A man who who has played a significant role in the development of Cooranbong has been included in the Australia Day Honours list.
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Robert (Bob) Kalaf, of Brightwaters, was awarded the medal (OAM) of the Order of Australia in the general division, for his service to the Cooranbong community.
For more than 25 years, Mr Kalaf has been well known by locals as the pharmacist in Cooranbong.
What some locals might not realise is that Mr Kalaf helped to establish the Cooranbong shopping village and Morisset industrial estate, and built the Waratah Medical Centre in Cooranbong.
And through his involvement in Cooranbong Chamber of Commerce, Mr Kalaf played a significant role in achieving some of the infrastructure and services that locals have long taken for granted.
Mr Kalaf was president of the chamber from 1990 to 2006, and again for three years at the start of this decade.
“We were able to get the sewer connected,” Mr Kalaf said of his time with the chamber.
“Cooranbong, I think, blossomed because of that sewer connection.”
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It was a feat that required a fulltime commitment to bring to fruition, as well as the cooperation of Hunter Water and local parliamentarians, he said.
Mr Kalaf said he gave up work for a period to ensure the service was delivered.
The chamber also planted 40 kilometres of callistemons (bottlebrushes) in Cooranbong, Dora Creek and Morisset, and some of the rows of the surviving flowering trees can still be seen in the towns.
Ten years ago Mr Kalaf was invited to get involved as a project manager, director and supporter of Eyes for India, a charitable organisation that in that time has restored the sight of 6,000 blind people in India.
“These people are the poorest of the poor,” he said.
“It does the soul good to witness a three-year-old child seeing for the first time. To see them look in the mirror, see themselves, and see their families...” he said.
Mr Kalaf also served as a volunteer swim coach at Avondale School and Cooranbong Public School for 11 years.
He said he felt “rather humbled and privileged” to receive the medal.
