SENIOR LECTURER ,COMMUNITY HEALTH AND GENERAL PRACTICE .
It was great being back in Hobart again, after three years, with a wife and four kids in tow.
There were significant changes occurring in Medical schools throughout Australia at this time..1976.
New departments were developing, which recognised, that there should be far more emphasis on students understanding that they would, in the future, be looking after real people living in real Communities with real needs.
Previously, Departments who, for decades, had concentrated , in the first couple years of Medical School teaching Anatomy, Physiology, Histology and Pharmacology, would need to modify the time and effort spent on these “core subjects” and fit them into more appropriate timelines.
The focus would now allow Medical students to meet, and chat with people, from their very first Term at Medical school, whether they met Pregnant Mums, mothers with little children, teenagers, newly weds,the employed or unemployed, middle aged folk,the elderly , the aged, the disabled etc.
In other words a ”cradle to the grave” understanding of peoples’ needs.
At the same time, students, in their first and second years, would be taught the essentials of the Behavioural Sciences, as they related to the Communication skills needed to, successfully and confidently, engage with people and their families.
NEW IDEAS AGGRAVATE ACADEMICS WHO ARE ENTRENCHED IN THE OLD WAYS, AND RESENT CHANGE…IT WAS ALWAYS SO, AND IS SO NOW,IN 2021, AND PROBABLY FOR EVERMORE WILL BE.
My new Senior Lectureship entailed assisting the development of the learning and teaching enterprise within the newly created Department.
Together, with my Professor and Lecturer, we had to telescope two Medical Student syllabuses, an existing one of six years and the new one of five years so that they , in some way , ran in parallel and finished together , as scheduled
This was no easy task especially with old and new ankle biters arriving on the scene for a bit of the action and a bite of my ankles.
The Professorial appointment was widely criticised, by members of the College of General Practice,other GP’s, who were not members, and amongst, various “Town versus Gown” Specialists .
I had got on well, with everyone,during my previous three years in Hobart, teaching 5th and 6th year Medical students, but I had had very little to do with the College, its’ relationship with the University and its’ political ramifications.
There had been the 1975 dismissal of Labour Prime Minister Gough Whitlam, who had had fairly radical Socialist views about the delivery of Medical Services in Australia. I guess therefore that many GP’s were confused and a bit on edge as to which way their practices would be affected, even though Fraser, a Liberal, won the election after Whitlam’s dismissal.
Unknown to me, two of the Tas Faculty heavy weight GP,s, had applied for, and been unsuccessful in their applications, for the Chair of our Dept.
Five of the well qualified Senior College GP,s, had apparently, then applied for the Senior Lectureship position.
One of the spokesmen, a pugnacious little man of Celtic origin , took me to task in the most unpleasant, bullying way when we were all having lunch in the Royal Hobart dining room one Friday, after a lunchtime ”Update meeting.”
He had a reputation for being an unpleasant critter,though he was an excellent GP I’m told. Today I was the recipient of his ire and bile.
I was advised, by him , in no uncertain terms,that , I was a ” Pommy Bastard,” and that “I had no right to come here taking over jobs that rightly belonged to Tasmanian doctors who were better qualified,more acceptable and more suitable than me.
Fortunately, he made a complete ass-hole of himself , and, even though he had succeeded in embarrassing me, I excused myself , with dignity, and retired to the solitude of my rooms.
Not content with the lunchtime fracas, I was approached , on another day, by another College Member, whom I knew.
He explained that there was a problem with some of the applicants about my qualifications.This was a thin end of the wedge job. I had exemplary qualifications, way above any other applicant, but, I was also told, that I should also have had the Australian College Fellowship before applying.
This was , of course Political b…s…t, designed to stir the possum.
The FRACGP had only been in operation since October 1974 and even it’s format and requirements had had to be been changed since it’s first run.
I went to bed that night, shattered.
In the morning I contacted the Tasmanian Faculty of the RACGP , joined the College, and paid my Annual subscription.
I then immediately applied to take the College Fellowship Exam (some six weeks later).It was being held in Hobart and I took it.
Fortunately, I had taken a number of exams, during my last six months in the UK, and, unknown to my other Colleagues, was well prepared.
The 300 multiple choice question paper seemed fair and reasonable and I had no problems with it. The practical and management problems (ECG and x ray reports, Respiratory function, various blood test and Pathology reports, the Hearing and Eye tests) and all other questions, were basically right up my street.
Finally, I had to front up to the Case discussions, Management Plans and Diagnostic Problem cases.
Unknown to me, until the morning of the exam, the doctors ,who had applied for my job, were collectively my Examiners for this final part of the Fellowship exam.
I am uncertain as to who were the most embarrassed of us at this time, them or me .Luckily for me they had copies of my Exam results up to date.
As it was I stayed as cool as a cucumber and did not falter.
From that day forward I maintained excellent all round relationships, with the whole pack during next few Academic years. They realised that I was pushing hard for the Dept to move forward in the same directions as they wanted, and appreciated it.
The pugnacious Celtic doctor never apologised but was very helpful with organising the attachment and teaching of a number of Medical students at his own private practice .That’s Karma for you !
WHAT DID I TEACH? DID I PRODUCE LOTS OF RESEARCH PAPERS?
I had often been told, by Academics, that the measures of your success as an Academic, were the numbers of research articles that you submitted to appropriate Journals.
The truth is, that that seems to have been spot on.
I have always been a thinker and a doer. As far as Journals are concerned, I still read scores of them and inwardly digest them…you could say that they are my mental daily bread, but I’m careful to discard a lot of the rubbish which comes with the meal.
Sometimes some bright spark comes up with some interesting practical information, that I get gluttonous about, but in the main, it gets recycled promptly, effectively and efficiently.
I wondered, why the heck, they had expunged so much of their time, and effort, when they could really have been contributing to the University and their students’ education by engaging with them in the real Theatre of Knowledge, the Lecture theatre.
