27Dr Gabe Sanchez never expected psychiatry to become his calling. After training as a pharmacist and pursuing a career in general surgery, he made the difficult decision to change specialties in...
53Lachlan MacMillan's route to medicine has been anything but traditional. After leaving school to become a carpenter, he spent years working across rural and remote Australia, from cattle...
52From suburban Queensland to clinical training in Wagga Wagga — fourth-year medical student Natalie Vear has wholly embraced rural medicine. A former exercise physiologist and postdoctoral...
18Dr Angus Baumann took a long, non-linear journey into medicine, that eventually led him to specialise in cardiology. Now based in Alice Springs with his family, and deeply entrenched in the...
51Laura Sliskovic put aside her desire to become an actress and pursue her passion to become a doctor, supporting remote communities with limited access to healthcare. It was through her mother’s...
26Raised on farms in both South Africa and the Northern Rivers of New South Wales, Matthew Collocott took the long road into medicine — from biomedical science at Griffith University, to four...
24After starting her career as a veterinarian, Dr Amanda Fulton couldn’t ignore the calling to study medicine. At 29, she took the leap, retraining while raising a young family, and is now a trainee...
23While it might seem like medicine is for the well healed, it’s actually a course that creates opportunities for everyone. Rhi Noble, now a Junior Doctor at Lismore Base Hospital, is an...
22In year 9, Bradley Dovenor accidently discovered that one could study post-graduate medicine. It was revelatory and lit the flame for what would become a singular desire to get into medicine. As an...
49Jessica Mepstead gave herself two months to study for the GAMSAT. Already working as a dietician, she chose not to tell a soul until the result – she passed! She also gained some great insight and...
48From playing gigs in pubs to delivering babies in the Outback, Liam Halford’s journey to medicine was anything but typical. Growing up in Gawler, South Australia, with no family history in...
47Growing up in rural Tasmania, Loni Schramm never imagined becoming a doctor — especially not in the Northern Territory. But a move to Darwin, a psychology degree and a leap of faith into medicine...
20Always a country kid at heart who is training in emergency medicine, Dr Brittney Wicksteed is already emerging as a key leader in rural health in her home state of Western Australia. She’s now WA...
19After two decades working to heal the planet, Dr Stefanie Pidcock made a huge change, pivoting to a career of healing individuals in a rural setting. And this ecologist-turned-medic hasn’t looked...
15Living where people know your name, and are keen to stop and chat, is high on Dr Courtney-Anne Blackhall’s priority list for life, as is having a broad-based career in this friendly environment. So...
14Growing up a city kid, it hadn’t dawned on Dr Emma Jones that she could and would dedicate herself to being a Rural Generalist. Then a conversation with other medical students about the benefits of...
46A frightening experience at the age of 16 prompted Jack Howard to study medicine. He was on a country road when his grandfather experienced chest pains, and Jack didn’t know how to help except to...
18It's certainly not a common trajectory — from an established career in graphic design and marketing to medicine — but that’s the extraordinary career path of Dr Anna Western, a Rural Clinical...
13Soaring to the heights of rural and remote medicine — and not just in RFDS planes — Dr Jessica Martyn has enjoyed an extremely varied and exciting career. Dr Martyn, who is now the Head of Unit at...
12From learning to winch out of a helicopter to providing critical care in the most demanding circumstances, Dr Katie Barnes spends her career undertaking risky retrieval missions for patients. It’s...
17The pristine beaches, the effortless rural lifestyle and participating in a welcoming community. It was all too much for Dr Isaac Taylor to resist. So he’s returned to the place he grew up in to...
11It’s hard to beat the regional doctor lifestyle. That’s according to veteran Dubbo GP Dr Andrew Moreton, who has dedicated his career to lifetime care in regional NSW. He’s had the opportunity to...
9There is so much to be learned from the vastly experienced Dr John Floridis, a pharmacist-turned rural generalist and advanced emergency medicine trainee. As well as being a rural and remote...
45We all owe something to our mothers, but medical student Georgia Goodhew is especially grateful to hers. When Georgia finally realised a girl could become a doctor, it was her mother who stood...
8Running her own practice in a “top ten” tiny town, Dr Emmy Hennell is a rural GP in a position to sit back and survey her great achievements, wrapped in the arms of a supportive community. From her...
