ADRIENNE READ – 2025 RECIPIENT OF THE HUMANITARIAN AWARD
Adrienne began her career on Skippy the Bush Kangaroo in 1967 doing Continuity, on both the television series and the feature film Skippy and the Intruders in 1969. This was followed by Between Wars, Caddie, Newsfront, The Removalists, and Starstruck amongst many more until 1985 when she became a Production Manager on tv and feature films such as The Empty Beach and I Own the Racecourse. More feature films as Line Producer followed, among them Country Life, Garage Days, Passion, and The Wog Boy. There was also a rewarding period as a representative of Film Finances.
She left the industry after some health issues and started up an exercise business called Fifty plus Fitness for the over 50s – some clients were in their eighties. She gave the business away to a colleague after 5 years when she basically retired from active work.
Her voluntary work with St Vincents Hospital started in 2010 where she worked in the Geriatric Ward for ten years assisting patients, chatting with them and taking them for small walks around the ward etc. During this time she also worked for the Sisters of Charity in the St Vincents Outreach program where she visited isolated people at home one on one, keeping them company and sometimes taking them out for a coffee or a drive. When Covid hit and all volunteers were withdrawn for safety reasons, she kept on with her clients through phone calls and then visits again. Fifteen years later she is still seeing two of her clients and will do so for the foreseeable future.
About what the award means to me:
“I am deeply honoured to be given this prestigious award by the Society, especially when I consider the company I am keeping and the fact I am the first woman to receive it. And I hope it might encourage other Pioneers to consider some form of voluntary work which I have found to be a very rewarding way of using some of my retirement time.”