There is something deeply satisfying about the patience, precision, and transformation involved – taking simple milk and time, and creating something complex and nourishing.
Naturally, this has always given me a soft spot for the Bega Shire. It’s a region renowned for its dairy heritage, its beautiful, rolling green landscapes, and some of the best cheese and fishing in the country. For a cheese-maker who loves to cast a line, it is dangerously close to paradise.
After decades in the Sydney “rat race” – the traffic, the schedules, the institutional bureaucracies and relentless urgency – the opportunity to work at a more human pace and enjoy the environment was irresistible. So when the opportunity arose to look at providing ENT head and neck services in a rural area that happens to be surprisingly isolated and has no existing ENT head and neck services at all, it felt like more than a professional obligation, it felt like a natural fit. This work aligns directly with my core mission and values: providing high-quality surgical care to regional and remote communities that are routinely overlooked.
The statistics for Bega are stark. This Bega Shire is home to a significant Indigenous population, and yet currently, they have no access to local ENT care whatsoever. It is this type of systemic shortfall that I am determined to help correct.
This commitment to regional Australia is not new for me. I still make the regular trip to Wagga Wagga, as I have for years. Regional patients and their community, and the healthcare professionals, offer a welcoming and uniquely rewarding practice experience. It is usually more direct with easier integrated care and the therapeutic alliance more personal.
So for 2 days a month I will be at the Bega South East Regional Hospital, operating on a Thursday and consulting on the following day which will of course be a Friday. Ah, you see where am going …
Weekends follow and therein lies my secondary motive. If I am spending more time working in the Bega Shire, surrounded by world-class dairy producers, perhaps I will finally be able to stop making cheese in my own kitchen. I can leave it to the experts and simply enjoy the fruits of their labour. So the plan is to bring specialist ENT head and neck care to Bega and take some some weekends there to enjoy the cheese, the fishing, and the quiet.
