Decades of work within the veterinary world though, including three years as Inspector-General of Biosecurity for the Australian Government, has led her to receiving a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) medal in the 2021 Queen's birthday honour list.

Mrs Scott-Orr received her award for significant service to public administration, to biosecurity, and to veterinary science.

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For the majority of her working life Mrs Scott-Orr has worked for the NSW Government's departments of agriculture / primary industries and was awarded a Public Service Medal in 2010.

She said that she was honoured to have received her second official award.

"It's a real honour to receive one because you have no idea that someone has nominated you up until you receive notification asking you if you were offered an award, would you accept it," she said.

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That moment occurred just over a month ago and it was only a week ago that she was informed that she had received the AM.

"When I received the PSM in 2010 I never thought that I'd get another one," she said. "So this is a great shock to the system."

"I've been a referee for many other people over the years, very worthy people who work incredibly hard so you never quite know why you received the medal opposed to someone else."

With a long career in veterinary science that commenced in a small veterinary clinic in Gosford in 1971, Mrs Scott-Orr cites working with colleagues towards the eradication of tuberculosis and brucellosis between 1984-1989 as being one of the most satisfying.

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"I think that all my time working within NSW agriculture as the Chief Veterinary Officer lets you see how the country is working towards those outcomes and it's really fantastic to work with those very clever people to become more environmentally friendly and profitable at the same time," she said.

Biosecurity is an incredibly important part of keeping Australia's farming sector and natural environment safe, and three years as the Inspector-General of Biosecurity opened her eyes to an entire new world.

"Seeing the difficulty and the complexity of that job and the numbers of people in Canberra and elsewhere who fight the good fight against these pests and diseases, and sometimes corrupt importers, so it was a different system where we're looking at a lot of international trade," she said.

Along with a group of other former chief veterinary officers Mrs Scott-Orr is now a part of Vets for Climate Action agitating for more action on climate change.