The 2012 Australian of the Year is Toowoomba born lad, Geoffrey Rush.  While he is the country’s most awarded actor (and one of the few to snag the ‘triple’ – Tony, Emmy, Oscar), he got the gong for what he does behind the scenes – mentoring young actors, appearing in Aussie movies for next to nothing, stuff like being Patron of our local theatre, The Empire.  And somehow, he manages to remain more ‘Australian’ than ‘Hollywood’ with a wife of 24 years and two teenage kids.  For mine a good choice, as a role model for the younger generations to say, “Hey, you can do anything you want to, if you work bloody hard at it.”