Narelle Gleeson, Director of Nursing and Midwifery at Lismore Base Hospital, was recently awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of her distinguished 50-year career as a Nurse, Midwife and Director of Nursing and Midwifery. She sat down this week with Darlene Cook to talk about her life, and the many changes she has seen in the nursing profession over those years.My mother was a nurse, and my father was a coal miner. They were born and lived in Wollongong most of their lives, with my father following in the footsteps of his father and grandfather, who both were coal miners.I was born in Wollongong Hospital in October 1957, the eldest child in the family. A younger brother and sister came along a few years later.I attended primary and high school in the suburbs of Wollongong. I don’t remember that I ever wanted to do anything else but be a nurse; my mother influenced my decision to be a nurse, as did the school advisor following an aptitude test. My sister was also a nurse training at Marrickville Hospital in Sydney.When I think back, in the 1970’s the options for a young woman leaving school were somewhat limited. It’s very different now; there are so many more careers women can choose from. Having said that, if I had my time over, I would still choose nursing and midwifery as my career option. I can’t imagine doing anything else.I started my nursing career at 17 years of age, just over fifty years ago, on 3rd February 1975. The Hospital where I trained was Sydney Hospital, which is in Macquarie Street and is the oldest hospital in Australia. Sydney Hospital once included what is now Parliament House and the Mint. Sydney Hospital was known as Rum Hospital until 1881, as the convicts who built it were paid with rum.(Narelle as a young nurse in SydneyNSW politician, Henry Parkes, was concerned about the state of the hospital and appealed to Florence Nightingale for help to send trained nurses. Subsequently, in March 1868, Lucy Osburn was sent to Sydney as Lady Superintendent of the hospital. She was accompanied by five trained nurses, all with military experience.Lucy Osborne established the first school of nursing at Sydney Hospital and laid the foundation of modern nursing in Australia. The museum at Sydney Hospital. known as the Lucy Osborne – Nightingale Museum. portrays the history of nursing and medicine in Australia and is well worth a visit.During my training, I was sent to other hospitals to gain experience in specialised areas that were not provided at Sydney Hospital. These hospitals were Camperdown Children's Hospital, Gladesville Psychiatric Hospital and Crown Street Women’s Hospital.The nurses’ home where I lived was in Woolloomooloo, close to Kings Cross and the Garden Island Navy Base. I remember my mother being surprised at how close the nurses’ home was to Kings Cross. There was an immediate warning from her – “don’t you go there.” When I got to know some of the other nurses who had similar warnings from their parents, we went to the ‘Cross’, to find out what it was we weren’t supposed to be looking at. The Navy boys were often caught throwing stones at our room windows, hoping to find a nurse to go out with them. Very different from the dating Apps used today.When I finished my general training, I stayed on at Sydney Hospital for a few months, then went to Adelaide to work. From there, I did as so many of my generation did in the 1980’s, I headed off to the UK for 18 months and worked in several London Hospitals between travelling around the UK and Europe. When it was time to come home, I went back to Wollongong and moved home with my parents. It was then I decided to do my midwifery training.I wasn’t sure if I wanted to be a midwife; however, once I started my training, I loved it and spent 20 years working as a midwife. During this period, I worked as a clinical midwife in the birthing unit, as a midwifery unit manager, then a senior manager in maternity services.During that time, I completed a Master’s in Health Policy and Management and then a Master’s in Business Administration at Wollongong University. While initially I felt a bit intimidated going to university at age 40, I soon learned that you are never too old to study, and I thoroughly enjoyed the time I spent completing my degrees.((Narelle at her graduation at Wollongong University when she completed a Master of Business Administration)In 2002, I was asked to fill in as the Director of Nursing at Bulli Hospital. This experience reinvigorated my interest in general nursing, and I then went on to work at Port Kembla Hospital in a permanent Director of Nursing position. After 4 years working at Port Kembla Hospital, I decided to take leave without pay and take a Director of Nursing position in Saudi Arabia. I spent 16 months living and working there, it was a wonderful experience and one I will never forget.I look fondly on the time I spent in Saudi Arabia and how I grew personally and professionally from living in a culture so different from Australia. I was surprised, for example, to learn that women weren’t permitted to drive cars, or travel without permission from a male relative or work. The nurses working in the hospital came from all over the world; it was a huge expat community living in the residential compound.Saudi Arabia was starting to change some of the strict rules around women and had just begun training Saudi Arabian nurses. This came with some challenges, considering the rules around driving and travel. Thankfully, more changes have occurred since I left Saudi Arabia; today, women can drive, and work and do not need permission to travel from a male relative.Australia seemed to be such an exotic place for many of the nurses working there, and I was asked lots of questions about our country. Koalas, kangaroos, crocodiles, spiders and snakes sparked most of their interest. I was treated kindly and respectfully and was invited to attend Ramadan celebrations and lucky enough to attend one nurse's wedding. When I went on leave, I had many nurses escort me to the airport, and when I came back, there were nurses there to meet me, often with gifts and streamers. Not something that happens here, of course.Towards the end of my stay in Saudi Arabia I applied for a position back home as Director of Nursing, at Shellharbour Hospital – I was successful in