More than 2,700 Indigenous girls around the country receive mentorship and support to help get them through high school and beyond from former Perth Wildcats captain Ricky Grace's Girls Academy.

Key points: Ricky Grace, Luc Longley, Nicola Forrest among West Australians honoured

Ricky Grace, Luc Longley, Nicola Forrest among West Australians honoured Nationwide, recipients include Hugh Jackman, Kevin Rudd and Ita Buttrose

Nationwide, recipients include Hugh Jackman, Kevin Rudd and Ita Buttrose The honours have been presented to mark the Queen's birthday today

He is one of several West Australians recognised in this year's Queen's Birthday Honours List.

Former Chicago Bulls and Boomers basketball player Luc Longley, Minderoo Foundation co-founder Nicola Forrest, former football star and sports administrator Ron Alexander, community worker Reverend Sealin Garlett, former state education minister Liz Constable, Buddhist monk Ajahn Bhikkhu Brahmavamso and Surfrider Foundation founder Brad Farmer are among the others.

Building self-worth for girls

Grace has been appointed a Member of the Order of Australia for significant service to the state's Indigenous community through his academy, which he created after retiring from professional sport.

The academy works with parents, teachers and community members to help girls at 50 different schools around Australia.

"We're supporting them in building their resilience, in building their self-esteem, in building their self-worth, in building their self-belief in themselves because once you give these girls that support they thrive," Grace said.

"And I look forward to one day one of the girls having my job."

From mining to philanthropy

Nicola Forrest has also been acknowledged partly for her work with children and the promotion of early childhood development.

She has been made an Officer of the Order of Australia for her philanthropy in education, the arts, business and the community.

Nicola Forrest has been recognised for her philanthropy in education, the arts, business and the community. ( Supplied: Minderoo Foundation )

Ms Forrest, who runs the Minderoo Foundation with her husband and Fortescue Metals Group founder Andrew Forrest, said the Telethon Kids Institute, where she sits on an advisory council, helped children lagging in their development.

"It's about bringing research together with practitioners and really transforming the lives of families in communities," she said.

"It's grassroots approach and it's helping government perhaps reallocate resources so they're more wisely spent, where it gives a voice and empowers communities to say … where they feel the need is greatest."

Monk expelled over female ordination

Ajahn Bhikkhu Brahmavamso is being honoured for helping empower women in his faith, including the ordination of the first Buddhist nuns — known as Bhikkhunis — in Australia in 2009.

Ajahn Bhikkhu Brahmavamso helped four women become Bhikkhunis. ( Supplied: Buddhist Society of Western Australia )

He has been appointed a Member of the Order of Australia for services to Buddhism and gender equality.

"There'd been lots of discussion, lots of talk. No action," he said. "And so it came a time, when I decided something has to be done," he said.

"There were four very fine Australian women who wanted to become Bhikkhunis and so I did the ordination for them."

As a result, he was expelled from Thai Forest Tradition of Buddhism to which he had belonged.

He said it was a sacrifice he was willing to make.

Following in the footsteps of Edith Cowan

Liz Constable was the first woman to serve more than 20 years in the Parliament of Western Australia.

An Independent MP, she was also the education minister in the Barnett government for four years.

She has been made a Member of the Order of Australia for significant service to the people, the parliament and to education.

Liz Constable was the first woman to serve more than 20 years in the WA Parliament.

Dr Constable cited the establishment of independent public schools and resolving a pay dispute with state school teachers among her achievements.

She said she was proud to follow in the footsteps of the first woman elected to parliament — Edith Cowan.

"She expected lots of women to follow her. When I was elected 70 years later in 1991, I was only the 23rd," she said.

Scaling the heights of the NBA

Luc Longley was the first Australian to be accepted into the National Basketball Association in the United States and famously played alongside the likes of Michael Jordan for the Chicago Bulls, winning three NBA championships.

For services to basketball as a player, coach and administrator, he is being made a Member of the Order of Australia.

Luc Longley was the first Australian to be accepted into the US National Basketball Association.

Longley played for the Australian national side, competed in three Olympics and is now an assistant coach with the Boomers, preparing the team for the Tokyo Olympics.

"I'd really like to put a medal in the cabinet. Although they don't give coaches medals. I'll draw one," he said.

Getting the best out of people

Ron Alexander also knows how to encourage people and get the best out of them.

He played Australian rules football for East Perth, East Fremantle and Fitzroy football clubs, and was the inaugural coach of the West Coast Eagles.

He has been made a Member of the Order of Australia for significant service to sport and recreation, and to public administration, serving as the director general of the Department of Sport and Recreation for 18 years.

Ron Alexander says it's far more productive to encourage people than it is to yell and critcise. ( ABC News: Glyn Jones )

"When you encourage people, it's a far more rewarding and energetic or positive workplace or sporting team than when people are yelling and screaming at each other," he said.

"[Also] understanding that if you're CEO or a coach or a teacher, you're actually looking after people."

From surfing to conserving

A passion for beach conservation and surfing saw Bradley Farmer made a Member of the Order of Australia.

A founder of Australia's Surfrider Foundation said he had visited most of the country's 11,761 beaches.

Bradley Farmer is one of the founders of the Surfrider Foundation. ( ABC News: Cecile O'Connor )

"I think at age 12, I started my first petition against the destruction of mangroves and that led to a lifelong passion for communities, coast and surfing," said Mr Farmer, who lives at the tiny beach settlement of Horrocks, about 500 kilometres north of Perth.