Seekers Lauded In Queen’s Birthday Honours

Veteran folk harmony group The Seekers were given one of the highest honors by Australia.

Photo: Dianna O’Neill Publicity, Martin Philbey/AP

Posing for a portrait at a Melbourne hotel in Australia.

The four original members – Judith Durham, Athol Guy, Keith Potger and Bruce Woodley – were awarded the Officers of the Order of Australia (AO) Queen’s Birthday Honors list (announced June 9) for their contribution to music and charity.

The band recently wound up 50th Golden Jubilee tours of Australia and the United Kingdom to mark the release of their first million-seller “I’ll Never Find Another You.”

They later became the first Australian act to top the U.S. charts with “Georgy Girl” in the mid-1960s.

Athol Guy stated, “Our sellout tours of Australia and the UK topped everything we thought, but this honor at home is overwhelming and we each accept it with humility and gratitude.”

As of 2004, the Seekers had sold 60 million recordings worldwide.

Also receiving the AO medal were jazz pianist and academic Paul Grabowsky and Adelaide composer and academic Graeme Koehne.

Theatrical producer John Frost was made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) along with television entertainment reporter Richard Wilkins and radio broadcaster Angela Catterns. Receiving the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) were hit songwriter and producer Garry Frost and jazz and classical publishers Anne and John Brennan Keats.