gaining the position and I worked there for eight years. I moved to Lismore and the Base Hospital in 2013 which is truly one of the best decisions I have made.I decided to move to the North Coast because at that time my sons were both living in Brisbane. I did not look for a position in Brisbane because I wanted to remain in the NSW hospital system, where most of my hospital experiences had been.My eldest son is an army veteran, and the younger is a licensed refrigeration and air conditioning mechanic. While they were growing up, most of my work was an easy commute. By the time I went to Saudi Arabia, my sons were both young adults. I am immensely proud of the men they have become and love the time I get to spend with them. My sons have commented at different times that it wasn’t much fun having a mother who is a nurse. They remind me of the times when they tried to get time off school by telling me they were sick and did not get away with it, unlike some of their friends.(Narelle with her Lifetime Achievement Award)While working at Shellharbour and Kiama Hospitals (the hospitals were merged), I gained a great deal of experience providing care and services for complex aged care patients, and as a result, I am passionate about patient-centred care and preserving the dignity and well-being of elderly patients with complex needs.Recently, I found an article from a local newspaper that my mother had kept, where the nursing staff at Shellharbour and Kiama Hospital introduced a NSW Health project called Top 5 – it’s a simple tool that allows nurses to collect knowledge about the patient from their family or carer to assist with reducing anxiety of the patient during their hospital stay. We still use the Top 5 tool today.I have enjoyed every role I have worked in, which is now quite diverse. This is the beauty of the nursing and midwifery profession; there is so much variety in the clinical streams or services to choose from. Nurses and midwives are there at the beginning and end of someone’s life and all the other times in between when people need care and support for their health issues. This is a very privileged position to be in.Of course, there have been so many changes in the profession in the last 50 years as there have been in other careers. One of the biggest changes to the profession has been the move from hospital-based training to nurses having a tertiary qualification. By the mid-1980s, nursing diplomas were being provided by Colleges of Advanced Education, and by 1993, all registered nursing students in Australia entered the profession via a tertiary education pathway. Australian registered nurses are now required to complete a three-year bachelor’s degree or a postgraduate degree in nursing. Once, only a postgraduate degree, attaining a midwifery qualification could be gained without first completing a general nursing degree. Nurses can also be trained through the TAFE system as an Assistant in Nursing or an Enrolled Nurse.Many nurses choose this pathway into nursing before going on to complete a degree.Many of the roles available to nurses and midwives today were not available when I started in my career. The technical equipment that nurses utilise currently to provide care for their patients is extensive including documenting the care they provide to the patient in an electronic medical record rather than paper-based.So many aspects of the care provided to patients that we once relied on a doctor to do are now done by nurses; we now have clinical nurse/midwifery consultants, clinical nurse/midwifery specialists, and nurse practitioners.Changes in patient treatment have also been revolutionary. For example, my second rotation during my training was to the Sydney Eye Hospital in Woolloomooloo. Patients would have their cataract surgery and would have to remain in bed with sandbags either side of their head, eye pads on and in a dark room. They would be hospitalised for about 10 days. Today, patients spend only a few hours in hospital after their surgery. Many other surgical procedures have improved and have reduced the patient staying in hospital from what was a weeklong stay to day surgery, or a one-night hospital stay. The introduction of Hospital in the Home has also improved the patient experience by the patient being able to receive care in their own home from a professional clinical team.Similarly with maternity services, it is more relaxed, and women can be discharged if all is well four hours post birth, have the support people they want with them during the birth, and if the services are available, choose water or home births under the care of a trained midwife.The two greatest challenges I’ve faced in my fifty years of nursing were experienced here at Lismore Base Hospital. The biggest challenge was the COVID-19 pandemic. The courage of the nurses was inspiring during this time. I know other health professionals were involved in caring for patients with COVID as well, but as the Director of Nursing and Midwifery, I am, of course, biased, but the truth is the nursing staff were nothing less than brilliant during this time. They demonstrated compassion and commitment to their patients and their patients’ loved ones while safeguarding themselves.     Other countries were reporting stories about health workers becoming seriously ill or dying after being infected with the virus after caring for patients with COVID-19. It was a frightening time for us all. NSW Health and the Local Health District kept us all informed about COVID and the strategies being put in place to care for patients and minimise the risk of the transfer of the virus; staff were provided with the appropriate personal protective equipment and educated on how to use it.While COVID-19 is still with us, it is not as severe, and the number of people with it is reducing. More importantly, people are not getting as sick as they did when it first presented.The second greatest challenge I experienced were the 2022 floods. I was in awe of the many nurses and midwives who had property damage or were cut off by the water but still came to work. Many of our staff came to work in boats (tinnies) or canoes, or found a way around the flood via country roads to get to work. Most bought with them a change of uniforms as they knew if they got to the hospital, they would be there to stay until