Meet the Australian of the Year finalists for 2026

It’s that time of year again to recognise and celebrate the special people in our communities showing what it truly means to be Australian.

The 2026 Australian of the Year – alongside the Senior Australian of the Year, Young Australian of the Year and Local Hero – will be announced in Canberra on Sunday night, the eve of Australia Day.

This year’s Australian of the Year include an astronaut, a digital addiction and gaming disorder specialist, an emergency rescuer and Carrie Bickmore.

The winner will take over the mantle from last year’s recipient, former AFL player and co-founder of FightMND, Neale Daniher AO.

Mr Daniher has inspired millions through his perseverance and courage since being diagnosed with motor neurone disease in 2014.

He has since raised more than $117m for research and care initiatives.

Other past winners include 2024’s melanoma treatment pioneers Professor Georgina Long AO and Professor Richard Scolyer AO, Grace Tame in 2021, Adam Goodes in 2014 and Professor Fred Hollows AC in 1990.

Here are the nominees from each state in the running for Australian of the Year 2026, to be announced by the Prime Minister in Canberra on Sunday night.

NSW – Dr Alison Thompson OAM

Alison Thompson’s life changed forever after racing to New York’s World Trade Centre on her rollerblades, holding a medical kit on September 11, 2001.

Dr Thompson lost 64 friends in the tragedy and spent nine months offering support with other like-minded people after the attacks.

After experiencing the importance of helping others during times of crisis, Dr Thompson established Third Wave Volunteers – a global movement of first responder volunteers bringing relief to communities around the world.

“Personally, I am motivated by love … there is so much suffering around the world and I see it front line,” she said.

“I know deep inside I can land, I can look people in the eye and I can do something.”

Victoria – Carrie Bickmore OAM

Carrie Bickmore is known for her radio and television work, but has also become a leading advocate for brain cancer awareness and research funding.

Ms Bickmore’s late husband Greg died from the aggressive cancer in 2010, inspiring her to fight back against the disease that kills more Australian children and people under 40 than any other cancer.

She has raised more than $27m since 2015 and established the Brain Cancer Centre in 2021 – a collaborative research centre that just secured an additional $45m in funding.

“As time goes on, I’m able to try to use that pain and try to turn in something powerful,” she said, saying the Brain Cancer Centre was changing lives.

“It is most mind-blowingly, amazing thing that is what is happening at the centre as a result of people buying a $29.95 beanie.”

South Australia – Katherine Bennell-Pegg

Katherine Bennell-Pegg dreamt of becoming an astronaut since she was a child – now she has achieved that and so much more.

West Beach’s Ms Bennell-Pegg made history as the first Australian to qualify as an astronaut under Australia’s space program and has inspired people across the country.

She graduated from the highly competitive European Astronaut Centre in Germany in 2024, part of a class of six, selected out of 22,500 applicants.

Ms Bennell-Pegg has advanced space missions and technologies and continues to inspire the next generation of Australia’s space program, presenting to schoolchildren and industry leaders.

“What I want to do is to show people the power of the dream, when you put in the effort to make it happen,” she said.

“So I encourage people to back themselves in the hard things, in technical pursuits, for the love of ideas because you want to solve a problem, because it’s a challenge.

“And then imagine what you can do with the courage to aspire.”

Western Australia – Dr Daniela Vecchio

Daniela Vecchio is a digital addiction and gaming disorder specialist and the head of mental health and addiction services at Fiona Stanley Hospital.

Dr Vecchio established Australia’s first ever publicly funded gaming disorder clinic in 2022 after noticing an increase in young people with video game and social media addictions.

The clinic provides treatment in an acute hospital setting and is unique on a global scale.

The 57-year-old from Parklands has also developed a variety of holistic assessments and treatments and is the director of the Australian Gaming and Screens Alliance, collaborating with experts from around the world.

She says her work tries to reconnect gaming addicted children with their families, and said 22,000 teenagers in WA alone are at risk of developing gaming disorder, but warned that was an underestimate.

“They often become very much socially isolated, they distance themselves from their families, they become very aggressive towards their parents and they become victims, on occasion, of online predators,” she said.

“We can’t go without screens. This is a digital world.

“But we need digital literacy, and we need also to equip our children to make our children safer in the digital world.”

Queensland – Dr Rolf Gomes

Dr Rolf Gomes created the first Heart of Australia mobile Heart Trucks when he noticed a gap in medical services for rural and remote cardiac patients.

