Conder-resident David Savage travelled to Mozambique, East Timor and Sri Lanka to assist local residents affected by conflict before his work was cut short in 2012 by a 12-year-old suicide bomber in Afghanistan.

Two years later, he has had to teach himself to walk and write again and now works as a wounded ambassador with the organisation Soldier On.

"My injuries were pretty bad, I died twice and was resuscitated," he said. "I had 60 ball bearings go through me, every part of me except my right arm was injured. I've still got a ball bearing in my spine, just 1 millimetre off my spinal cord."

Mr Savage, who was awarded an Order of Australia medal this year for his role in development aid and peacekeeping overseas, said he was honoured to be nominated for Australian of the Year.

Before being injured, Mr Savage had worked in some of the world's most horrific war zones, helping civilians whose lives had been turned upside down.

He said it was when he was working as an Australian Federal Police officer in Mozambique in 1994 that he decided to help people in need worldwide.

"Living in the community where I was and just seeing the devastating effect that war and human rights abuses have on civilians, just the normal people who are caught in between, had a massive effect on me," he said.

"From that time on it took my heart, I guess."

Mr Savage said he believed his most important work had been in East Timor following the independence vote from Indonesia and, later on, in Sri Lanka during the civil war.

While working with the United Nations in Sri Lanka, he helped Tamils and Tamil sympathisers, including journalists, who were at risk of government retribution seek asylum overseas.

"I still keep in touch with people from East Timor as well as the Sri Lankans that we assisted, so that's been incredibly rewarding," he said.

Since being injured in the suicide bombing in Afghanistan, Mr Savage has worked with Soldier On, a group that provides support and help to Australian military personnel who have been physically or mentally injured in a war zone.

He said he felt he owed it to them after their support following his injury.

"Even though I wasn't a soldier, they were willing to provide support to me and my family because I was injured in a war zone," he said.

"And when I was wounded I was incredibly grateful because Australian soldiers came out of the base at great risk to their own lives to come and rescue me."

Despite the things Mr Savage has seen across the world, he has not lost his sense of positivity or his desire to look for the best in people.

"You have to look for the good in humanity, it's too easy to find the bad. Whether it's East Timor, or Burma, or Sri Lanka, or Cambodia, or Afghanistan, I've worked with some incredibly brave and amazing people that really make your contribution seem pretty insignificant," he said.

"As a foreigner, you can always leave. These people, it's their life."

Nominations for the 2015 Australian of the Year Awards close on August 1.