Dr Hogan has been a veterinarian at Seymour Veterinary Surgery since moving to the area in 1992.
“I moved over to Seymour in 1992 to take up work at the Seymour Vet Surgery with Dr John Dalziel, who was the owner at the time,” he said.
“I worked with John for a number of years as his employee and then as a partner. I then bought it (Seymour Veterinary Surgery) outright.”
Dr Hogan has been a member of many community groups, including the Seymour Performers Workshop, the Kings Park Seymour Committee, the Seymour Agricultural and Pastoral Society and many more.
“The agricultural and pastoral society was the first organisation I became involved with here,” Dr Hogan said.
“I was president for a couple of years and treasurer as well at different times.
“From that, I became involved with Seymour’s Tastes of the Goulburn, which is a wonderful event.”
Dr Hogan said it came as a shock to hear he was to receive an OAM.
“I didn’t expect that by any means,” he said.
“The award is for my community involvement … as well as my work as a vet.”
When he first heard of his nomination, he didn’t think it was real.
“I found out via email,” he said.
“It said ‘you’ve been nominated for this award, please click here’ or something.
“I thought ‘oh, is this a scam?’”
He said he almost didn’t go further with the email until he researched it and checked with other people.
“I didn’t tell anybody, apart from a couple of people I had look over the email to see if they thought it might be a scam,” he said.
“Nobody else knows, really, until today (Australia Day).”
He said the award wasn’t just a big surprise for him, but also for everyone he had worked with for many years.
“The phone’s been ringing with lots of people congratulating me and offering their support,” he said.
“That’s been lovely today.”
Dr Hogan said he was honoured to receive the Order of Australia and that, to him, community was one of the most important things in life.
“I think we all benefit from it,” he said.
“If all we do is benefit, and we don’t put that back in, that’s a bit unbalanced.”
Dr Hogan said his daughter, son and late wife had always been involved in the community and it was something that has brought them immense joy.
“Nothing happens in Seymour unless people do it,” he said.
“I think everybody who’s got something to give has got to be comfortable and feel like they’re going to be accepted to get out there.
“That’s a really good thing about living here.”
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