Dr Charlie Hew is a well known face in the Northern Rivers. He and his wife Kim still practise here in Lismore. Read their wonderful story as told to Denise Alison of the Humans of Lismore.

“I was born in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in 1957.

(Charlie and his mother in Kuala Lumpur 1958)

In 1969 there was the race riots in Malaysia between the Malay and the Chinese. There was a big uprising and a lot of people were killed. I’m 3/4 Chinese and my father could see that there was no future for the Chinese in Malaysia.

(May 13, 1969 when several hundred Chinese were killed in Malaysia)

The Malays assumed political power so they controlled jobs, university entrances and it was all very difficult. The universities had to have at least 90% Malay and Dad had aspirations for me being a Doctor.

They had a severe army lockdown for a month. You were only allowed out of the house for one hour a day to go to the markets. We didn’t go to school for 2 months. There was a black ban on foreign Journalists so there was no news coming out to the world.

I was 11 and had a bicycle so I would go to the market, buy a chook for my grandmother who lived 3kms away. I would drop the food off and return. It was frightening because the Malays would stop cars at traffic lights, drag Chinese people out of their cars and cut their throats or go into movie theatres and kill people. It was really violent.

Dad was a Pharmacist in KL and one day he took me with him to check on the shop. There was no-one on the streets. There was a river behind the shop and I saw all these dead bodies floating down the river. On the streets and outside the shop, there was blood everywhere. It was horrible stuff. That’s when my father said…You won’t get a fair go in this country.  

(Charlie in 1969 before being sent to boarding school)

Dad in his wisdom decided that he would send me to boarding school in Australia. I was 12 and Dad didn’t really know much about Australia other than his brother had sent his boy to school in Brisbane the year before. Dad’s brother told him there was 5 really good schools in Brisbane and 3 were boarding schools. He gave him the names - Churchie where my cousin was, Nudgee which is in Brisbane, Toowoomba Grammar and Villanova. We chose Nudgee and off I went at 12 years old.

That was so stressful because I was on my own. My parents didn’t come on the plane and when I arrived no-one was there to meet me. I came on Singapore Airlines and the hostesses looked after me. I remember getting on the plane in KL, stop over in Singapore for 3 hours and because I was under their care they took me to the staff lounge.

I was quite fat then with really chubby cheeks and they all squeezed my cheeks..Oh he’s so cute! 

I arrived in Brisbane and the Brothers from the school were supposed to meet me at the airport but no-one came. I had to catch a taxi to the school. It was so terrible and I hardly spoke English. 

(Charlie while at Nudgee College stayed with boarder friends in the holidays. This photo is taken at Longreach)

I spent 5 years at Nudgee Boarding School and we were allowed home once a year at Christmas. The rest of the time I would go home to my boarder friend’s houses. There was a lot of country boys so school holidays were often spent out in the country like Mt Isa. I got to see a lot of Australia and I really enjoyed it. The first year was quiet tough though.

In Malaysia you go to school in all whites. My parents didn’t know what the school uniform was so they packed me off with a Malaysian school uniform so you can just imagine. The first day back at school for 500 boarders and I rock up, a fat Chinese kid in glowing whites and they are all in their Khaki.

I had no idea how to use a knife and fork as we only used chopsticks. It was all so foreign and those first years were really tough. I quickly became popular which was lucky. At first they were teasing me badly and I thought I can either react and fight or laugh at it and I chose the latter. After a while life was good. 

When my 2 younger sisters got to 15 they were sent to school in London because Dad had a sister who lived there. They spent a lot of their lives in London and I spent mine in Australia. Dad was a good business man and did well in his business.

He made the money to be able to send us kids off for a good education but at the end of the day it wrecked the family because my mother and I never had a relationship. She probably didn’t get any say in it and I think she resented her kids being sent away. I would only see my Mum for 6 weeks a year so I never shared any of the stuff that happened to me. In those days you had to write letters.

(Charlie with his mother, father and sister in KL in 2016)

There were no phones or emails so you’d write home from boarding school and tell them all the good stuff because you didn’t want to worry them.

When I was older in boarding school I met some girls in Mt Isa who started writing to me and the Brothers would open our mail. I was Class Captain from Grade 9 all the way through but when I was a sub senior I got into a bad group. We used to go out on the weekends drinking with the day boys. We were caught because we came back to school drunk.

