Lyn Skillern makes her own history with OAM

Lyn Skillern’s ongoing service to the community of Leongatha has been officially acknowledged, with the Leongatha North local surprised but honoured to be chosen to receive the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM).

“I’m honoured and humbled because someone’s got to nominate you and put it altogether,” Lyn said.

Her love for local history ensures most of her spare time is spent working on research and writing projects through the Leongatha Historical Society, which she joined in 1981.

She is proud to be the fourth Leongatha Historical Society person to get an OAM, joining Ellen Lyndon, Daisy Bacon and John Murphy who was Lyn’s mentor there.
Lyn has been that organisation’s secretary since 1999 and spent time as its president and vice president.

She loves writing books with a local focus, including a couple on the history of Leongatha High School, now Leongatha Secondary College, where she taught for 30 years.

“I loved researching the history of the school, going through all the correspondence and newspaper articles,” Lyn said of her book that came out in 2012 for the school’s centenary.
The Public Records Office acknowledged the book’s significance by bestowing a local history award on its author.

While Lyn taught geography more than history, she always had a passion for local history and undertook research on the history of the Tarwin River shortly after commencing her teaching role at the school in 1972.
That led into researching other areas of local history.

Research into the involvement of those from Leongatha and surrounds in the two world wars is an area Lyn has happily devoted many hours to.

Lyn wrote a book on local members of Lark Force, a garrison at Rabaul in Papua New Guinea, inspired by the fact just four of 18 Leongatha members survived their involvement.
As she researched, the project grew in scope with the book eventually documenting all those who served in Lark Force from across the old Woorayl Shire.

Her commitment to history led to her membership of the Centre for Gippsland Studies at Monash University’s Gippsland Campus and her current role as secretary of the South Gippsland Historical Network.

The Sentinel-Times and the Great Southern Star have been enriched by Lyn’s historical contributions over the years.
Lyn’s broad interests include sporting pursuits, having been a swimmer and hockey player, which led her to become the organiser of interschool hockey and swimming teams throughout her teaching career in Leongatha.

Lyn is a Life Member of the Leongatha Swimming Club, where she was a long-term head coach, and of the South Gippsland Swimming Association for which she was president, committee member and club delegate.

She played for Leongatha Hockey Club in the 1970s, later being its president, as well as an umpire and coach.

Gippsland representative sides competing in State Championships at under 18s level were also coached by Lyn.

She credited the support of husband Rob and children Andrew and Olivia for enabling her to achieve what she has.
Lyn also paid tribute to everyone she’s worked alongside over the years in her volunteer roles.

“All the support you get from other people in the organisation is very important,” she said, explaining you can’t achieve what you want in the local community without that support.

Lyn’s initial reaction to an email advising her she’d been nominated for an Australia Day honour was to suspect it was a hoax, but Rob convinced her it was genuine.