I enjoyed feeding information to students that they could, and would, use in practical ways and that would stand the test of time during their careers. The simplest of these would these would be the tried and tested ways of performing really good clinical examinations .
Even though these techniques were used, before the Scanners(CT,U/S,MRI and PET etc) were available, they have an equal relevance in 2021.
Nowadays all students are geared up with every conceivable social media device , memory sticks galore ,instant photo shoots et al. Even fax machines and photocopying are almost outdated.
The Lecture theatre is also rapidly losing any semblance of why it was built there in the first place
We have almost lost the Arts of attendance, participation, talking, listening , responding, quiet or noisy discussions and reflection techniques.
To some extent, the inability of many students to have a sound knowledge and understanding of the English language contributes to the problem. This is less likely though in Medical schools.
My teaching sessions involved instruction in Epidemiology, General Practice Occupational Health, Geriatrics, Rehabilitation, Public Health and Clinical Medicine to Undergraduates and Postgraduates.
During my Tenure I was:-
1. An Examiner for the RACGP Fellowship exam,
2. A Board Member of the Tasmanian Faculty,
3. A Chairperson of the RACGP Research Committee,
4.A Member of the Tasmanian Cancer Registry Committee,
5.A Member of the Multiple Sclerosis Council of Tasmania( 1978-81).
6. Chairman of Creek Cottage Activity Centre for Disabled Persons(1978-81
7.Examiner for the Tasmanian Nurses Registration Board (1977-81) .
ONLY 50% OF WHAT I TAUGHT WAS ACTUALLY TRUE,BUT NOBODY KNEW THAT, AND NOBODY FINDS OUT , AT LEAST FOR A WHILE.
What a Charlatan , what a liar, this alleged Academic is, by his own admission, and in print to-wit, guilty, your honour.What a Con merchant!
Take this POM back to the Tower of London and “hang draw and quarter him, Executioner “.
Just as a quick defence, my usual opening line to a new group of students should read:-
“I have to confess to you today that only 50% of what I am going to teach you , is true. The conundrum is that, neither you nor I, can be certain of which 50% it is! “
Many so called facts, that we teach our students in Medicine, even though they may have been published in yesterday’s reputable Journal, can and do, become bogus information in tomorrow’s fish and chip wrapper .
Such is the speed of knowledge discovery and turnover.
In 1960, it was fashionable, and necessary , we were told, to treat constipation and diverticulitis with a LOW fibre diet. We learnt ,some years later, that a HIGH fibre diet was essential when treating these annoying afflictions and still, in 2021, we follow these guidelines with success and gratitude from our clients.
The original idea, about HIGH fibre diets, seems to have come from a simple observation made by an English Consultant Physician who was walking and talking to local Africans along the banks of the Limpopo River, in Africa . This river serves the borders between Botswana and South Africa, then Zimbabwe and South Africa and finally flows through Mozambique and drains into the Indian Ocean. It is 1800 miles long, a lot like the Nile, only full of silt, crocodiles and Hippopotamuses.
The English Nobel Laureate, Rudyard Kipling, (1865-1936), in one of his books , “Just so Stories ,” mentions the Limpopo River in his story about “The Elephant Child” who sets off on a journey, at the instruction of a mournful Kolokolo Bird . Lots of funny things happen to the little Elephant, who has been directed to “Go to the banks of the great, grey- green, greasy banks of the Limpopo River , all set about with fever trees, and find out!”
Rudyard Kipling, made up many stories about strange animals, and their raison d’ etre, and read them to his youngest daughter, Josephine , as bed time stories . Tragically, she died ,suddenly ,at age six years , of pneumonia . in America. He was heart broken, and, as a gifted memory to her, published all of the
”Just So Stories”, in a book , three years after her death, in 1902.
The Specialist doctor, Dr Dennis Burkitt arrived, at a spot on the Limpopo river, shortly after the local population had performed their morning stool ablutions, He noticed that the amount of faeces each person passed was voluminous, compared with any human stool that he had ever seen, anywhere He also noted that the shape, of the completed stool, was similar to that of a ”Mister Whippy” type ice cream cone, with the added curly bit at the top. His initial reason for being there was nothing to do with stools. He had previously discovered that Africans in this region suffered from a higher incidence of a disease which caused Tumours of the Lymphatic system. These tumours were eventually named after him and called Burkitt’s Lymphoma….but that’s another story.
He then researched the diseases that the local inhabitants had suffered from. He found that no-one seemed to have suffered from constipation, appendicitis, diverticular disease or a few other conditions normally associated with constipation, or gut problems, in Western Countries. The good doctor fastidiously examined the locals’ eating habits and stool contents. His chance observations have changed the course, and Courses, of the Culinary art, of course! We should probably reflect and thank him for the epidemic of TV Cook Schools throughout the earth . Perhaps it is not too late to send a Facebook photo of the Limpopo River peoples poos and request comments from the worlds’ best known TV, Magazine, Newspaper, Hardback and Paper book Chefs.
I saw photos of these large My Whippy type stools in London, They looked positively pythonesque, so neat and curly too.
Somewhere amongst this ongoing Pandemic there are answers to all of these questions , but, even on a daily basis, there is an ever- changing certainty ,or uncertainty , supporting the plausibility of my 50% rule.
I live in hope that my defence of the declaration will remove the notion that I deliberately tell big fibs to students, and dismiss the prosecution case for sending me, as a “former POM” back to the Tower of London to join the long list of headless persons who were accommodated there for a while.
WE BOUGHT 15 FISHER AV. SANDY BAY, AND STAYED THERE 24 YEARS.
For a few weeks after coming back to Hobart and , settling into the Uni Senior Lectureship, we had lived in rental accommodation.
Property was not selling quickly. Interest rates were a lot higher than we had anticipated.
Harvey Thompson ,a well known businessman, and his wife, had died nearly two years ago. Their lawyers were trying to complete the settlement of their estate and had been unable to sell the home and two and a half of acres of the land on which their huge family home had been built.
