The diplomatic architect of renewed Pacific ties and a Melbourne sonographer are among those honoured for their services to Australia's closest region.
Diplomat Ewen McDonald and Monash Health's Peter Coombs have both been made a member of the Order of Australia.
Mr McDonald, 65, has held key Pacific posts since 2018 and is currently High Commissioner to Papua New Guinea and, since 2023, a roving Pacific envoy.
Australia has enjoyed and endured a rollercoaster decade of relations with the blue continent, from the lows of a climate stand-off at the 2019 Pacific Island Forum, and rumoured Chinese bases in Vanuatu and Solomon Islands.
Recent bilateral pacts are among the highs, including the Pukpuk Treaty, signed with Papua New Guinea last October, which gives Australia its first new defence ally in 70 years.
"Relations have just gone from strength to strength in my mind," Mr McDonald told AAP.
Mr McDonald said he was proud of several deals and projects in recent years: a six-nation deal with Digicel which kept out Chinese telecommunications firms, an undersea cable for Tonga, climate funding, and more.
"And the things that don't get as much attention as a shiny new building ... but (Australia's investment) in education and health," he said.
"Education gives kids an opportunity in these communities, very similar to lower socioeconomic schools in Australia. That can change lives."
Mr McDonald, who arrived in diplomacy later in his public service career by joining AusAID in 2011, believes Australian leaders needed to cultivate personal relationships to succeed in the Pacific.
"Relationships are everything and they take time to build," he said.
"Once you've got it, they're very good friends, they'll work with you, they'll support you ... I call them genuine people.
"You go out to a village or something, and they don't have much, but you are so welcome, they'll give you the shirt off the back."
Mr Coombs, 63, has been the Victorian health agency's chief sonographer since 2005, calling it a "little jewel" of a profession.
"The joy of ultrasound is you meet with a client and you meet them at their moment: that might be someone at risk of miscarriage, who might have a clot in their leg, or someone worried about breast cancer," he told AAP.
"One of the things that I've tried to do over the journey is instil kindness and care and empathy.
"Even 40 years on, it's incredibly fulfilling to share those moments, like the first time someone gets to see their baby."
He has embraced teaching over his career, including a string of missions to the Pacific, Southeast Asia and Africa, where access to specialised health care is otherwise unobtainable.
"Locals, in Nauru for instance, they've never had anyone come in and teach them ultrasound before, so they just lap it up. They're so grateful," he said.
