ACTOR Geoffrey Rush has been named Australian of the Year 2012.

Women in engineering advocate Marita Cheng was named Young Australian of the Year 2012, Murrungga Island elder Laurie Baymarrwangga named Senior Australian of the Year 2012 and NSW foster parent Lynne Sawyers named Australia’s Local Hero 2012.

Over Rush’s 40 year acting career he has won the “Triple Crown”, winning an Oscar, Tony and Emmy awards.

He also has three Australian Film Institute honours, three British Academy Awards, two Golden Globes, four Screen Actors’ Guild Awards, and last year was inducted into the ranks of Australia’s elite with a Helpmann Award.

Rush was born in Toowoomba, Queensland in 1951, moving with his family to Brisbane in his primary school years.  He completed a Bachelor of Arts at the University of Queensland and made his professional debut at the Queensland Theatre Company in 1971 where he worked as an ensemble member for three years.  For the next 20 years he worked primarily in all the major theatre companies of Australia and, in the mid 1970s went to Paris to study at the prestigious Jacques Lecoq School ofMime, Movement and Theatre.

In the mid 1990s he began his film career. His performance as pianist David Helfgott in the film “Shine” put him firmly on the world stage and earned him his Oscar for Best Actor.

At the time he received his fourth Academy Award nomination playing Australian therapist Lionel Logue in “The King’s Speech”, which he also executively produced, the revival of Belvoir’s “The Diary of a Madman” played to acclaim in Sydney and in New York.  In the past year, he also starred in and executive-produced Fred Schepisi’s film of Patrick White’s Nobel Laureate-winning novel “The Eye of the Storm”, and played Lady Bracknell in the Melbourne Theatre Company’s celebrated production of “The Importance of Being Earnest”.

Seen as a creative mentor by many, Geoffrey supports young actors and arts companies. He is patron of the Melbourne International Film Festival; of Toowoomba’s Empire Theatre Foundation distributing bursaries to young performers; and of the Spina Bifida Foundation Victoria. He is an Ambassador forthe Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and UNICEF Australia.

In 2011, he was appointed as foundation president of the newly-established Australian Academy Of Cinema and Television Arts.

The Senior Australian of the Year 2012, Laurie Baymarrwangga, is an extraordinary elder from the island of Murrungga in East Arnhem Land, Northern Territory.

Laurie has shown extraordinary commitment to maintaining her culture, the environment of her beloved Crocodile Islands and ensuring younger generations continue to keep their heritage alive.

In 2010, after a struggle stretching back to 1945, Laurie finally received back payments for rents owed to her as the land and sea owner of her father’s estate.  The great-great-grandmother donated it all, around $400,000, to improve education and employment opportunities on the island and to establish a 1000 square kilometre turtle sanctuary on her marine estate.

The Young Australian of the Year 2012 is 22 year old engineering advocate Marita Cheng of Brunswick East whose leadership is changing the occupational landscape for women by encouraging girls to pursue engineering studies and careers.

Australia’s Local Hero 2012 is foster mother and carer Lynne Sawyers of Darbys Falls. Lynne has shared her home, her family and her love with more than 200 children. For 15 years, she has been on call to care for lost, abused and bewildered children in heartbreaking circumstances.

More information at www.australianoftheyear.org.au.