A CQ stalwart has been awarded an Order of Australia (OAM) this Australia Day for her service to the community of the Capricorn Coast.

Desley Rial was among 571 recipients awarded the OAM this year.

Ms Rial has been involved with many organisations in many roles.

Over the years, she has been chairwoman, board member and on the grants subcommittee of the Iwasaki Foundation.

She has been a patron and honorary auditor of the Capricorn Coast Historical Society, and was the secretary and treasurer for 19 years and committee member of the Yeppoon and District Show Society.

Ms Rial has been involved with community grants and Australia Day Awards panels with Livingstone Shire Council and was also a councillor from 1997 to 2008.

A woman of many hats, she has been the president, vice president, secretary and treasurer of the Yeppoon Lioness Club.

The community volunteer resume doesn’t stop there; with many other involvements with community groups including Capricorn Coast Healthy Ageing Group, Capricorn Coast Multicultural Group, Capricorn Coast Access and Equity Group, Keppel Coast Dirt Bike Club, Yeppoon Choral Society, Keppel Education Pathways, Capricorn Coast Low Vision Group, Paint Pot Gallery Committee, Keppel Coast Country Music Club, Capricorn Adventist Retirement Village Action Group and Yeppoon Branch, Queensland Country Women’s Association.

In 2019 she was given the Mayoral Award from Livingstone Shire Council, and in 2014 an award from the Queensland Inspiring Women’s Awards, 2014.

Member for Keppel Brittany Lauga wholeheartedly congratulated Ms Rial on her well deserved award, and praised her outstanding service to a wide range of government, not-for-profit and community organisations.

“Desley has always been an energetic and active doer rather than someone who sits back and watches,” Ms Lauga said.

“And that is embodied in the number of organisations on which she has held active positions, and still does.

“Her keen interest in, and empathy for, her fellow community members has seen her make an indelible mark on our social fabric.

“Amidst all of that she held the arduous role as a hardworking Livingstone Shire Councillor for 11 years.

“Desley’s award will read “for service to the community of the Capricorn Coast”, but it is for much more than that.

“Her kindness, her compassion and her vision have also touched the lives of many people outside of this district, all the while promoting her beloved Capricorn Coast to the rest of the world.”