Orchid man Alan Stephenson describes receiving the Order of Australia Medal

NSW Governor Margaret Beazley presented Mr Stephernson with his OAM for service to horticulture.

"Not bad for a high school drop out and former factory worker," said a thrilled Mr Stephenson, who was one of 42 award recipients on the day, including Olympic great Ian Thorpe.

Watched by his wife Michele and daughter Kim, Mr Stephenson said the feeling of actually receiving his award was 10 fold to that he had when first notified of the original honour.

"It was just incredible," he said.

"Such an honour. It really is difficult to describe."

Mr Stephenson grew up in Wonthaggi, Victoria, a seaside town located 132 kilometres south east of Melbourne in what he describes as "a big backyard" stretching from Phillip Island to Wilsons Promontory.

"We were into surfing and we used to surf everywhere we could, we just loved it," he said.

The son of a coal miner, he left school at 15 and got a job at a clothing factory, where he worked for eight years before making the move to the Pelaco shirt company in Melbourne.

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He soon gained a transfer to a new operation the company was starting up in the Shoalhaven.

"Down home was pretty flat country, coal mines which are all gone now, beef and dairying, no gorges, mountains, rain forests or rivers like I encountered when I came to the Shoalhaven," he said.

"The first time I came over the top of Cambewarra Mountain I just thought 'Wow'."

When Pelaco at Bomaderry shut down its operation, he got a job at the Shoalhaven Paper Mill, working his way up from a "spare man" to machine assistant before eventually a machine operator on the number one and two paper making machines.

"I started with a temporary job one Christmas and ended up being the 35 years," he said.

There he met watchman Bob Barton, who was a member of the local orchid society and urged Alan to join.

A love of photography combined with a fascination for orchids and in particular native orchids led him to spending countless hours out in the bush, finding and documenting the fragile plants.

"There are 146 orchids species in the Shoalhaven," he said "and 14 of them are listed as vulnerable or endangered.

"I just love the many different shapes and sizes. The colours. They grow on rocks, on trees or in the ground."

His passion and expertise have grown to where he is now one of the leading orchid authorities in the state, if not the country.

He has discovered a number of varieties of orchids and such has been his influence in the field, that an orchid, a small colourful plant, has been named after him, corunastylis stephensonii.

"That was a complete surprise and a great honour," he said.

After 25 years he put his mind to publishing a book but took a few more years for Orchids Species of the Shoalhaven to become a reality.

"I never really planned on doing a book," he laughed.

"I had all this info, photos etc and it wasn't until after I retired and I snapped an Achilles tendon that left me pretty much confined to home and bored that I got down to work and wrote the book."

Mr Stephenson has often come in for criticism, with his passion, knowledge and discoveries being seen to impede some developments in the local area.

"I don't go out of my way to find the orchids," he said.

"Due to my expertise, I am asked. For me, it's not so much about the destruction of the orchid but its habitat, which includes certain insects which are vital to orchids' survival.

"I've just done what I have over 30 years to help educate others in the protection of this fascinating component of Australian flora.

"They are a fascinating plant. Climatic conditions have to be right for them to appear. If we don't get enough rain at the right time they will often not flower.

"And for most, flowering is only a very short time, from a couple of weeks to a month at best, so it is a matter of everything aligning and knowing when they will flower as to when to go looking for them.

"They can also be location specific, meaning they can only be found in one specific area and will not survive if transplanted to another location.

"Orchids are 92 million years old - the oldest group of flowering plants in the world. Fossilised records tell us that.

"There are some areas locally I've been monitoring for 20-30 years."

Over the years he has gained a number of other honours.

He was presented with the Australian Orchid Foundation, Award of Honour, in 2015 and made a Fellow of the Australian Orchid Council in 2014.

He has been a member of the Shoalhaven Orchid Society since 1985, where he is a life member, and was author of 50th Anniversary of the Society.

He has been a member of the Illawarra Australasian Native Orchid Society since 1989, is a former president and current conservation officer.

He has been the national conservation officer of the Australian Native Orchid Society for 15 years and former president and conservation director with the Australian Orchid Council.