My Brilliant Career producer Margaret Fink, Australian Cinematographers Society (ACS) Hall of Fame inductee Daryl Binning, Emmy-winning natural history filmmaker David Parer and Heather Croall, CEO of the Adelaide Fringe and former director of Sheffield Doc/Fest, have been recognised with Australia Day honours.
Parer and Fink were both appointed Officers of the Order of Australia (AO), while Croall was made a Member of the Order (AM) and Binning was awarded a Medal of the Order (OAM).
Fink’s career in the industry has spanned more than four decades, having gained her first producing credit with Tom Jeffrey’s 1975 film The Removalists. She would then go on to produce Gillian Armstrong’s 1979 debut feature My Brilliant Career, marking Judy Davis’s introduction to audiences and Sam Neill’s first Australian film.
She is also known for Stephen Wallace’s 1986 historical romance For Love Alone, Neil Armfield’s 1989 television miniseries Edens Lost, which won best miniseries at the AFI Awards, as well as co-producing Neil Armfield’s 2006 drama Candy, starring Heath Ledger.
A former art teacher, Fink was made a fellow of the National Art School in 2021.
Fink told IF she had always thought of herself as a filmmaker rather than a film producer, paying tribute to collaborators like Wallace and Armfield.
“It was a united effort with Steve Wallace and Neil Armfield; equally balanced in terms of contributions, there was no question about that.
“Neil, for instance, is a quasi-producer himself, as well as a director. I am a bit of both as well, so Eden’s Lost was a marvellous collaboration between two people.”
Parer was also quick to pay tribute to his collaborators in accepting the honour.
Having been based at the ABC’s Natural History Unit for more than three decades up until it folded in 2007, the producer and his producer/sound recordist wife Elizabeth Parker-Cook have worked on co-productions with David Attenborough, the BBC, National Geographic, Discovery Channel, PBS-WNET (New York), Canal Plus, NHK, ORF and TBS Productions.
His credits as a producer/cinematographer include The Dragons of Galapagos, Australia – Land of Parrots, Devil Island, Mawson – 65th Anniversary, Wildlife in Colour, and Ningaloo Nyinggulu, which is up for Best Documentary or Factual Program at next month’s AACTA Awards.
Parer told IF he shared the honour with his wife and the public broadcaster, and also expressed his pride at being recognised for services to the wildlife cinematography and the environment.
“Filmmaking is very much a collaborative art and my buddy and partner in all this is my wife,” he said.
“She’s been a huge contributor, as has the ABC. I joined them in 1973 and was there for 35 years,
“It means an enormous amount because I think the environment today is battling against deforestation and a number of species are going extinct, so I think we really need to get public support to influence governments so that these precious resources that hold both animals and plants are not lost.”
Parer is one of two cinematographers to be recognised, alongside Binning.
Having started his career specialising in documentaries and news film for cinemas and eventually
television in his native state of Western Australia, Binning used his private pilot licence to cover stories for Movietone News and TV stations and reach otherwise inaccessible locations in Papua and New Guinea.
Here he was involved in establishing the government’s first film unit, eventually setting up
his own company ‘Films New Guinea’ and producing local newsreels, training films and international documentaries, as well as undertaking many assignments for Walt Disney, the United Nations and various global clients.
His achievements include founding the Western Australian branch of the ACS in 1968, going on to serve as its secretary and president, as well as The Australian Museum of Motion Picture and Television, although he is no longer associated with the organisation.
Binning, who was inducted into the ACS Hall of Fame in 2004, was happy to take his latest honour in stride.
“I’m a bit too long in the tooth for this to make too much of a change to my lifestyle habits,” he said.
“I sometimes go about things in a weird way but maybe it wasn’t so weird after all.”
Croall was included on the list of Order members for her work as an administrator, advocate and filmmaker.
After spending time as a senior project officer and industry manager at the South Australian Film Corporation from 2001-2003, she served as director and CEO of the Australian International Documentary Conference for three years before taking her expertise to the UK, where she was CEO/director of Sheffield DocFest for nearly a decade. Since 2015, she has overseen the Adelaide Fringe Festival as CEO and director.
Croall told IF her whole career had been about creating as many opportunities as she could for the artists, creatives and filmmakers, and producers she had worked with.
“It’s an incredible honour to be recognised like this,” she said.
“I’ve worked with so many hundreds and thousands of people throughout the decades, and I think it is an honour thats really for all the collaborators that I’ve worked with and all the people that have been part of my journey and helped me throughout the decades at various festivals and other arts organisation.”
Overall, the Australia Day 2024 Honours List recognised 1042 Australians.