Burns specialist awarded Australian of the Year

CANBERRA - The woman who brought spray-on skin to victims of the Bali bombings was tonight named the 2005 Australian of Year.

Prime Minister John Howard awarded Dr Fiona Wood, a burns specialist at the Royal Perth Hospital, the title at a ceremony on the lawns of Parliament House in Canberra on the eve of Australia Day.

The mother of six shot to fame in 2002 with her treatment of badly burned victims of the Bali bombings in which 202 people died, including 88 Australians.

Wood, Western Australia's only female plastic surgeon, is already a National Living Treasure.

The spray-on technique, an alternative to painful and often disfiguring skin grafts, works by taking a sample of a patient's own skin and harvesting cells from it.

The cells are cultured for five days and the engineered tissue is then sprayed onto a wound.

Wood co-ordinated a team of 250 staff to treat about half of the victims of the Bali bombings evacuated to Australia for medical treatment.

She is also co-founder of Clinical Cell Culture, a private company recognised in medical circles for its world-leading research and breakthroughs in the treatment of burns.

Wood was chosen for this year's honour from a group of eight nominated Australians, including actress Nicole Kidman.

Aid worker Rodney Cocks, Angel Flight founder Bill Bristow, environmentalist Dr Michael Bossley, indigenous actor David Gulpilil, Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) Air Vice-Marshal Julie Hammer, and wood chopper David Foster were also nominated for their contributions to the country and their communities.

Wood was nominated last year for Australian of the Year, but former Australian cricket captain Steve Waugh took the top honour.

Also announced at the Australian of the Year Awards were Senior Australian of the Year, Young Australian of the Year and Australia's Local Hero.

Khoa Do, who came to Australia as a refugee from Vietnam, took the Young Australian of the Year honour for film-making.

His film, The Finished People, about homelessness and hardship in Sydney's western suburbs, won him international acclaim.

The man who helped to make Australia's first plastic bag-free town, Tasmanian Ben Kearney, was named Australia's Local Hero of 2005.

Portuguese-born businessman from the Northern Territory, Antonio Milhinhos, who famously donated his entire supermarket stock to victims of Cyclone Tracy, was named Senior Australian of the Year.

- AAP