Milly Petriella Awarded Order of Australia Medal

Milly Petriella can now add OAM to her business card.

The music industry veteran is awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in the General Division, Australia Day recognition for “service to music and the performing arts.”

Petriella was a star at APRA AMCOS, where she served as director, member relations and partnerships from 1995 until 2022, when she took the leap to join Milk and Honey as managing director across its presence in Australia and New Zealand.

Among her career highlights with the PRO, Petriella served as director, global music export offices (Los Angeles, Nashville and London); was fundraiser and founder of the Vanda and Young Global Songwriting Competition (which has raised over $2 million for Nordoff-Robbins since its first edition, in 2009); and established the SongHubs songwriting camps, a project that has ballooned into 90 gatherings since its launch back in 2013.

Also saluted today, Jan. 26, is the late Chris “CM” Murphy, INXS’ long-time manager and creative mastermind, who is posthumously awarded the OAM.

Murphy, who died in January 2021 following a battle with cancer, managed the new wave legends from 1979 until 1995 and again in the 2000s.

With Murphy at the helm, INXS achieved a near-impossible task by returning to the spotlight and the top of the charts, many years after the band had called time on touring.

Need proof? The group’s career retrospective The Very Best was the top-selling album in Australia last year by a homegrown act, according to ARIA, more than a decade after INXS’ last performance.

Also feted in the Australia Day honours is Dennis Burgess, chairman of the Australian Songwriters Association and patron of the Association of Artist Managers, who earns an OAM “for service to the performing arts, and to the music industry”; John Foreman OAM, the musical director, event director, pianist and composer, who now receives an AM; and Max Lambert, the composer and musical director for the 2000 Sydney Olympics, and ARIA Award winner for The Boy From Oz (2000) and Playschool (1998). Lambert receives an AM.

Petriella, Murphy, Burgess, Foreman and Lambert are among the 1,042 Australians recognised this year “for distinguished and conspicuous service.”

Read the full Australia Day 2024 Honours List here.