Mr Thompson was a fastidious person and had built the home in 1929, using the best possible, Architects, builders, materials, and craftsmanship available in Tasmania.
The house, Carinya, was offered separately with 1/2 acre of land .The remaining land was split into about 10 building blocks which were designated individually to family members. There were no fences between the blocks, just boundary posts.
When we first saw Carinya took careful note of for the rusty ,unhung front drive gate, the cratered dirt drive, and the derelict state of the, usually, pristine gardens.
Inside the solidly built, beautifully bricked and shuttered windowed exterior, there were nearly 50 squares of almost completely unfurnished rooms . Four of five Music students were dossing down there and a number of instruments and associated sheet music littered the main room floors .A superb Blackwood and Tasmanian oak staircase had been taken away to create large separate “downstairs” and ”upstairs” Units .The kitchen had been built to accommodate the culinary needs of a rather tall person, as indicated by the height of the sinks, benches and working areas which children would need to clamber up to when they wanted to get a cup of water or to wash their hands.
In a prominent, busy, part of the kitchen, a large, original, 1926 Canadian McCleary multi -plated, electrical stove stood out like b…s on a Great Dane dog. The stove was complete, with all of its’ original bits of wire and its’ innards were Virgo intacta .
The stove would have been the pride of Hobart Town kitchens when originally installed but was now a likely Public Health hazard. We eventually donated it to the Tasmanian Museum , and, in exchange , were sent a ”Thank you for your generous donation,” signed note from an Administrator .
There was a room , which communicated, via a bolted ground -level wooden door, with the outside world. It had been function free for some years but had been designated ” The coal hole”. It was full of dusty coal, musty old wood shavings and large hairy spiders but eventually was allocated to Tara as a bedroom and bolt hole.
There were some excellent things to comment on as we roamed around the big old house.
Firstly, every floor, of every room , was wooden, skilfully tongue and grooved and mellowed through age.
Secondly, every cupboard, drawer , door ,shutter and window, opened and closed as quietly as the day they had been installed.
Thirdly, the roof was lined throughout with perfectly fitted lined -wood so as to offer warmth in the winter .
Fourthly, the original plans , in total detail, had been retained and were available , for a future purchaser to keep. These plans even indicated the sites, in various Forests in Tasmania , where all of the trees grew that had provided the wood which was used in Carinya. These sites had been indicated and requested in writing, by Harvey Thompson, to the builders.
Finally , it was alleged that Harvey’s wife, so loved “Carinya” , that her Ghost visited the house, from time to time, to check if the current owners needed any help looking after it.
Australian families , when house hunting, in 1976, seemed to like clean, tidy, uncluttered, freshly painted places with well tended gardens including meticulous lawns. Add to that a fully functional kitchen , newish appliances and other gadgets, and a big garage to hide all Dad’s tools and the rest of the rubbish that he constantly collects.
When ticking off the boxes in the list of Carinya’s 1976 offerings , we did make a big tick for the really big garage , even though the old fashioned roller doors didn’t rock and roll anymore , they simply squealed .
Yes the garage was big enough for any Dad’s complete armamentarium, plus plenty of extra space for my International quality Table Tennis table, (with four very active players, playing doubles ). Add to that a separate area to play dangerous dart games and enough room for a half size snooker table.
At this point in my truth telling, I have to admit that there were some dark clouds on the immediate horizon and even darker ones over the hills and far away.|
It was a bit like, ” Be careful what you wish for,” or, ”Try not to bite off more than you can chew.”
I’m sure you have an inkling that Anita and I had dragged hook , line and sinker by the haunting Carinya from the moment we saw her. Hopelessly , shamelessly and eternally wedded to the desire to buy her and restore her to some of her former glory.
The pity was that we didn’t have any money, at all, at that time. The sale of our house in Exmouth Devon, had fallen through and had been re- advertised at the end of the English winter. It was only when the snowdrops, daffodils and bluebells had poked their heads up, through the icy soil ,that someone must have realised that it was Ground hog day and slipped in a low offer . We accepted and awaited payment in 90 days, but that was a long way down the financial track( or was it trap?) that we were looking towards when talking to the Executors of Harvey Thompson’s estate.
We met with Harvey’s five daughters, all of whom were middle -aged. They were all delightful people, and delighted with our persistent interest. We agreed on a fair price subject to finance .
The first hurdle came by complete surprise. Peter, a dyed in the wool Tasmanian, whose family had befriended us, when we were in Hobart in 1968, simply offered, out of the blue, to provide me with the $4000 initial deposit to the Executors….he just happened to have known them 30 or 40 years. WOW!!
Banks having always been on my list of “The stingiest of Organisations that have never helped me out.”
For the first , and the last time , a Bank (which Bank? Yes, the one in Sandy bay), took us on board for the whole Mortgage, including every Insurance and other fees and costs that you could possibly possibly be dragged into .
The English Bank managers would never have touched me with a disinfected barge pole…. Pommy Bastards !
WE MOVED INTO CARINYA …LOVED IT, AND WITHIN THREE MONTHS, ALICIA ARRIVED…..ANOTHER GIFT, FROM THE GODS , ( ANITA’S FIFTH BREAST FED BABY).HOW DID THE SENIOR LECTURESHIP AT THE MEDICAL SCHOOL PAN OUT?
Alicia arrived, on July 23rd 1976, in Calvary Hospital, when the outside temperature was 3 C in the garden and 5 C in Carinya’s dining room .I had been designated to sleep there on the floor, in a sleeping bag . The dining room doors, had been removed , to lay some carpet and the carpet layer was a few days late.
The weather mellowed, Alicia settled in well, and, during the next three years of my tenure , my Senior Lectureship, was , for the most part, very busy, innovative and had far more joys and triumphs than struggles. As a family we seemed to get involved in absolutely everything, Schools, Sports, Choirs, Travel, Fitness Clubs et al and acquired an ever burgeoning group of loyal friends ..Local, National and International and of every colour and creed.