The headmaster kicked us all out of the school. At this stage you can imagine, my father had spent all this money on me. I was told to ring him and tell him. The Priest decided that we could be suspended for 2 weeks rather than be expelled. I was kicked out of Class Captain and lost my Honours blazer but I deserved it.

I went to University to study Medicine. I wanted to be a Vet because I love animals. I remember in Year 12 they had an open day at the Uni and walking into the Vet faculty thinking this is what I want to do.

I made my choices, Veterinary 1st, Medicine 2nd and then I told Dad. Dad got my cousin to tell me not to do Vet Science. As a good Chinese boy I listened to my father and changed to Medicine.

After 5 or 6 years at QLD Uni I went up to Townsville as a Doctor and that’s where I met my wife Kim. Kim came up as a student in her last year of medicine to do a term up there. I was a second year doctor at that stage.

We met, fell in love and married. Kim wanted to come back to this area and I had no ties anywhere. By that stage I had been 4 years in Townsville. Kim always came to Northern NSW for holidays growing up and thought is was so beautiful plus Lismore was the biggest town with a hospital. We came down in my 4th year for an interview at the hospital.

(Charlie and Kim in 2016 where Charlie ran a full marathon and Kim a half marathon)

We both got jobs and started work in 1985. We bought a house in Eureka. I worked at the Base for about a year. Kim worked in Emergency in the morning and general practise in the afternoon then we went overseas for 6 months.

It was meant to be 12 months and we knew we would come back to Lismore. I had arranged with Dr John Rawle, a very well established family of doctors in Lismore to buy his practice at the end of the 12 months. 

John got very sick and in those days communication was really bad. We were somewhere in Europe. He had written to my sister in London who joined us half way through the trip with the letter. In the letter he said he was very sick and that we should return. He couldn’t wait another 6 months so we came home. 

I took over the practice here in Conway St. Adrian Johnson and Johnny Rawle were the doctors there. Johnny retired as soon as I came in which just left Adrian and I. The rooms were really small and we didn’t really like it there. The building is gone now.

We bought a house close to the hospital and we worked out of there for 35 years. It was hard with just Adrian and I because we had to cover each other. I used to take 6 week holidays and he hated that which is understandable. We eventually sold the building and went our separate ways. I called Andrew Binns and ended up moving to his practice where I’ve been for 8 years. It’s been fantastic.

During those years we had 4 children, all at Lismore Base. Dr Steel was our Obstetrician. All the kids went to St Carthage’s and Trinity High. Nick who is now 33 was the only one who in Grade 10 decided he wanted to go to boarding school. He was really good at tennis so he got a partial scholarship at Churchie. He’s now a Lawyer in London. Rachel is 30. She’s a Lawyer too and works for Legal Aid. Eliza is 25 and studying to be a Lawyer. She wants to work with refugees.

(A Hew family holiday in Angkor, Malaysia 2009)

They are all very different. Nick is into finance, business and property. Rachel and Eliza are into humanities, low socio economic people. They love helping people. Eliza was home for 6 months due to Covid. Alex is 27 and he did an Environment Degree. He works in Bio Security for Rous Water but prior to that he was doing bush regeneration which he loves.  

I’m into running. I did a 30 km run this morning with a 73 year old man who wants to keep running marathons till he’s 84. We started at 3am this morning. I also do painting with water colours and I play guitar. I made a recipe book with my recipes and I painted bits of the recipe. If I used cauliflower I would paint it. Mirror Images in the Star Court Arcade are making it into a book for me. I play golf. I’ve got a lot of things going on. 

(Charlie at the end of an Ultra Marathon (109kms!) in the Blue Mountains in 2017. It took me over 24 hours to complete the course)

I think Lismore is the best place in the world. Kim and I have done a lot of travel. My patients have done a lot of travel and they all tell me we are in the best part of the world and that’s true. Fantastic climate, the people here are all very different and all very accepting. Kim likes working in emergency for that reason. Each one has something to add and now I think Lismore is becoming even more eclectic and more interesting.

I love the Lismore connections pages where people help each other out. You don’t get that in the cities. We really saw it in the floods. We have a really solid community.”