We always wanted to come back to the country always wanted to live in and
work and have our family in the country.
My first two years in Emerald as the as the sole doctor at the hospital even though I
was incredibly busy, I could do aenesthetics, I could do surgery, I could
do emergency, I could do general practice, I do everything and I thought
why would I want to be anywhere else.
When I came here in 2017 that was my first time here after a couple of months
my wife arrived to Australia for the first time and that was a big culture
shock for her because she was coming from a big family and I was a bit scared
whether she will be stay here are if she would feel homesick. The community is very
supportive that's probably one thing that's very different to living in a
metropolitan area that most of the people know you. I was always
interested in doing rural medicine I was on the rural generalist program. I did my
obstetrics advanced skill and once I completed that I looked for jobs that were
around and Biloela seemed like an interesting place for an adventure.
These doctors have a fantastic opportunity in Emerald there's plenty of work in an
environment which is not uncomfortable we've got some great facilities in
Emerald. But it's one of these hub towns which offers opportunities to practice
clinical medicine in occupational medicine, they're really interested in
paediatrics you can do paediatrics because there's plenty of kids.
Every day is interesting you know patients more closely as compared to in a
metropolitan area. I really like working at the hospital and being able to see
patients in a more acute setting whether it's coming in on call overnight and then
being able to see them again in a couple of weeks time and the GP practice to
follow up. It's nice to have that real continuity of care and
I've really liked having the patient base to come back to me and you know
say, "oh you're my doctor now" and that's been really nice. You get to I guess see
people who live on the land and obviously the issues of drought at the
moment are always important for people understand but you also see the coal
mining and other heavy industry as well so you're dealing with mine workers.
So the case mix of people you see is quite broad. We found Biloela quite a
great place to have a young family in. There's a few really nice parks in the
area so we take the kids down there for a bit of a scoot or a bike ride.
There's a couple of good bakeries in town we often frequent the bakery for a
coffee and a and a naughty treat. You can actually see
our dam from space it's one of the largest dams in the southern
hemisphere but also it's a great place to go and water-ski and one of our
clinicians also has a jet ski and she goes out and puts crab pots in every weekend
so there's so many things to do.
Rockhampton and Gladstone aren't really that far away either as bigger
centres to go over and do a bit more shopping or you know go to the movies or go
to the islands and those kinds of things.
Every time I walk through the door the kelp has got the ball in his mouth I'm
ready to go so and you know I love the quiet time. Like every day is full of
stories, patient or diagnosed they especially came back with the thanks, I
think that's one of the beautiful moments in our career. Memorable cases where you see
them at the hospital or you're there for their birth and then you go back and see
them again in GP land and just managing those situations have been really nice.
The kids got a great opportunity in living in a country town,
we've never regretted staying here and we will be here forever I think.