Dr. Austin Curtin rowed ate SUBC in the period 1970-1975 and won several Australian Junior Championships and NSW Senior Championships.
The pressures of Austin’s medical degree saw him retire by 1975. Austin started his hospital medical training at North Shore Hospital and specialized as a general surgeon.
In 1985 Austin was offered the opportunity to join the surgical team at Lismore Base Hospital and St Vincent’s Lismore. With his wife Annie and young children in tow, they headed to Lismore and built a successful practice along with a largish macadamia farm at Tregeagle just outside Lismore.
Austin and Annie have both involved themselves heavily in community activities in Lismore and outside of work and farming Austin has taken a keen interest in rural medicine and the access of rural communities to treatment.
Austin has been the Co-Chair and Chair of the Ministerial Advisory Committee for Rural Health, from 2007 to 2019. He has served on the Rural Health Taskforce 2004-2010 and on numerous other medical professional and training bodies.
In recent years Austin Curtin has made his support for rural health more material with a significant donation to Sydney University to fund The Curtin Ph.D. Scholarship for Clinical Research.
This significant scholarship will assist postgraduate research students undertaking a Ph.D. with a focus on clinical research relevant to Indigenous or rural health.
Austin has served in various roles at Southern Cross University and at Sydney University.
In recognition of his significant services to medicine and to health outcomes in regional communities, Austin was awarded the Order of Australia in the 2020 Queen’s Birthday Honours List.
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