By Parker McKenzie
Janet McFadyen didn’t believe she’d been honoured with an Order of Australia when it was first announced.
“This doesn’t happen to quilters, it happens to people who cure cancer or do something big through work, not to people that run the grassroots sort of events.” Ms McFadyen said.
The Order of Australia – for “service to the community through charitable organisations,” – was given to Ms McFadyen for her donation of thousands of quilts to people in need since she started making them in the early 1990s.
“We moved down to Ferntree Gully four years ago to look after the grandchildren. I’m proud of what I was doing in country Victoria and sending quilts around regional areas and interstate, but since we’ve been in Melbourne it’s been a lot easier to network.” she said.
Ms McFadyen was a health manager at a hospital in Shepparton for 35 years before moving to the South-East of Melbourne, where she said she saw people in need and felt compelled to help.
When the Black Summer bushfires occurred, Ms McFadyen organised 2300 quilts to be donated to residents of the worst affected areas like King Lake.
“That’s when I named it Oz Comfort Quilts, because until then it was just Jan Mac Quilts,” she said.
“I was getting so many donations from around Australia and even overseas that I thought it was better to make it a more inclusive group.”
During 2009 – at the height of the devastation during the bushfires – stories from media outlets around the world helped bring attention to Oz Comfort Quilts, and Ms McFadyen said she asked for donations of blocks to be stitched into larger quilts.
“I received thousands of blocks all around the world, from South Africa, Israel, Reunion Island, Canada, Latin America, England and lots from Holland, Germany and all over the place. It was just incredible,” she said.
“Most quilts would take 35 of these blocks and some people would send four to six of them, then I just combined them all into quilts.”
Last year, Ms McFadyen and her network of quilters from around Australia and the world donated 753 quilts to people in need, whether it was from natural disaster, homelessness, drug and alcohol recovery or domestic violence.
Ms McFadyen said the year before they donated 780, but she has personally made thousands.
“We give it as a gift to help people when they’re ready to recover. During the bushfires we don’t give them immediately, we wait until they’re rebuilding and they’re ready to move back into a new home,” she said.
“It’s a gift for hope and the future, and it is always provided through local community groups.”
Ms McFadyen said she received the Paul Harris award from Kangaroo Flat Rotary Club in 2008 for her donations of quilts through them, although being an Order of Australia recipient has left her in disbelief.
“They went to people affected by the tsunamis in Asia and East Timor at the time, and people affected by drought,”
“That was pretty incredible. This is just mind blowing; I can’t believe that this would happen.”
Through the Covid-19 pandemic, the network of quilters has expanded into making knitted garments and blankets, clothes for kids and even Santa sacks for the festive period.
Ms McFadyen said making the quilts has helped not just people in need, but also herself and others who have contributed to the cause.
“I saw a lot of the need in the community and always planned to do this when I retired,” she said.
“It’s not just helping people who get the quilts, it’s also the people who are making them, it helps them as well.”