In 2003 Dr Max Kamien wrote a valuable , informative AMJ article explaining how the Nine Chairs of Community Practice in Australia were filled between 1974 and 1976, who filled them, their background , reasons for applying and accepting, curriculum changes, successes (and otherwise), and invited any other relevant comments. The published article, “The Patience of Professors,” was a frank honest eye opener into the background of this motley mob of eight gentlemen and one lady ( or whatever we are allowed to call each other nowadays, in 2021) .Although they came from very different Academic backgrounds, their commonality was to help people and broaden the orientation of medical education beyond Hospitals and Laboratories, and into the Community, and, in particular, to those in the Community who are under-served.
Professor Norelle Lickiss was appointed Professor of Community Health, University of Tasmania Medical School. I was Senior Lecturer and Steven Lockwood, a Psychologist and Behavioural Scientist , Lecturer. We all came from very different backgrounds, melded together and built a Dept. which went from strength to strength and in keeping with the philosophies encompassing Community needs.
It enjoyed widespread Medical student support and understanding. The RACGP Tasmanian Faculty played a very positive role in providing a more progressive involvement in organising, accepting short and longer term student attachments and teaching medical students in years 1 to 5. They were thus fulfilling important roles which initially they had been concerned would be whisked away by non -clinical academics with leftish leanings.
The building of two Community Health Centres on Hobart’s Eastern Shore at Bridgewater and Rosny caused a lot of disquiet amongst Private GP’s, although the addition of allied health professionals in these Centres, encouraged other doctors to introduce them into their own Private practices and was welcomed by their patients. Change for the Community’s Health became an accepted norm.
Professor Lickiss had a brilliant brain , crammed full of ideas and an attached immediacy for introduction. Her Research projects and Publication proclivity were outstanding and she was able to support her special interests in Cancer and Leukaemia with first class research staff. She went from strength to strength as an Academic and Educator and had a profound interest and knowledge of Palliative Medicine. Amongst her many achievements she was awarded the AO in 2003 in the General Division of the Queen’s Honour’s List, and, in 2017 an Honorary degree of Doctor of Medical Sciences and Honorary Clinical Professor at The University of Sydney.
Professor Lickiss provided Max Kamien with a pearler of a quote for his 2003 AMJ article….”We are but threads in the fabric of mankind.”
It is many years since I last saw Norelle. Though we both were, and are, very committed to the Community, and those we serve, we were very “Different threads in the fabric of mankind ”. As the saying goes…..”Vive la difference.”
WHERE DID THE KIDS GO TO SCHOOL ? THERE WERE GREAT CHOICES IN HOBART FOR PRE-SCHOOL, PRIMARY, SECONDARY (PUBLIC OR PRIVATE), AND TERTIARY EDUCATION. SANDY BAY WAS WELL SERVICED.
Choice of schools is part luck, part personal and part affordability. The age, of each of the children, as of Xmas 1976, fitted in nicely with available possibilities .Philosophically, Anita and I had decided that, at least as far as Secondary schools were concerned, each school chosen should, wherever possible , suit the personality, development, aspirations and limitations of each child’s performance as well as the affordability considerations.
Being happy was the most essential ingredient.
Who went where and why:-
1. Dan went to Taroona High School, at age 12, then off to The Hutchin’s School, in the lead up to HSC and The University of Tasmania, Medical School. He was a popular, well rounded scholar, excellent at Computing (in those very early days when Taroona High school was the first Tasmanian school to offer IT in it’s syllabus), and a Trumpeter in the school band.
He had already shown Rugby Union skills well above his peers. He was welcomed in the Tasmanian Rugby scene and represented Hutchins’ School and the Old Boys, Tasmania Schoolboys at all grade levels and University Associates over many , many seasons. He was an outstanding half back .Dan did various after schools jobs to earn a crust, including a Stock Replacement Shelf Stacker at Coles Supermarkets.
Dan qualified Bachelor Med Science and MB.BS (University of Tasmania)
FRACGP FRSPH Dip Derm(Aus) CertPCSCaMedi(Qld) . Currently Dan practices mainly GP Dermatology after spending many years as a Specialist GP in Hobart .He was a Medical Adviser, and Research Fellow, to an International Pharmaceutical Company in Brussels and Basle during the early 2000’s, and published prolifically during his European posts.
2. Zoe, initially went to Taroona High, then onto The Fahan School ( a 5 minute walk from Carinya) to complete HSC .Many of her close friends went to Fahan. It suited her, to a tee, because Fahan girls ”always turned into Fahan Ladies”.They were and always are, almost cloned into a high degree of the needs of the Community and service and are universally loyal and reliable.
Zoe made significant personal contributions to Fahan School as a Tasmanian Schools Lacrosse Representative, a Musician, Choir member, Soloist and as a Social Organiser . During her two years at Fahan Zoe completed the Style Academy Modelling Course and was soon signed up for occasional TV adverts. She was a soloist in the Australian Rosny Children’s’ Choir, and, on one of their many National and International Tour Performances, sang solo in the Sydney Opera House.
Following success at the HSC , she worked in the Premier’s and Cabinet Dept and Dept of Tas Public Administration 1987-89 . She put herself through a Bachelor of Arts Degree at the University of Tasmania. She was married at Carinya in 1989 and, in 1990 settled into Frankfurt, Germany ,with her husband, who was working at Deutsche Bank .
The Berlin Wall fell, at this time, which provided an opportunity for Zoe to further her Postgraduate Studies in ”Teaching English” to German businessmen.
Freya was born in 1994 , Alice in 1996 and Elliot in 1999 after returning to Hobart.
Zoe worked part- time in Melbourne in a Private school and her husband continued working in another Deutsche Bank senior position.
They returned to Hobart and Zoe taught at the English Language Centre (University of Tasmania) and became Centre manager with a variety of Teaching and Managerial responsibilities from 1999 until 2020.
