Sydney heroes

For 42 years Carole Ann King has been an outspoken Sydneysider with a heart the size of the harbour. A resident of Woolloomooloo, King is deeply connected to her local hood where she keeps a watchful eye on the area's many homeless people, chatting to them of an evening, bringing them hot drinks and last Christmas helping contruct a Christmas tree out of milk crates. "What I find unique about Sydney," says King, "is that it can play host to a suburb of incredible extremes such as Woolloomooloo, where you can find million-dollar yachts and homes only metres away from the most densely populated poverty and homelessness in the city." In 1993, King launched the charity the Luncheon Club and spent 15 years feeding the bellies, hearts and souls of people living with HIV/AIDS. Her empathy for others has earned her friends in high places who share her passion, such as the Governor of NSW, Marie Bashir, and Elton John himself, who personally thanked King for her work backstage before his 2008 Sydney concert. King has plenty to say about the city she calls home. "I love Sydney's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultural history and our drive as a city to embrace multiculturalism," she says. "You can see this through stories found in the vibrant graffiti and street art dotted throughout the city. I'm very passionate about that kind of expression in our city's public spaces and it upsets me to see tagging or the defacing of property mistakenly labeled as graffiti art." And what would she change about Sydney if she was at the helm? "I'd legalise illicit drugs by prescription to alleviate crime and violence and I'd double the price of alcohol and plough the profits back into mental heath programmes."

Five more Sydney heroes

Long-time Watsons Bay resident Don Ritchie, 84, has talked more than 160 would-be suicides down from the Gap and was awarded the Australian of the Year Local Hero award in January.

Rose Bay police officers Brad Rodwell and Christian Fleming rescued five family members from a burning house in the early hours of 18 February this year, following a plume of smoke to the Vaucluse house and knocking down the front door.

James Harrison, 74, is the Australian record holder for the most blood donated in his life. He has made nearly 1,000 donations.

NSW Young Australian of the Year 2011, Tara Winkler from Vaucluse, 25, opened and runs an orphanage in Cambodia.

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