Irwin joined Lorraine Martin, Sir Arthur Petfield, Morgans Financial, Bundaberg Brewed Drinks and Sullivan Nicolaides as its new entrants.

The Business Hall of Fame has now recognised more than 80 businesses and identities.

Irwin was recognised for “her outstanding business leadership and for internationally recognised contributions to wildlife and habitat conservation and to Australian tourism”.

Her award follows a similar one granted posthumously to her late husband Steve Irwin in 2009.

“Following the tragic death of Steve in 2006 during the filming of documentary The Ocean’s Deadliest when he was fatally injured by a stingray barb, Dr Irwin kept the zoo on course, steering the business through the global financial crisis in 2009, floods in 2011, battles to prevent the Steve Irwin Wildlife Reserve on Cape York Peninsula from being mined, and the Covid pandemic,” QUT said.

“She now planned to expand conservation projects and, looking towards 2032, she has goals of accommodating pre- and post-Olympic travel. Dr Irwin, 59, said she was in a “sweet spot’’ in her life, between “really knowing stuff and drooling in my soup’’.

QUT said Lorraine Martin was recognised for her”groundbreaking visionary contributions of national significance to private education businesses and for enduring and significant community services”.

“I’m very proud of the legacy that I’ve left,’’ she said.

“I think I was a pioneer. I look back now in retirement at what I’ve done, and I am incredulous. I don’t know how on Earth I did it. It’s like someone running a marathon – you don’t think when you are doing it, ‘What am I doing?’, it’s later you think, ‘How the heck did I do that?’

Sulivan Nicolaides, which was started in 1956, was now one of Australia’s largest medical testing laboratories. It now operates 500 collection centres and employs 3500 people.

Bundaberg Brewed Drinks, run by the Fleming family, produces 700,000 bottles a day and was sold in 61 countries.

In 2022, financial comparison website Canstar rated them Australia’s number one soft drink in the Canstar Blue Most Satisfied Customer Awards (voted by consumers).

Chief executive John McLean said the company contributed $30 million in direct wages a year, working with local farmers to source as much local, homegrown produce as possible including, ginger, lemons, mangoes and blood orange.

“Our brand recognition is just amazing. One in four households buy us, but 92 per cent of Australians know our brand,’’ he said.

Sir Arthur Petfield has been posthumously recognised for his role in taking a local Brisbane can manufacturer to one of the nation’s largest packaging companies.

Rising to the head of Queensland Can Company Limited and later United Packages Limited, Sir Arthur, who died in 1974, rose through the ranks in roles of accountant, company secretary, general manager, managing director and chairman.

Morgans Financial was recognised for its substantial contributions to the national and international financial services sector and its significant contributions to the community.

The company began as a stockbroking firm with a small office in Brisbane’s Piccadilly Arcade in October 1982 by founding member Paul Morgan.

The company is now Australia’s largest national stockbroking and wealth management network, covering all aspects of financial advice, with more than 240,000 client accounts, managing about $50 billion in client holdings. It has 59 offices nationally and one in Hong Kong, and 950 employees in all states and territories.