Looking through the Glass: The Artist and Artistry behind the Australian of the Year Awards

Compared to global cities, Canberra is relatively small. Maybe, just quietly, you scroll the Canberra Times, just to see if you recognise a name or two. Conversations often lead to the discovery of mutual acquaintances, like when your daughter calls from Europe to excitedly share that she went to school with Sophie Edwards, a 2024 nominee for ACT Young Australian of the Year. A graduate from the ANU School of Music, Sophie has even sung with the choir at previous Australian of the Year events.

The mum of that daughter is none other than the Australian National University (ANU), Glass Workshop’s Technical Officer, Cathy Newton who is also Production Manager for the Australian of the Year Awards. She has been making them since 2018, and in the process she’s uncovered all sorts of connections. Her children went to school with the 2022 ACT Australian of the Year, Patty Mills. And while chatting on awards night with Val Dempsey, the 2022 Senior Australian of the Year, she discovered they had worked together at St John Ambulance ACT brigade, when Cathy was just 15.

This year’s 32 state awards and 4 national awards are cast in glass over the course of several months, each one taking at least 10 hours to finish. Much of that time is laborious polishing, using industrial diamonds at ever finer grits to grind and then refine the surface to a mirror finish. Once perfect, the trophies are sent to sandblaster and engraver, Ian Broadbent at Capital Trophies. He then completes the process by adding the winning names, and the Australian of the Year logo on the back. They are then delivered in boxes which are handmade by Box Biz, owned by Albert and Scarlett Rea in Adelaide, South Australia.

On the national awards night, Cathy finds, “it can be so overwhelming to see all that these people have accomplished to receive the award, which pales in comparison to my job. But I also feel really very proud that, my fingerprints have touched all the parts of the awards and it’s amazing that they're going to incredible people."

As Cathy reflects on Dylan Alcott’s inspiring speech about disability advocacy and the need for service improvement and better representation, she’s reminded of a funny moment when, “he stuck his award next to his wheelchair while he was having his photo taken. As he was being ushered into position, I was standing back watching this, just about vomiting, feeling like he was going to knock the award over and it would just go bam!” Cathy chuckles and exhales a little remembering the close call.

In case you’re wondering, breakages have happened a few times which has meant more work for Cathy and her team.

So why glass?

Cathy may be a biased source but suggests, “there’s a kind of beauty about glass that we all really enjoy. The transparency and light, and just that beautiful shininess of led crystal glass, and the nice solid feel of the awards, which are deceptively weighty. ”

She also explains that, “the awards are quite complex in the way that they’re made. A huge amount of time is spent cold working them and getting them to that finish. The ANU workshop is world renowned, in particular for its cold working.”

The nominees for the Australian of the year awards for 2024 include:

QLD: Marco Renai

NT: Blair McFarland

NSW: Prof Richard Scolyer AO and Prof Georgina Long AO

SA: Timothy Jarvis AM

TAS: Stephanie Trethewey

ACT: Joanne Farrell

WA: Mechelle Turvey

VIC: Janine Mohamed

The official announcement on 25 January is broadcast live to the nation on ABC and iView. For more information about the 2024 nominees visit the official Australian of The Year website.