A FRANKSTON South minister with nearly 60 years of experience has been awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia. Reverend Dr Robert Johnson was named in the King’s Birthday honours list this week. He has been recognised for service to education, and to the Uniting Church in Australia.
Dr Johnson has worked with Ormond College at The University of Melbourne, the Synod of Victoria and Tasmania with Uniting Church in Australia, and was the chairman of Cornish College between 2012 and 2020. He was a minister between 1969 and 2016.
Dr Johnson said his experience working with the needy and vulnerable was particularly rewarding.
“It’s been a great privilege to be minister to so many great people over the years, so many good people. It’s been a great privilege to be invited into deep parts of people’s lives,” he said. “A great privilege to have in Frankston was our outreach through our barbeque held every Wednesday and our breakfast club every morning. People are struggling, and we can help.”
In addition to the High Street Uniting Church in Frankston, Dr Johnson has also preached at churches in Mount Martha and Chelsea. He was also deeply involved with the establishment of Cornish College in 2012. “St Leonard’s wanted to close the campus and I became chair to set up a new school called Cornish College,” he said. “At Cornish College I was a founding chair for ten years – it’s been great to be able to work with people there to save the school from being closed, and it’s now a thriving school.”
First published in the Frankston Times – 10 June 2025