3. Tara went to Waimea Primary School as soon as we had settled into Carinya. She was very intelligent , questioning and clearly had a mind of her own .She was sporty, had spindly hockey- stick legs and could run like a hare. She won the Sandy Bay speed National Pie eating Championship (Children’s division) at age 12 , although I had never actually seen her eat a National Pie before or since .Prize money had been her raison d’etre. Tara’s next door neighbour, a red- headed guy of Italian extraction, sadly, came second. They remained friends, and, by 2021,he had been a senior ABC newsreader for several years and was one of Tara’s husband, Ben’s, best mates.
Tara won a Music and Academic scholarship to go to Friends School, Hobart where her undoubted multiple talents were recognised as being available to be channelled into ideas and ways which were tailor made and personalised. This was a significant scholarship which finished at the end of Grade 10.
She had depths of creativity of which, perhaps the rest of us, were unaware and unrecognised. Her work at the end of Grade 10 was of a very high standard.
To reduce daily travel, she left Friends and was accepted at Fahan School for a two year period to complete her HSC there.
Fortunately , but unsurprisingly, she was her own person , and was not a typical potential Fahan lady ”clone.’ ‘This must have had a significant entrapment feel about it.
Tara completed her HSC year 12 at Hobart College with outstanding results in Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Japanese.
Rotary Tasmania awarded her a One year Academic Scholarship in 1988, at Gifu Prefecture, Japan. She deferred placement at the University of Tasmania for two years, during which time she travelled extensively in Japan, Europe and Asia.
On returning to Tasmania she completed a double major in Economics and Japanese, with a sub- major in Indonesian, during the years 1991-1994.
She completed her Style Academy Modelling course and was soon in demand as a TV advertising model in Tasmania.
From 1994 -1997 she was appointed a Coordinator in International Relations between Australia and Japan, based in Yamato, Fukuoka Prefecture .
Whilst in Japan, Tara met an accomplished Senegalese African drummer, and decided to become an accomplished drummer herself. She did this by going to Africa and attending Drumming classes in Guinea, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso and Togo .
She was then mentored by world famous African drummer Mamady Keita, a master drummer from the West African nation of Guinea. She became the first Australian Professor of African Drumming to have graduated through his Academy ,and formed her own “Drum up Big” website with a live and on-line Teaching School.
She was an Associate Teacher and performer with Mamady on many of his International Teaching and Performance classes, including to China, Singapore, Bali .
Tara had always wanted to travel to , at least,30 different countries before she was age 30 years. She completed this aspiration, in spades, and added significantly more countries as time went by.
4. Tabitha was three and a half years old at the end of our first six months in Carinya. Initially she went to Sandy Bay Infants School in 1977 and then onto Waimea primary School from 1980- Dec 1984. In 1985 she won a Music scholarship to Fahan which finished at the end of Grade 10.She enjoyed her time at Fahan and played Netball and Softball , representing them in age- appropriate inter- school competitions.
She was a main Choir member of the Australian Rosny Children’s Choir during the three years prior to going to Fahan, and during her four years at Fahan, and continued to support the Choir as a main Choir and Tourist Choir
member until 1995.As a Tourist member she performed in Victoria, NSW, QLD, and Tasmania. She stayed with the Choir as an Assistant and Senior Tutor Chorister until after her 21st birthday.
Tabitha joined her sister Alicia at Collegiate school for 2 years whilst preparing for the HSC. She spent the six month period, between April and November 1992, travelling in Europe and working as a Nanny in Austria and looking after disabled kids in Germany.
She clinched a CSIRO Trainee ship, in 1994, after completing a TAFE Business Studies Course in 1993. She then worked within the Tas Public Service (in Primary Industry and Fisheries 1994 -1996).
Between 1998 and 2000, Tabitha completed her Bachelor of Nursing at The University of Tasmania, and, following General and Paediatric Nursing experience, embarked on a long term, very successful nursing career .
5. Alicia spent 2 years at Fahan pre-school, prior to attending Waimea Heights Prep, up to and including Grade 6. Then on to Taroona High for Grades 7,8 and part of 9 (1988-89).She became the fourth family daughter to be a member of The Australian Rosny Children’s Choir.
Alicia joined Tabitha at Collegiate School in April 1989.
I had just begun working in Saudi Arabia in 1989, and, fortunately , as part of my Contract, it included a $A10,000 tax free payment for EACH child’s education whilst I was under contract and they were still at school…a big bonus.
Alicia stayed at Collegiate until she finished HSC in Grade 12 ,1993.
She represented the School at Hockey, and played Grade Club Hockey and Touch Footy.
As a tribute to her overall contribution to Collegiate School , Alicia was appointed Inaugural Captain of Mitchell House ( named after Dame Roma
Mitchell, an Australian lawyer,judge and State Governor, and former Collegiate pupil).
Medical School University of Tasmania 1994-1999.
Royal Hobart Hosp Intern 2000-2002,(Two years Basic and Two years Surgery Training).
Alice Springs Hospital, Specialist Emergency Dept Registrar, and Royal Australian Flying Doctor Service Retrieval Doctor, covering 400,000 square km of the Northern Territory, 2005.
Coff’s Harbour Hosp Emergency 2006- April 2007.|
Tamworth Emergency Hosp April 2007-Oct 2007.
Sunshine Coast and Nambour Hospital 2009.
Royal Brisbane Hospital Emergency Dept and Fellowship of Australian College of Emergency Medicine 2009.
Emergency Dept Royal Hobart Hospital Consultant Physician and
Hobart Private Hospital Emergency Physician Nov 2009-2017.
Fellowship Australian Wilderness Medicine 2013.
Diving and Hyperbaric Medicine Physician Tas 2019.
Royal Hobart Hospital ED Physician and Hyperbaric Medicine Specialist 2020-present.
She received Special Advanced Training in Space Medicine at NASA 2018 including Simulated landings and travel on Mars.
