Manuel Aroney

Aroney was the only child, born on 31 August 1932, of Dimitrios and Stamatina Aronis (Aroney) who both were born in Aroniadika, Kythera, Greece. They met up again in Sydney, married in 1926 in Townsville and then opened the Central Cafe in Mackay, north Queensland, in 1928.

In 1975 he was foundation member of the Ethnic Communities' Council of NSW. From 1977-81 he was appointed by the Federal Government as a member of the National Ethnic Broadcasting Advisory Council, charged with advising the Commonwealth Government on multilingual electronic media. From 1978-81 he served as one of four members of the first Board of the Federal Governments Special Broadcasting Service, which made ethnic radio permanent across Australia and, with Bruce Gyngell, established the SBS television service. From 1981-83 he was a member of the Australian Institute of Multicultural Affairs. From 1981-86 he was a Commissioner of the Commonwealth Human Rights Commission. Its functions included: the review of legislation, investigation of complaints, and the undertaking of research and educational programmes affecting human rights (according to the Human Rights Commission Act 1981). He died 15 February 2011.[5]

In 1980 he was granted the honour O.B.E. (Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire) for services to the University and to the community (awarded by the Queen), and in 1989 he was awarded the A.M. (Member of the Order of Australia) given for services to multiculturalism and the Greek community.[6]