FOR a man whose family name is inextricably tied to the Australian media, Tim Fairfax has no desire for headlines. Not about him, anyway.
“I don’t know who nominated me for this,” he told The Senior, visibly uncomfortable as Queensland’s who’s who gathered at the State Library to hear the announcement of the state’s contenders for the 2016 Australian of the Year titles.
“I don’t like being noticed. I prefer to just quietly go about doing what I do.”
Mr Fairfax’s desire for low-key went out the window when he was named Queensland Senior Australian of the Year.
He becomes the state’s nomination for the 2016 Senior Australian of the Year to be announced in Canberra on January 25.
At the time of going to press, only Victoria had also announced its contender: Indigenous elder Jack Charles.
One of the country’s most successful businessmen and one of the state’s wealthiest, Mr Fairfax, 69, is also incredibly generous, particularly when it comes to supporting remote, regional and rural communities in his adopted home state.
The grandson of Queensland Country Women’s Association founder Ruth Fairfax has gifted more than $16 million to community-based arts, music and sporting projects in regional Australia since 2008 through the Tim Fairfax Family Foundation.
“Part of my life was spent running cattle stations in central Queensland, and I realised my daughters missed out on the arts when they were at the local primary school,” Mr Fairfax said.
Finding Ithaka, delivered by Mackay’s Crossroad Arts in partnership with Blue Care Central Queensland last year, was among many art projects to benefit from the Fairfax generosity.
Residents in aged care facilities in Mackay, Gladstone, Biloela and Dysart, and young people, some with disabilities, worked together at dancing singing, storytelling, weaving and photography workshops.
Mr Fairfax also chairs the board of the Vincent Fairfax Family Foundation, named after his father, which has donated more than $100 million to worthy causes.
