NSW audiologist, Emeritus Professor Philip Newall, and Canberra ENT and cochlear implant surgeon Dr Edward Peter Chapman were recognised in the 2025 King’s Birthday Honours List for decades of giving generously of their skills and time.
Prof Newall was awarded the Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in the General Division “for significant service to audiology education and research, and to the community”.
Dr Chapman received the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in the General Division “for service to medicine in otorhinolaryngology”.
Others in the sector to receive honours, which were announced on 9 June 2025, included a teacher of the deaf, a consumer advocate for those with hearing loss, and people who raised funds.
“I was very pleased and surprised to receive the honour,” Prof Newall told Hearing Practitioner Australia. “My main career was running audiology at Macquarie University. I also helped to set up two audiology programs in Manila and one in Beijing.”
Macquarie University, NextSense and hospital work
Prof Newall has a long history of involvement with NextSense and Macquarie University, dedicating years to practising, lecturing, teaching, and doing research.
In his working life, Prof Newall was the coordinator of postgraduate audiology programs at Macquarie University from 1980 to 2007 and an honorary audiologist at NextSense Institute (formerly the Renwick Centre at the Royal Institute for Deaf and Blind Children) for 18 years from 1990 to 2007. He is a Life Member of NextSense, has been a Professorial Fellow there for 18 years and is currently an Honorary Adjunct Academic.
Other roles include being Emeritus Professor in the Macquarie University Department of Linguistics since 2007 and a Professorial Fellow from 2003 to 2007.
He worked in private practice as an audiologist at Attune Hearing for five years, and was an honorary audiologist at Westmead Hospital for 39 years from 1981-2020, at Hornsby and Ku-ring-gai Hospital from 1981-1990 and the Dubbo ENT Clinic for 37 years.
As chief investigator on research grants totalling more than $2.5 million, he was involved with grants establishing the Hearing Co-Operative Research Centre and the Hearing Hub at Macquarie University.
Samoan visits
Additionally, he committed much time to overseas communities including helping to develop audiological services in the Philippines and Samoa, often travelling overseas to work on a voluntary basis with his audiologist wife Cristy.
“We have made 25 visits to Samoa since 2008, and I am really keen to continue, as the plight of hearing-impaired children who are not able to acquire an education or employment due to their hearing loss is a matter of great concern,” Prof Newall said.
They have fitted about 450 hearing aids and BAHAs to Samoan children.
“Deafness is an invisible handicap and we have rescued a few children for the wrong type of educational placement, when they presented as having intellectual disability but really they were just unable to communicate,” he said.
Previous honours include being an Audiology Australia (AudA) Fellow from 2006-2022, an Emeritus Member since 2022, a member from 1980-2022 and receiving AudA’s Certificate of Outstanding Service in 1996.
Taught many students
Prof Newall taught hundreds of audiology students over 27 years. He was an audiology lecturer at Macquarie University from 1980 to 1984 before being senior audiology lecturer from 1984-1992 and Associate Professor from 1992-2003.
Additionally, he served as a member of the management board of the Special Education Centre, and an advisory board member of the ARC Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders.
Before coming to Australia, he was a senior physicist in audiology at the Northern Regional Health Authority, United Kingdom where he worked for nine years from 1971.
His academic roles have included Conjoint Professor, Faculty of Education, The University of Newcastle, 2007-2020, Visiting Professor, National University of Malaysia, since 1996, Visiting Professor, University of Santo Tomas, Manila, since 1997, Visiting Professor, Capital University of Medical Science, Beijing, since 2005 and Visiting Professor, International Islamic University of Malaysia, since 2007.
He has been Visiting Professor, University of the Philippines since 1997, a volunteer audiologist at the Senese Centre for Inclusive Education, Samoa since 2008, an honorary visiting audiologist, School for the Deaf, Middlesbrough, 1971-1980 and was visiting lecturer in audiology, Department of Speech, University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne from 1974-1980.
Prof Newall has been an external assessor for the National Health and Medical Research Council since 1990, a senior consultant for the China Research and Rehabilitation Centre for Deaf Children since 2009 and was a research committee member at the National Acoustic Laboratories (NAL) for four years.
Involvement in the NAL-RP procedure
He recalls his involvement in the National Acoustic Laboratories – Revised, Profound (NAL-RP) procedure which is used in audiology for fitting linear hearing aids, particularly for individuals with severe and profound hearing loss.
