As rebuilding continues more than three years on from the central west floods, the man helping guide local recovery has been recognised in the King's Birthday honours list.

NSW Reconstruction Authority regional director Ken Harrison has been awarded the Public Service Medal, acknowledging more than 30 years of service to the people of New South Wales - including his work following the 2022 floods.

While honoured by the recognition, Mr Harrison acknowledges the job here is far from finished.

Mr Harrison has been a familiar figure across Forbes, Eugowra and surrounding communities since late 2022, and while his team has worked across 22 declared natural disasters in the region since then, these floods remain the largest of their responses.

The NSW Reconstruction Authority steps in as frontline emergency services such as the SES and RFS begin to scale back, focusing on long-term recovery and rebuilding.

It's vital this is grounded in community input, Mr Harrison said.

"It'd be easy for us to come in and say we know how to fix this but that's not what we do," he said.

"We strive to - at the very least - come in and say what's the community want to see out of this, where are their pain points and how can we facilitate them?

"We do a lot of ground-truthing of what the impacts are and then put those forward as issues that need to be addressed."

The award recognises Mr Harrison's strategic and operational leadership for a complex recovery effort involving the reconstruction of essential public assets, delivery of relief measures and close liaison with flood affected communities.

This continued to assessing impacts and planning longer-term resilience measures, leading to the establishment of the Central West Recovery and Resilience Package, including a Community Assets Program to support councils in restoring and improving flood-damaged infrastructure.

The award citation praised Mr Harrison's leadership and lasting impact on regional communities.

“His calm, transparent and community-centred approach fostered trust and ensured continuity of essential services in a time of significant trauma,” it said.

It also recognised his role in strengthening collaboration and preparedness, helping deliver improved housing security, restored infrastructure and greater resilience against future disasters.

Relationships with communities, councils, faith-based and other non-government organisations, as well as Legal Aid, are all essential to recovery, Mr Harrison said.

“We coordinate recovery, we don't do everything ourselves,” he said.

Mr Harrison was quick to credit his team, describing the work as both challenging and deeply rewarding.

He also credited the councils and the communities of the central west.

"It is a challenge but a rewarding team to be part of," he said.

"Quite often you're trying to help people on the worst days of their lives."

“I'm only one part of a much bigger team,” he added.

“We are trying to get the best outcome we can for the central west and there's a whole team working on that.”

Mr Harrison’s career began in the agricultural sector, working in emergency response related to animals and agriculture, before joining Resilience NSW - now the NSW Reconstruction Authority - during its formation.

His early work in that role included COVID-19 response, particularly in food distribution and community welfare.