William Barton Has Been Named The Queensland Australian Of The Year 2023

Indigenous musician William Barton was named the 2023 Queensland Australian Of The Year.

He couldn't attend the ceremony held at the Brisbane Exhibition and Convention Centre in person on Tuesday night, as he was in Melbourne accepting the Australian Guild of Screen Composers award for Best Soundtrack Album for the film River - the cinematic and musical journey between humans and rivers narrated by Willem Dafoe, with Barton composing music. The film also won Best Original Song Composed For The Screen with the track Spirit Voice Of The Enchanted Waters.

Barton, a musical prodigy, embraced didjeridu – or yidaki – from his uncle, Arthur Peterson, a Wannyi, Lardil and Kalkadunga elder. He ended up leaving school at age 12 to make music his central focus, and by 17 years old, he had performed with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra.

Barton grew up in Mount Isa and was the first artist to infuse the didjeridu with the commonly known by Western audiences sound of orchestras and classical ensembles. The ABC celebrated him; the Kalkadunga man was the youngest composer voted into the ABC Classic composer countdown. He has performed at Bob Hawke's funeral and alongside Midnight Oil.

His mum, Delmae, accepted the Queensland Australian Of The Year award on behalf of her son. 

On ABC Radio Brisbane Breakfast, she said to Loretta Ryan and Craig Zonca: "When he was a child, he had slender fingers, so I thought he was going to either be a musician or a surgeon — and not just a musician, but a great musician or a great surgeon.

"This award is sending out a special message for the tireless work William has done bringing all cultures and ages together with his music. There's no generation in music."

Barton has called the award a "huge honour" and said, "I'm going to continue to do what I do through the actioning of creation and acknowledging we're part of something much greater than us."

Other award recipients included: Melissa Redsell as the 2023 Queensland Local Hero, who uses her organisation, A Brave Life, to help teenage mums reach their potential; the Queensland Senior Australian of the Year is Claude Lyle Harvey, a child protection campaigner and Bravehearts fundraiser; and Talei Elu, a Seisia woman from Cape York, is the Queensland Young Australian of the Year for her work in enrolling Indigenous Australians to vote and organising free essential feminine hygiene products.