For the past three decades the fourth-generation hotelier has been at the forefront of shaping the Hunter wine and tourism industry and promoting it to an international market. 

Now, for his service to tourism and the community of the Hunter Valley, Mr. Helé  has been recognised with an Order Of Australia Medal – something he said he is “pretty chuffed about”. 

“I must admit I was really taken aback and of course honoured and incredibly humbled,” he said.

“I was just over the moon. 

“It is just something that is really exciting and frankly, really cool.”

Known affectionately throughout the overseas markets as ‘Mr. Hunter Valley’,  Mr. Helé has been the owner and general manager of the Hunter Valley Resort since 1990. 

In that time he has played a pivotal role in shaping the region and was instrumental in creating the Hunter Valley Wine Country brand as it is known today.

He was also responsible for establishing the Hunter Regional Tourism Organisation (now Tourism Hunter) in 1994 and as chairman he would go on to lead the organisation in placing 700 youth and long-term unemployed people into tourism businesses across the Hunter region.  

But despite a very long list of contributions to the region, Mr. Helé admitted that earning and OAM was never on the agenda. 

“A lot of people don’t realise just how much work goes on by volunteers,” he said.

“You don’t do this sort of thing because you want to get an OAM, you do it to make a difference.

“I am very passionate about the Hunter Valley and it is a very different place to when I first came here some 25 years ago.

“There is just so much that has happened.”

Growing up Toronto with hospitality in his blood, Mr. Helé said that Cessnock was still very much a mining town when he first came on the scene. 

His joy would come from taking the area’s growing assets to the then unexplored frontiers of the US and European markets and trying to promote everything that the expanding Hunter industry had to offer. 

From 1992 to 2007 Mr. Helé served as the deputy chairman of Hunter Valley Wine Country Tourism.

He co-founded the Bluetongue Brewery in 2003, served as a board member for Regional NSW Flagship Events (2007) and Tourism Hunter (2007-2011), and was chairman of the Regional Conference Group in 2008 and chairman of the Regional NSW Advisory Group, Visitor Economy Taskforce from 2011-2012.

Today, he continues his commitment to further strengthening the local tourism industry and said that the future for the Hunter is looking brighter than ever. 

“I never thought we would have come as far as we have,” he said.

“We are Sydney’s playground with the best wine.

‘The Hunter is very fortunate and I reckon it will go even further.

“We haven’t seen anything yet.”