Mrs Charlamow, who was born in Poland to Russian parents, spent five years in detention camps in Austria and Italy during World War II and went hungry for days at a time.

Her family moved to Australia in 1950 as displaced people and she remains grateful for everything Australia has offered her.

As a show of gratitude, Mrs Charlamow has volunteered the past 34 years within the Russian community as a way of giving back to society.

She has been awarded the Order of Australia Medal in the Queen's Birthday honours list, for services to the Russian community.

"I don't remember the war as such but I do remember all the camps we were in. I remember not having enough to eat."

She was nine when she came to Australia.

"I don't know whether as children it affects you in the way that it would adults, but it certainly made me glad to be here.

"I'm eternally grateful to my parents for being able to bring us here and they're the ones, as all parents, who did suffer more than children."

An Ardeer resident for 46 years, Mrs Charlamow started volunteering when her two children joined a Russian school. "When we came to Australia there was nothing here available for people from overseas.

"Your church was a place where you belonged and people were of the same nationality and in the same situation as you were.

"We did have a bit of mixed identity at the beginning, but I'm certainly an Australian now and have been for a long time.

"But at the beginning the language and the cultural barrier was the big thing."

Mrs Charlamow has helped establish Russian senior citizen clubs across Melbourne.

In 2001, she received an International Year of Volunteers Award and in 2003 and 2006 won awards for excellence from Multicultural Affairs Victoria.

Mrs Charlamow is the public officer for the Russian Ethnic Representative Council of Victoria and has been a representative on the Ethnic Communites Council of Victoria. She thanked her husband Victor for supporting her.

Mrs Charlamow's advice to new migrants?

"They have a lot of advantages that did not exist 60-plus years ago, so I suggest they all learn the language first.

"It is also important to mix with other nationalities and cultures, and...you will find that people of any nationality are wonderful."