EVERYONE BECOMES A JOURNEY MAN (OR WOMAN) IN THE FAMILY .THEY ALL LOOK SET TO BECOME EDUCATED AND FOLLOW THEIR OWN YELLOW BRICK ROADS. ..AND THAT’S A GOOD THING. SO WHAT
HAPPENED INSIDE OF THE ENGINE HOUSE OF CARINYA?
Carinya became a focal point in which everything was happening, or so it seemed, all of the time. Let’s unpack and expand on some memories.
Anita and I made a decision , in July 1978, based on our own sound financial judgement , that the net income from the Senior Lectureship was insufficient to provide a reasonable lifestyle for us , as a family, if we wanted to keep living in Carinya. We had studied the tax benefits of working from home as a General practitioner and Nurse , together. Anita was a qualified Nurse and Midwife, fully registered in Tasmania, and easily sorted out all of the various regulations that would enable us to set up our own Medical Practice at Carinya .
We would work from the upstairs part of Carinya, allow patients to enter through the back door to access the surgery upstairs and totally reorganise everyone’s living and sleeping accommodation. After an important family meeting and ”swot analysis” the whole idea was accepted, implemented and passed through all of the bureaucratic processes.
We had all of the pre-opening, legal and advertising processes covered, and , as bold as brass, opened on a pre-planned date .
The heavens opened! People who used to come to see us, as patients, four years previously , in Howrah , on the Eastern shore, returned in droves, and, friends of friends of our children, chose us as their regular Family Practice.
Let’s have a look at some interesting, special, memories associated with Carinya.
1. Christmas Eve dinners.
Since leaving Cheddar in the mid- 1960’s, we always celebrated Xmas Dinner on Xmas eve. Everyone could have a bit of a lie in on Christmas morning especially if we had attended Midnight Church or Chapel service.
The dinner was Anita’s annual personal “Theatrical Performance”. She finished Surgery work at Carinya early, and worked tirelessly and meticulously, to produce a dinner fit for the Ritz Hotel in London.
The Turkey was always the best available (bar none) in Sandy Bay, having been ordered weeks in advance.
Quality champagne, wines, liqueurs, chocolates and assorted soft drinks, were the order of the evening, plus all of the other fiddly bits and pieces, crackers and presents that complete an annual feast.
Who came to Xmas Dinner?
All available family members came , if at all possible, from whichever suburb , State, Country or Continent they could drive or fly in from.
Each year other special guests came, some annually and recurring , some singly and a bit lonely and a few others in groups.One year it was seven officers from The US Navy Enterprise ship,which was docked in Hobart with 4000 or so on board.The next year another group from another US Air Craft carrier.
One year it was 7 Vietnamese students, who had arrived at Tas Uni only one week previously, knew nobody other than each other, and had nowhere to go at Xmas. Dan’s two or three best mates were annual, welcome, regular rabble rousers and Tara contributed with Japanese students. My parents and Anita’s Mum came on different years and stayed with us for many weeks.
I would make a brief “welcome to dinner” speech and a “post dinner” one during which all family members were individually congratulated on achieving, whatever they had achieved, during the previous year .Secretly obtained information was used to congratulate all visitors for their own achievements.
Xmas dinner always ended in wild shouting and prolonged clapping to congratulate Anita, the “Hostess with the Mostest” on yet another stunning and stultifying Oscar- winning performance.
2. Carinya’s secret Lepricorn came up with a surprise for Alan .
Carinya’s pristine garden, of the 1930’s, was a wilderness when we moved in. It was originally designed by A famous female landscaper.
When the Executors of Mr Thompson’s Estate allowed the sub -dividers in to chop up our lady’s landscaped masterpiece, they simply marked each block out, using their theodolites ,drew the boundary lines and put in the pegs.
Some special trees were marked, “protected,” whilst others straddled the boundaries for purchasers and builders to argue over their future.
An appropriate garden epithet ,at this stage should have been ”Break-back Garden”.
Truthful Jones, and I, would have you believe that a Lepricorn lived in the area next to the ruins of Carinya’s tennis court. He was disguised as a simple garden gnome and this was his home. He had been put there especially by the landscape lady to guard the garden after it’s construction .She told no one. The Lepricorn in his later years retained a small area near the Tennis Court flagstones that he could use for himself.
He put two Four Leaf clover plants there and looked after them as if they were his own children.
This was his own Lepricorn Legacy to Carinya.
When I was mowing the grass in that area, in 1978, I luckily stumbled over the small patch, and there, indeed was a real four leaf clover. I picked that one and squashed it flat into the pages of my big Surgical Textbook. Some weeks later I laminated it and it has travelled with me to all of the Countries I’ve ever visited and the 56 Aboriginal Communities in which I subsequently worked. I still have it in my bag today 24th Feb 2021.
What’s so special about four ,or five, or six ,or seven leaf clovers?
A four leaf clover is probably a recessive gene showing up in the plant.
It occurs once in 10,000 clovers,
A five leaf occurs once in 1 000000 clovers,
A six leaf once in 10,000000 clovers,
And a seven leaf once in 250,000000 clovers.
The four leaves symbolise good omens for Faith, Hope, Love and Luck to the finder.
Biblically speaking, when Adam and Eve were leaving The Garden of Eden, Eve plucked a four leaf clover from the garden to carry with her to Paradise.
The Celtic Druids in Ireland were big fans of four leaf clovers because they allegedly protected people from the naughtiest of nasty fairies and prevented their heinous trickery. Strangely enough many of the Sixteenth Century baptismal fonts featured THREE leaf clovers, in the stone relief carving, to symbolise the Trinity, of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost.
Best of all:-
A Japanese scientist, with a special interest in Genetics, grew a 53 leaf clover in 2020 .That’s more than seven times as rare as a seven leaf clover, ie seven times 250,000000…..that’s almost as rare as Rocking Horse manure!!!
But, that’s not all, as the TV adverts constantly remind us.
