A country practice

Born, raised and educated in England, Peter Dewey learnt to be a doctor with the best of them.

But it was half a world away, in rural Australia, that he came into his own.

In 1967, responding to a newspaper advertisement, Peter packed his bags for Wagga Wagga to set up practice.

“The significance of it isn’t realised today because people think in terms of helicopters,” he said.

“But in those days, Wagga Wagga to Sydney for something desperate was an ambulance drive along the terrible Hume Highway, they’d pull into Goulburn for a rest and often stay overnight.”

In fact, Peter was the first orthopaedic surgeon ever to set up practice in rural Australia and it’s for this contribution to our nation that he has been recognised with a Medal of the Order of Australia as part of this year’s Australia Day celebrations.

Now living in Bowral, Peter’s official biography speaks of a man who took opportunity and turned it into accomplishment.

Peter served as a visiting medical officer at Wagga Wagga Base Hospital from 1967 to 1996, developing the facility into a leading provincial centre in orthopaedic specialist training posts.

Now an Australian citizen, Peter attributes his success at the hospital to the staff who supported him along the way.

“None of the hospital or nursing staff had any experience in orthopaedics, but they were all very excited about developing it themselves in a rural area,” he said.

“That’s what made it satisfying, rural people like to do things for themselves.”

In addition to his practical work, Peter was involved in the establishment of the Schools of Radiography at the Riverina College of Advanced Education (now Charles Sturt University), lecturing in anatomy and diagnostic imaging.

He was also examiner in orthopaedics for the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons for eight years.

A participant in Australian Orthopaedic Association programmes in developing countries, Peter worked in the Association’s initiative to provide Australian surgeons to teach orthopaedics in Jakarta.

It is his time in Rwanda, however, that stands out in Peter’s collection of memories.

“The massacre in Rwanda was in 1994, I was there in 1994 for three months,” he said.

“I had always been associated with the defence force in Wagga Wagga and so I was asked if I’d go.

“There was a need for orthopaedic surgeons in Rwanda, with the Australian contingent, particularly because of the huge presence of landmines.

“It was a small group of 350 Australians running a hospital in central Africa, in a small, very backward country that that had suffered a massacre of nearly one million people, a country that was saturated with landmines.”

Peter doesn’t like to say much more about his experiences in Rwanda, except that he did his best.

“All you could do is do what work you could in the hours available, mainly concentrating on children and new landmine injuries that happened in our area,” he said.