THE National Museum’s Australian of the Year exhibition is rare for this frivolous time of the year, offering cause for some serious intellectual reflection.

Hosted by the museum’s acting director Katherine McMahon, flanked by National Australia Day Council chief executive officer Mark Fraser, the event saw the unveiling of objects, along with photos, of the 2024 Australian of the Year state and territory recipients, to reveal significant moments in their lives.

On hand was NMA curator, Coen Ramalli, who conducted Q&As with all the recipients, two of them by zoom. The rest of us were busy trying to work out which of the cream might rise to the top when the final Australian of the Year announcement is made in Canberra on January 25.

Unusually, this year’s focus was on social-sector issues rather than the usual scientific or technological breakthroughs.

A striking exception, however, was the formidable team of professors Georgina Long and Richard Scolyer, jointly named 2024 NSW Australians of the Year.

Good friends and partners in triathlon competitions and medical research, they have jointly turned melanoma, a condition of which Australia has the highest incidence in the world, into a curable disease.

There was a poignant twist to this nomination, as Scolyer had been  diagnosed with brain cancer in June 2023. But Long, together with a team of experts, has devised a plan of treatment.

A fascinating nomination was SA’s Australian of the Year, Tim Jarvis. An environmental scientist and adventurer at the forefront of conservation initiatives such as the Forktree regeneration project on the Fleurieu Peninsula, he is probably more famous for having recreated Sir Ernest Shackleton’s 1915 crossing of the Southern Ocean in 2013.

Jarvis and five companions sailed 1500 kilometres from Elephant Island to South Georgia Island, Antarctica, before crossing the island’s mountains on foot, using the same food, clothing and technology that would have been used by Shackleton almost 100 years earlier, including an antiquated compass.

Pressed by Ramalli, Jarvis described how the metal fillings in his teeth had contracted in the freezing temperatures.

On the rare side was 2024 NT Australian of the Year, Blair McFarland, founder of the Central Australian Youth Link-Up Service which addresses the devastating impact of petrol sniffing on young people in Central Australia.

Blair and the service were instrumental in advocating for the roll-out of low aromatic fuel, which resulted in a staggering 95 per cent reduction in volatile substance misuse. To challenge the doubters who claimed it would cause poor mechanical performance, Blair fuelled up and took to the road, riding his motorbike around Central Australia.

Though its intent is serious, the entertaining side of this annual exhibition is that each state and territory recipient is asked to provide an object that sums up their life.

For Long and Scolyer, it was their triathlon gear, for Jarvis it was the compass and for McFarland it was his bike helmet.

But for 2024 ACT Australian of the Year, Joanne Farrell, founder of Build Like a Girl, it was  a steel hammer and hard hat, signs of her perseverance and leadership in smashing through  barriers in the male-dominated Canberra construction industry.

In a parallel vein, 2024 Queensland’s Australian of the Year, Marco Renai, founder of Men of Business  chose a brick – he’s been flogging them off for $1000 each to help raise funds for his school Men of Business Academy, which sees at-risk boys studying for years 11 and 12.  On graduating, they get a brick as a reward.

Also gendered in focus, is the work of 2024 Tasmanian Australian of the Year, rural women’s advocate Stephanie Trethewey, whose chosen object was a pink unicorn, a symbol of super-success in the finance world but something individual to her. Her initiative, “Motherland”, is a podcast that shares stories of rural motherhood and expanded to become an online community of 20 virtual villages that connect and support more than 200 mothers raising children and teenagers in rural Australia.

2024 Victoria Australian of the Year, Janine Mohamed, CEO of the Lowitja Institute, the National institute for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health research, was, she admitted, “a shoe connoisseur”, so chose a pair of shoes given to her by her supportive, self-sacrificing family as she began her journey from life on a mission in SA, to her present-day leadership position.

Appearing by Zoom from WA was 2024 WA Australian of the Year, Mechelle Turvey, a leading advocate for victims of crime, who has chosen the school report card of her late son, Cassius Turvey, who was fatally assaulted on his way home from school.

The report highlights Cassius’ positivity, giving us all a glimpse into the person Cassius would have become.

The 2024 Australian of the Year exhibition, at the National Museum of Australia until February 11, 2024, then tours nationally.