7An ambition to find a challenging position in life, where close teamwork and hands-on experience go together, has led Dr Robert Easter to an incredibly interesting and varied specialist career. In...
43Studying in regional Australia is a “huge blessing” according to Shray Sinha, who is undertaking his qualifications in Dubbo, NSW. Shray swapped engineering for medicine to follow his family’s...
13Dr Rebecca Irwin has planted her flag in the town of Barcaldine in Queensland’s Central West, and it’s here she intends staying. As a rural generalist based at Barcaldine Hospital, she can’t...
3It was in the midst of her idyllic country childhood that Associate Professor Kerin Fielding decided to become a doctor — particularly a surgeon. Now a Visiting Medical Officer at Wagga Wagga Base...
11Lismore-based Dr Senny Surendran is a junior doctor whose path to medicine was certainly unconventional. A passionate young sportsman who started out as a physiotherapist, Senny's life took...
10Dr Dayna Duncan started out pursuing psychology, but when a local GP questioned her choice, she decided to try medicine and hasn’t looked back. Growing up in a small town but studying in Sydney, Dr...
2Participating on the NSW Rural Doctors Network was a “no brainer” for Dr Ariah Steel, who says she was attracted to the program because of the wide experience she’d gain as well as the financial...
8It was sage advice from an English teacher that saw Dr Grace Nelson achieve her aspirations. She was counselled to not only celebrate her good grades, but also work hard to shrink the margin...
6Born and trained in the UK, Dr Lauren Bradbury came to Australia to experience new things. A short visit turned into a permanent commitment when she experienced the joys of working as a rural...
7Dr James Sterrey’s path to regional medicine wasn’t a direct one. As a city boy with a science degree, it was while employed as a research scientist, on Parkinson’s Disease, that he realised...
2Taking the skills he learned in the city to a new environment, Dr Patrick Dwyer is a prime example of how one individual doctor can make a huge impression in a regional setting. He’s dreamed of...
3Dr Maddie Kelly knows what she wants, and she goes and gets it - even if it takes longer than expected, and especially when she's told she can't do it. What has helped in achieving her goals is...
1Dr Joe Duncan’s path to medicine was more unusual than most. He was a winemaker working for leading labels in both Australia and overseas, including Alsace and Chablis in France. He swapped the...
8If you’re starting out on your medical journey and you’re not yet sure which speciality to pursue, don’t worry! Dr James Collett is a Nephrologist who enjoys working across renal and general...
5Realising that he preferred talking to people than to machines, Josh Crase relinquished his first passion for computing and switched to a medical career. The GAMSAT was a big challenge, but he got...
4At the start of his GP career, John Wenham would not have imagined living and working in Broken Hill. He was the joint owner of a successful practice in Manchester, married with a young child, why...
3At the start of her career, Rachel James wasn’t at all sure about medicine. Arts Management seemed more likely and that’s where she headed. But the passion wasn’t there and the idea of medicine,...
8It wasn’t until Dr David Glendinning was well into his first career as an engineer that he had a change of heart. He decided to try medicine. By that time married life had taken hold, but a stint...
6Dr Paul Lunney knew he’d made the right decision to move from registered nursing to becoming a GP. What he didn’t know until his 3rd year placement in Dubbo was the attraction of working in a rural...
5Dr Sarah Moore covered huge tracks in her career development in WA. But she never lost track of her colleagues and mentors, nor of her love for obstetrics and the privilege, as she calls it, of...
2In retrospect it was the perfect vocational choice. But Dr Daniel Stewart just didn't know it as he rowed hard and fast for Australia, chopping and changing university courses before finally giving...
1When Dr Sean Hogan was seeking a placement for the last two years of his degree, Wagga Wagga was right at the bottom of his preference list. Reluctantly he took the placement. That was in 2010....
8General Surgeon, Sally Butchers, based in Lismore, has proved that you can achieve a distinguished career in surgery by working in rural Australia. Sally’s also very happy with a less than 15...
1Justin is a descendant of the Wiradjuri people and is living the dream of working and living in his home town of Broken Hill for the Royal Flying Doctor Service. In this episode of Destination...