I kept regularly visiting my Lepricorn’s garden without revealing my little treasure trove to any of the children. I would sneak down there just before dark and pick the occasional new ones that had popped up, taking care not to damage any baby ones.
Sometimes someone else would give the mower a run over the grass, and over them, and I could never be certain that my stash would reappear. I made tentative inquiries as to whether I could isolate and grow them elsewhere, but, in those pre-genomic times, I was met with ignorance or straightforward negativity.
I still have about fourteen, which are mostly four leaf ones, but also have three five leaf and one six leaf specimens. My five (elderly) adult children and thirteen grandchildren should be the beneficiaries, God willing by Xmas dinner 2021, if I can loosen up my sore, gnarled , shaky fingers, carefully run the lot through a laminator and individualise them on my current ”calling card.”
3.MEDAMAZE, School Children’s Health Education game, was created
In the 1970’s everyone was still playing board games and card games, Monopoly, Scrabble, Cleudo, Ludo, Checkers ,Chess, Solo, Whist Bridge,500,Poker,Pontoon, Brag and so on. It was a regular ,evening fixture in nearly every home. Radio was just OK and Television was not much good,(Sesame street the exception).Computers were heavy, slow, boring, featureless and expensive and difficult to “get into. “Communication with others , or listening and sharing thoughts and music through Facebook, Twitter, U-tube, Spotify et al, were 30 years away, though cassettes and CDs were selling like hotcakes. Fox sports, Netflix, Video games were 2010+.
Medical and Health Education matters were subjects which could bore children and often did. However we felt that, if it was packaged as a board game, in schools and at home, it could be fun, competitive and a learning process to assist healthy lifestyles .
We felt that it could become equally competitive for adults as well, perhaps playing and learning with their children. Gyms hadn’t taken off yet, with aerobics and music combined, and their healthy, addictive,” get fit, keep well” themes.
Medamaze was a fun concept game with a colourful octagonal board, and exciting, newly invented cartoon characters. It relied, to a large extent on a bit of initial knowledge, memory and the luck of the throw of the dice as you travelled from start to finish through complex mazes and traps. It also contained lots of catchy alliteration phrases relating to dozens of health education topics.
Repetition is a feature of memory retention. We felt that Medamaze could be a good choice in the Board Games section of popular Bookshops, ABC shops, Post Offices, major Pharmacies, and so forth, both in Australia and Overseas.
It’s hard for Inventors, who think that, because you consider that your product is good, that everybody else will too. “Some days are diamonds ,some days are stone” was a popular song in the late 1970’s.
We enjoyed many days of diamonds.
We opened the game up for scrutiny and feed back from many Teachers, Health Educators, Health Departments and four schools in an initial pilot run.
The newspapers, radio and TV gave it a generous airing in Tasmania and Premier Robin Gray was kind enough to help promote it in a live interview.
Anita and Tara took it to some enthusiastic New Zealand schools and returned with good reports.
”Some days are stones”, as the song says!
And thus it was ….many weeks and weeks of ”stones”.
A little light shone in the distance when Medamaze was accepted as part of the Exhibition Stand in the 1980 International Health Education Conference ,held in Hobart. I spent 3 days explaining everything to all those interested and experienced a ton of feedback.
I didn’t have any more spare money to advance it further, the production costs were, predictably, astronomical, interest rates were through the roof and no venture capitalists came forward.
4. MEDAMAZE GAME WAS RE-JIGGED TO A “CHECK-UP” CARD GAME
We reconsidered presentation, rather than content, and turned the whole game into a two x 52 card plasticised card pack. Same characters, same messages, a fun box covered with all of the lively cartoon characters and an officially Government approved and presented Australian Logo.
Official radio, newspaper and TV interviews followed and a few hundred sets sold before the money-boxes started to empty without significantly re-filling! The family saved a number of boxes for posterity (rather than prosperity) and that was that.
Back in the 1970’s and 1980’s there was very few social problems with inventing names for cartoon characters; political correctness hadn’t raised it’s ugly head and tentacles above the pillow and we were watching all of the re-runs of Benny Hill, The Two Ronnies, Fawlty Towers, The Goons and a swag of other hilarious Pommy shows, as well as their Aussie equivalents.
It is hardly surprising that the characters that I created, and which my Aussie cartoonist displayed so cleverly, included delightful representations of Sheike ya”body(for Exercise), Aunty Septic (killing off bacteria), Major Chesty ( a Military character suffering smoking related illness) and Laura Norder (a kindly middle aged lady Police Officer).The other four would be equally offensive in the 2010-2020’s.
A massive change from hilarity to polarity…..funny thing about that…. at least we can have a laugh about it now….. or can we?
5.THE SONG “TO YOU TASMANIA” EMERGED FROM THE HEART AND SOUL.
There’s always better and happier things happening if you look outside of the square.
I fell in love with Tasmania after reading about the State in author Bill Beatty’s book Tasmania ,Isle of Splendour.It described every place in Tassie and included climate ,sunshine hours ,rainfall,trout and sea fishing spots and lots of vignettes of interest to me.
I noted that almost every region was named after Counties in the UK and large numbers of small and large towns were as well. You can easily confirm this by looking at a modern map of Tasmania whilst enjoying a host of original Aboriginal names for places in addition to those named in the 19th Century.This is a good culturally appropriate step in the right direction.
We had moved here in 1968, and, in the late 1970’s, I experienced a tune in my head and adrenaline in my body and put my feelings for Tasmania into song.
I sat down on grandma’s Bechstein piano and wrote an anthemoid song called “To You Tasmania”. I had visions, perhaps hallucinations, of that great Welsh Goon and comedian Harry Secombe singing it at The Wrest Point Casino. Alas Harry did a one night stand here and disappeared quickly.
I had been doing some part -time Medical Officer work with the 6th Military District at Angelsea, Hobart and their WO Bandmaster, Ken and his band, kindly played it, at The Doug Plaister (the Lord Mayor’s), Annual Concert at the City Hall, Hobart .Wrest Point Casino singer Judy Horan, sung the words beautifully to the 1600 guests and the band played with great gusto.
