised for being homosexual, and trying to stop ‘conversion therapy’.
Phil is considered an HIV Elder and accomplished author. Now ‘retired’, he is still actively involved in politics and governance and serves on ministerial advisory committees, health consumer groups and boards. Furthering his achievements as an author, Phil is also writing a memoir of his life and times around HIV/AIDS in Australia.
Dr David Bradford
David Bradford is a retired Sexual Health Physician, whose interest in this field began in the Army in Vietnam, 1967 – 68. The following year, he ‘came out’ as a gay man while studying surgery in London. During a holiday in Sydney, 1973, he met his life partner, Michael, and upon their return to London, David left surgery behind, to undertake post-graduate work in STIs.
Together they settled in Melbourne in 1979, where David became Director of the Melbourne Sexual Health Centre in early 1980, and then Chief Venereologist for Victoria. While in these roles the first cases of HIV infection presented in Melbourne, in late 1983. David opened a general practice in Carlton in 1987, with a major interest in STIs and HIV/AIDS. It rapidly became one of just a few high-caseload general practices looking after the increasing number of people living with HIV/AIDS.
In 1993, David commenced work as the Director of the Cairns Sexual Health Service, for the Cairns, Cape York and Torres Strait regions. Not only was he the principal treating physician for HIV for this vast area, but his strong commitment soon extended state-wide, where David became a key and long-term informer of Queensland HIV policy and practice. In October 2013 David retired, and we honour his abiding dedication, compassion, and support of the Queensland PLHIV community over the many decades.
Dr Joe McCormack
Born in Ireland, Joe studied General Medicine in Dublin, before training as an Infectious Diseases Physician in the UK and USA. He moved to Brisbane in 1984 and worked at the Mater Hospital for 28 years as Director of Infectious Diseases. This was undertaken alongside significant teaching and research at the University of Queensland in this field, with a purposeful lens on HIV. In addition to holding a number of positions with a range of PLHIV and health organisations, Joe was also President of the Australasian Society for Infectious Diseases for 3 years and continues as an honorary life member.
Bearing witness to the immeasurable suffering and hardship experienced by people who had succumbed to the then mysterious pandemic, HIV, Joe was well known for his kindness and compassion amidst significant fear and discrimination.
Notably, among all these achievements, Joe went to considerable lengths to ensure the availability of early HIV medicines in Queensland. We honour Joe for his steadfast devotion, the incredible care and support he provided to people with HIV, and his vast education and research endeavours, all of which have both directly and indirectly supported our PLHIV community over many decades.
Reg Carnell
In 1984 the National People Living With AIDS Coalition (NPLWAC) was established. One of the objectives of the organisation was to set up state PLWHA groups around the country, and members of the coalition travelled around the various states to do this – with reasonable success. There were 79 delegates from Queensland at the Hobart Conference – and one of them was Reg Carnell. Members of the first NPLWAC committee included Reg Carnell from Queensland.
Reg Carnell is acknowledged and remembered as one of the Founders of QPP in 1989. Even though, sadly, he is no longer with us, his legacy lives on strongly and the proof of that is in the continuation of the organisation for the past twenty-four years. We hope that wherever he is, he is very proud that we are carrying on his work.
Sister Angela Mary Doyle AO
Born in Cranny, County Clare Ireland. In 1947, at the age of 21, Sister Angela Mary journeyed to Australia to join the Brisbane Congregation of the Sisters of Mercy. Her early work was in teaching, but within 1 year of arriving in Brisbane she had commenced nursing at the Mater Hospitals in Brisbane.
In 1966, Sister Angela Mary was appointed Administrator of three Mater Public Hospitals in Brisbane – a position she held for 21 years.
Her resolute and visionary guidance helped ensure that the mission of the Sisters of Mercy in bringing health care to those who needed it most remained alive and healthy in Brisbane.
As well as championing the Mater Hospital, Sister Angela Mary has also taken a leading role in championing social justice and community accord on other fronts. These include her pioneering work in establishing support and care for people with HIV and AIDS in 1987 – in the face of staunch disapproval from the Government of the day.
Sister Angela Mary’s outstanding contribution to the Mater Hospital and the Queensland and Australian communities have been recognised in many ways, most notably: the Australian Medical Association – Queensland Branch AMA Award of Distinction in 1989; Queenslander of the Year in 1989; Australian Achiever Award, presented by the Prime Minister of Australia in 1990; The Awarding of an Order of Australia (AO) for service to the community, in 1993; Degree of Doctor of the University in 1991; Degree of Doctor of the Queensland University of Technology in 1997; Premiers Millennium Award in Charity/Welfare; and Premier’s Queensland Greats Award in 2001.
David Bermingham
The Hats Off Positive Endeavour (HOPE) Fund was established in February 2006 to provide support to people living with HIV (PLHIV) in Queensland who are in need. The Fund provides small grants of goods and services to PLHIV who are experiencing financial hardship, have a material need and/or are looking to improve their lives.
The Fund is an initiative of Oz Showbiz Cares/Equity Fights AIDS and Queensland Positive People (QPP), in partnership with Queensland Healthy Communities (formerly QAHC), and Anglicare Positive Directions.
HOPE Fund co-founder David Bermingham said Hats Off is a rare opportunity to see world-class artists and support a good cause.
2013 is David’s diamond year in showbiz working with some of the biggest stars. He first trod the boards of theatre at the age of thirteen when he worked as a stooge in a magic act. After three years he joined the Mercury Theatre in Queensland and got his grounding in repertory. At nineteen he joined the Elizabethan Theatre Trust as stage manager, then moved to J C Williamsons. David then went on to produce his own musical productions at the same time becoming a regular in In Melbourne Tonight. In the sixties he was assistant stage manager to the Old Vic, when it toured Australia Starring Vivien Leigh in ‘The Lady of the Camellia’s’ and Shakespeare’s ‘As You Like It’. In 1974 directed Barry Humphries in ‘Now you can say you saw it’. He returned to Queensland, and for the next 20 years ran his own Theatre Restaurants.
During these years David has chaired the Queensland Variety Club, and until recently was President of the Actors Benevolent Fund and proudly co founded The HOPE Fund, for those diagnosed with HIV/AIDS. Sadly, David passed away in early 2021. He is missed greatly by all who knew him.
