Esther Oh, a Perth entrepreneur who invented smart glasses that let specialists see through the eyes of health workers hundreds of kilometres away, has been named the 2027 Australian of the Year for Western Australia.
Ms Oh received the award at a ceremony at Government House on Friday night, 30 October 2026. Three other West Australians were also honoured: Lifeline WA volunteer Tina Baldwin, clinical psychologist Phoebe Ho and Indigenous basketball leader Adam Desmond. All four will represent WA at the national awards in Canberra on 25 January 2027.
Glasses that bring the specialist to the bush
Ms Oh founded the telehealth company Agili8 in 2020. Its headsets are worn by a nurse, paramedic or other frontline worker with the patient. A specialist somewhere else sees what the worker sees, and can draw on, zoom into and highlight that view in real time.
The technology has been used in remote Aboriginal communities. According to her award citation, one patient was saved from a deadly infection and a possible amputation in about 15 minutes.
The idea came from her own family. Her teenage son lost his sight after he could not get specialist treatment in time during the COVID-19 lockdowns. The West Australian reports that she built the company while being treated for an aggressive cancer.
Accepting the award, Ms Oh dedicated it to the regional and remote Aboriginal communities that helped trial the technology. She also urged people facing hardship to keep going.
"Suffering produces perseverance, character, and hope to give a brighter future for many generations to come." — Esther Oh, 2027 WA Australian of the Year
The other WA winners
Senior Australian of the Year for WA: Tina Baldwin, 78. She and her husband Daniel became Lifeline WA's first volunteer crisis supporters in the mid-1980s. In more than 40 years she has answered over 33,000 calls from people in crisis, which makes her the organisation's longest-serving volunteer in the state.
Young Australian of the Year for WA: Phoebe Ho. Ms Ho is a senior clinical psychologist at the Child and Adolescent Health Service, where she treats young people with eating disorders. She had an eating disorder herself as a teenager, and her research looks at how lived experience can help patients recover.
Australia's Local Hero for WA: Adam Desmond, 47. Fifteen years ago Mr Desmond founded Binar, Perth's first Indigenous basketball association. It now also supports young people off the court with education, health, mentoring and cultural programs.
National Australia Day Council chief executive Carrie Leeson said all four recipients were making a tangible difference in people's lives and even saving lives.
A strong field
Sixteen people were nominated across the four categories. The other nominees for the main award included Dr Emily Zhen, whose company Materia Health has built a portable, reusable device for transporting donor organs, and Malgana man Professor Michael Wear, who combines Indigenous knowledge with science to restore marine habitat at the Shark Bay World Heritage Area.
Federal Member for Perth Patrick Gorman congratulated Ms Oh on X on Friday night.
What happens next
The WA winners join the winners from every other state and territory as finalists for the national awards. The 2027 Australian of the Year, Senior Australian of the Year, Young Australian of the Year and Local Hero will be announced in Canberra on 25 January, the night before Australia Day.
WA has had national winners before. A Perth inventor whose work is already saving limbs in remote communities would be a strong contender, and she would be the state's first winner of the main award since Dr Fiona Wood in 2005.
Sources: ABC News; The West Australian.
Photo: Government House, Perth, where the awards were presented. Betterkeks via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0). File photo.
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