Soon, The 6th Military District Band and the oldest Australian Choir (The Hobart Orpheus Choir ) recorded the song at the Hobart Town Hall.
One thousand vinyl copies were produced and distributed with the proceeds donated to Legacy. The Band played it on their ”Round Tasmania Tour”, as did the Australian Rosny Children’s Choir.
Occasionally it was sung on Australia Day when new Citizens were welcomed into Tasmania.
I bought a stray copy, from a stallholder at Salamanca Market a few years later for 30 cents, otherwise it didn’t reach any great musical heights around the traps.
In 2015,the Festival of Voices, and an American a cappella group, the Exchange, collaborated to produce Tasmania (Here’s To You). It provided a modern reworking of the original song . The new up market version was used to help spread the Tasmania brand to potential tourists from around the globe, particularly in markets like China and South Korea, where The Exchange have a large number of fans.
On 28th August 2015, Tasmania hosted the World Premiere of the new song and video, designed, to promote Tasmania Internationally, and further strengthen the State’s status as a must- visit destination. A few months later China’s President XI Jinping , visited Tasmania himself and set a precedent for many Chinese to follow here either as University students or purchasers of land or property.
The Mercury Newspaper recorded…”This project is a remarkable example of those special things that happen when you connect seemingly unconnected people. While the Song for Tasmania project, was always intended to use song to celebrate our unique State,we would never had guessed what would happen when you connect a group of young American a cappella pop stars with Dr Alan Tucker, a composer /doctor in Sandy Bay Hobart, through a song written in the 1970’s for a choir and a brass band”.
I FINISHED TENURE AT UNIVERSITY OF TASMANIA JULY 1978 AND BECAME A SELF EMPLOYED PRIVATE MEDICAL PRACTITIONER, AT CARINYA INITIALLY, BUT WITH OTHER PART- TIME APPOINTMENTS.
During the period late July 1978 till March 1984 , we ran our own private practice from Carinya , 15 Fisher Avenue. This was invigorating and successful, though the children were getting bigger, hungrier and their day to day needs at home, at school and socially, mounted substantially, as did our own expenses.
In 1984 we purchased Beach Road Medical Centre,3 Beach Road ,Sandy Bay, when Dr Alan Cohen left his practice .This was a good way of gradually expanding the business and introducing other Allied Health professionals to our new premises.With a chemist next door, and a number of popular local businesses around the corner, we were set for the next 35 years! We moved the practice fully to the new venue.
To provide additional income I also held ,during the next 8 years, the following additional appointments .
1. Sessional Lecturer, Dept Medicine University of Tasmania.
2. Director of a newly created, privately owned Medical contract Company, Tascare.
A colleague and I initiated and developed a wide range of Occupational Health Services statewide for Australia Post.These services included a dynamic rehabilitation program and significant preventative health promotion and Health education components. The implementation was the result of high levels of negotiating skills with management and a number of Unions.This was at a time when Australia Post was experiencing very high levels of unsettled long term and new Workers Compensation claims, within an organisation that had , at that time, very little understanding of, and poor mechanisms for dealing with, Occupational Health and Safety issues Statewide.
The exercise satisfied all stakeholders , including even the most militant of Unions. Australia Post in Victoria adopted, and quickly introduced, similar structures and mechanisms following Tasmania’s success.
3.Consultant Physician, Sessional, at St John’s Park Hospital ,caring mainly for the aged and adult handicapped persons.
4. Sessional (1-5) and Specialist A.M.O. Australian Army 6 MD Tasmania.
5. Lecturer Clive Hamilton School of Nursing Hobart and Examiner Nurses Board .
As the years rolled by, eventually Dan joined Beach Road Medical Centre, having obtained his Medical Degree,Post Grad experience and his FRACGP. Tabitha became a valuable practice Nurse,married and had five children. Anita continued as R/N, Midwife and Practice manager and gained her Foundation Member and Fellow of the Australian Association of Practice Managers which she maintained for the next 25 years.
Whilst we earned a good all round living, and the family didn’t want for anything within reason, we started to struggle financially, like most other mortgagees in Australia. We had not paid off any mortgage repayments, other than the basic interest requirements, on Carinya, and were still owing the initial purchase price of $A75,000.The purchase of the Medical Centre, also for a $A75000 mortgage, was just covered by interest only. Interest rates sky -rocketed to 17% for Carinya and 23% for The Medical Centre . The CBA hovered around like a pack of hungry hyenas, and were about to close in on Carinya. These were significant debts in 1984.
I withdrew every $A of Superannuation that I had in my fund, $A 49,500 to be exact , so as to live to fight another day.
My parents had no spare money to help us with and Anita’s mother was fighting a battle, with her former husband’s Estate, for a reasonable, amount after he had died . Her former husband,Clem, had given most of his substantial estate to a Hospital in Wales who had salvaged his Intellectually damaged son when his mother died in childbirth.
Anita’s Mum was basically bullied into submission and was deprived of almost everything except a small house in North Wales, a small income, above her personal pension, during her lifetime and a few thousand dollars in a Halifax Investment account. The Hospital recipients of the rest his estate fought vigorously and successfully through the Welsh Law Courts and Alice was left financially embarrassed and without legal recourse.Anita’s Mum passed away suddenly but peacefully at Carinya in 1988.
Both Anita and I were age 52, and, with a son age 24 and four daughters ages 22,19,16 and 14 worked very hard, and with long hours, to maintain a “steady as we go life”. We both owned modest cars ,over ten years old which was hardly befitting for a successful Sandy Bay Doctor and Nurse.
THEN, OUT OF THE BLUE, IN 1988, I WAS CONTACTED BY THE MANAGER OF INTERNATIONAL RECRUITMENT, FROM UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE. THE REST OF THIS FINANCIAL RESCUE STORY, IS IN THE RIYADH (SAUDI) SECTION OF MY BLOG.
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