The trucks Dr Gomes established have allowed Heart of Australia to take advanced medical equipment to patients in hard to reach locations and provide services to treat and diagnose cardiac conditions.

Dr Gomes spent six years designing the first 18-wheel semi-trailer truck, fitted with two consultation rooms and one tech room.

The fleet has treated more than 20,000 patients and will expand to 11 trucks by 2027.

Today the Heart Trucks bring regular specialist clinics to over 30 towns in rural Australia, providing early diagnostic services that would otherwise be out of reach.

“When we started this program, there was always the question would we find the doctors,”

he said.

“We’ve grown from three doctors to over 30 specialists now.

“The emails, the interest from the medical profession as the program grows, saying you’ve created this amazing project, how can we be a part of it.

“I think that is very encouraging as well.”

Tasmania – Dr Jorian Kippax

Dr Jorian (Jo) Kippax was part of the rescue team that saved whitewater rafter Valdas Bieliauskas who was trapped in perilous rapids on the Franklin River in 2024.

Dr Kippax – a retrieval specialist – directed a team to perform a life saving emergency amputation of Valdas’ leg while underwater.

The 55-year-old was responsible for guiding the team and ensuring all parties remained calm under such high stakes.

The clinical team performed an operation to amputate Valdas’s leg underwater, allowing him to be freed and ultimately saving his life.

Throughout the rescue, Dr Kippax was instrumental in guiding the team with professionalism, courage and remarkable calmness under pressure.

For this lifesaving act, the President of Lithuania, Gitanas Nausėda awarded the country’s Life Saving Cross award to Dr Kippax, which he humbly accepted on behalf of his team.

“That day on the Franklin River was one of the most challenging, most complicated, most rewarding days of my career,” he said.

Northern Territory – Dr Felix Ho ASM

Dr Felix Ho spent years of his life working within different medical professions in remote Northern Territory and is now encouraging young people to do the same.

Starting out as a St John Ambulance cadet at just 13-years-old, Dr Ho went on to become a paramedic, even spending time overseas on a United Nations mission to East Timor and then became a doctor.

Dr Ho is now the national youth officer for St John Ambulance Australia, tasked with teaching more than 3000 young Australians with the first aid skills and resilience to save lives in emergencies.

“I’ve had a lot of people come in and affect my life when I was a young person and became role models for me,” he said.

“I would love the opportunity if we could all become role models for our young people.”ACT – Professor Rose McGready

Professor Rose McGready is a migrant and refugee health expert who has given decades of her life providing health services to displaced people in Asia.

After arriving in Thailand as a young doctor, Professor McGready noticed refugees who had fled Myanmar were struggling to access health care.

She then began teaching local staff how to provide services for pregnant women before and during childbirth and went on to establish a network of locally run clinics that have saved thousands of lives.

Professor McGready’s research has been used to develop new treatments to tackle maternal malaria and is recognised by the World Health Organisation as the global standard for combating the disease.

She has been doing the work in Myanmar for more than 30 years.

“I went to do six months volunteer work. I had always wanted to do it and thought I’d come back to Australia and then get a ‘proper job’ as my dad always said,” she said.

“But I got spellbound by the local Karen and Burmese staff.“(I went) thinking that I had something to offer, but I would say they taught much more about being a good human than anything I’ve been able to transmit to them.”

Other nominees

The 2026 Senior Australian of the Year, Young Australian of the Year and Local Hero will also be announced on Sunday night.

Senior Australian of the Year nominees 

ACT - Heather Reid AM

NSW - Professor Henry Brodaty AO

NT - Jenny Duggan OAM

Queensland - Cheryl Harris OAM

South Australia - Malcolm Benoy and James Currie

Tasmania - Julie Dunbabin

Victoria - Bryan Lipmann AM

Western Australia - Professor Kingsley Dixon AO

Young Australian of the Year nominees

ACT - Sita Sargeant

NSW - Nedd Brockmann (Randwick)

Queensland - Jarib Branfield-Bradshaw

South Australia - Chloe Wyatt-Jasper

Tasmania - Alyssia Kennedy

Victoria - Abraham Kuol

Western Australia - Dr Haseeb Riaz and Gareth Shanthikumar

NT - Jaiden Dickenson

Local Hero nominees

ACT - Ben Alexander

NSW - Theresa Mitchell

Northern Territory - Ron Green BM ESM

Queensland - Ian Gay

South Australia - Ayesha Safdar

Tasmania - Emily Briffa

Victoria - Linda Widdup

Western Australia - Frank Mitchell