“I was concerned that the method used to select hearing aids was not appropriate for people with a profound hearing loss. This misgiving was shared by the late Denis Byrne who led the team,” Prof Newall said.
“We ran a study which resulted in a modified procedure which was more suited to those persons with a more severe or profound loss. These days cochlear implants are fitted to people with such losses, but only in countries that can afford to do this. Nowadays hearing aids are more complex and new selection methods are used to fit them.”
Prof Newall also served as a visiting audiologist on the Workers Compensation Commission of New South Wales, and was a member of the Professional Advisory Board, Self-Help for Hard of Hearing (Hearing Matters Australia) from 1994 -2015.
He was a member of the audiology committee of the International Association of Logopedics, has been a board member of Hearing International since 2008, and was a member of the technical reference group, Office of Hearing Services, Commonwealth Department of Health and Ageing from 2013-2015.
His research has been published in 138 scientific publications, and he’s served in editorial roles on several journals. They include being an editorial consultant on the Royal NSW Institute for Deaf and Blind Children’s Research College Monograph since 1994, an international editorial associate on the Journal of the American Academy of Audiology since 2005, and an expert committee member of the Chinese Scientific Journal of Health and Speech Rehabilitation since 2006.
He is an international advisor on the Malaysian Journal of Health Sciences and was an editorial consultant for the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Audiology from 1993-2011.
Prof Newall received the Special Award from Sinakarinwirot University, Bangkok in 1994, the Bronze Medallion of the China Disabled Persons Federation, Beijing in 1995, and is an honorary member of the Association of Clinical Audiologists of the Philippines.
He’s a Principal Fellow of the British Society of Audiology, a member of the Coalition for Global Hearing Health, and a Rotary International Paul Harris Fellow.
The Newall’s youtube video explains that 9% of children in Samoa have hearing loss, double the number of children in New Zealand. People or businesses can make donations of funds, devices or equipment to help continue their volunteer work via the links at the end of the video.
Dr Edward Chapman
Dr Chapman was an Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) surgeon at Canberra Hospital for 35 years from 1993-2018 including director of the hospital’s ENT (Otorhinolaryngology) Unit from 2014-2017.
He was a cochlear implant specialist with Canberra ENT in the 2010s and a specialist with the Cochlear Implant Service, Royal Institute for Deaf and Blind Children, as well as an ENT surgeon in Orange, NSW, from 1985-1993.
Dr Chapman also did work for the John James Foundation in Canberra. He was a volunteer ENT specialist with ENT Surgical Missions, National Referral Hospital, Solomon Islands, 2015, and the Indigenous Outreach Program, Katherine Hospital in the Northern Territory in 2008 and from 2011-2013.
He was a member of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (RACS) New South Wales Regional Training Committee from 2003-2015, and a board member of the (RACS) Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery College of Examiners. Dr Chapman was made a Fellow in 1984 and was a surgical supervisor at Canberra Hospital for 12 years.
He was a representative of the Australian Society of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery (ASOHNS) Panel of Clinical Experts for Otolaryngology and Cochlear Implants, Department of Health and Ageing, in the early 2000s, and has been a member since 1985.
Others in the sector to be recognised included:
- The late Mrs Jill Margaret Allen, Greenethorpe NSW, who posthumously received a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in the General Division “for service to people who are deaf or hard-of-hearing”. She was an assistant principal of the hearing team and a teacher of the deaf and hearing impaired for 20 years at Cowra Public School from 2000-2020. Allen also received the Deaf Student Association’s Outstanding Professional Service Award in 2007.
- Miss Maureen Therese Davey received the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in the General Division “for service to people who are deaf or hard of hearing”. A founding member of Ballarat and District Better Hearing Australia since 1967, she is also a life member and has served as president and committee member. Davey is a foundation member of the Ballarat Deaf Social Club since 1974, a life member and served as secretary. She was also a founding member of the Ballarat branch of the Association for the Blind (now Vision Australia), a former regional committee chairperson and committee member, and deaf representative on the Ewing House School for Deaf Children council from 1980-1984.
- NextSense benefactor, Mr Clive John Berghofer AM from Wilsonton Queensland, was made an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in the General Division for distinguished service to the community.
- Mrs Dorothy Joan Crabb received the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in the General Division “for service to speleology (the scientific study of caves), and to the community” including being a volunteer and fundraiser for Shoalhaven Lantern Club for Nextsense from 2005-2014.