the water receded.Other nurses worked wherever they could get to – if they couldn’t get to the Base Hospital, they went to help at another hospital –e.g. Casino, Kyogle, Ballina and in the evacuation centres. Our staff would work double shifts if needed to care for the patients because there were nurses and midwives who could not get in to work. The Emergency Department was extremely busy during this time and provided patient-centred care for the patients and often their pet. I wondered what Florence Nightingale or Lucy Osbourne and her nurses would say about pets in the hospital and sometimes in the bed with the patients. For me, it was truly inspiring to see. I saw compassion in every staff member across the entire health workforce who worded during this time. There are so many wonderful stories to tell about our heroic health staff during the COVID-19 pandemic and the floods, perhaps stories for another day, so this period in our local health service history will not be forgotten.Outside of my hospital work, I am very involved with ZONTA, which is an international organisation with the mission of building a better world for women and girls in support of sustainable development. We believe in making the world a better place by empowering women, advocating for equality, education and an end to child marriage and gender-based violence.The Zonta Club of Northern Rivers has furnished a designated, private room at Lismore Base Hospital for women and their families experiencing stillbirth or miscarriage. This room, often referred to as the Zonta Room, provides a sanctuary for families to grieve and acknowledge their loss. Recently, several of the Northern Rivers ZONTA members worked with a local high school to make up birthing kits; these kits provide clean basic equipment for women in developing countries to birth their babies, thus reducing the risk of infection to them and their baby. In the past 2 years, 900 birthing kits have been assembled by the Northern Rivers ZONTA members with the assistance of students at a local school.I love working in my garden while walking and playing with my dog, Molly. I also love entertaining friends and family and travelling to new places and exploring the culture of the town, city or country I am in.What’s in the future for me? I am not sure. What I do know is that it is hard to think about retirement when I love the work I do and the people I work with.If I could give one piece of advice, if you are wondering about what to do as a career or thinking about changing your career, consider being a nurse or a midwife. You will have a wonderful, interesting, dynamic career.

While Lou Bradley and her husband Phil Chaffer are best known locally for running the Nimbin Roots Festival, she has had a rich and varied life in the music industry for many years. Although she is very busy preparing for this year’s final festival and recording a new album, she made time to have a chat this week with Darlene Cook about her life.  I was born in the mid-1970s and grew up in Avalon, a northern beachside suburb of Sydney. I was the youngest of three sisters, and I was fairly spoiled as a kid and while back then I think both my sisters may have resented that, as adults, we got on really well. Our family and friends all had proper conservative jobs; my father was a practising lawyer who then decided being a milkman was more rewarding. He worked as a milkman for thirty years, as well as running some small businesses. My Mum, like many women of her generation, was a homemaker.We had an organ in the house and both my Dad and my Nan played; we often gathered round to sing with my Nan. I was the freaky music person that can play tunes by ear. I loved singing, and my parents encouraged that; they were happy to put me on show, as I loved being the centre of attention. I attended Barrenjoey High School, and I was playing guitar and keyboards and singing in my first band at the age of twelve. I went through teenage rebellion against my parents and “the system” and left home at fifteen to live with some band mates in Redfern. We moved around Sydney a bit, suburbs and inner city – wherever we could get a gig. I got smuggled into quite a few pubs back then! At 16 I met my life partner, Phil Chaffer, who is a fantastic musician, playing banjo and mandolin. Over the next eight years, we had three kids while still playing in the band and working part-time. In those days, I also learned how to be a booking agent and band manager, and I sat in meetings with record companies.In 1999, both my father-in-law and one of my sisters died. It was a shock for all of us, and Phil and I realised life is short and we needed to go somewhere to raise our family and get stuck into the creative side of music.  We stuck a pin in a map and found a beautiful place in the hills behind Mullumbimby (Mullum) near a small village called Huonbrook. It was about 12 kilometres as the crow flies from Nimbin. We had 30 acres of beautiful waterfalls, organic gardens, permaculture gardens. We were mostly self-sufficient for food, it was the most inspirational place ever. ((Lou out the front of her Huonbrook house, where her creative juices kicked off)This is when I started writing songs. The inspiration just came from the hills and nature around us, and from our experiences playing gigs for so long. In 2004, I found a local studio in Byron Bay and we recorded a backyard EP. Shortly after, we were driving to Mullum and I saw John Butler in the street. I’d just received the first copy of the EP and I jumped out of the car and ran over and introduced myself, gave him my EP and thanked him for paving the way for independent artists. He was only just starting to do that then, so it was a really big thing. I got a call a month or so later and he offered me a grant from a fund he’d established, called JB Seed, to tour my music in the Northern Territory. It was supposed to have been just Phil, me and the band going, but all our friends wanted to come too, so we had a mini bus with families, kids and pets and off we went and toured for weeks – 23 shows in 28 days!(Lou and her family touring in the NT)That was a really great experience and we learned a lot about different audiences in country areas. After we came back, I reflected on my need to take my music writing more seriously. It was a mix of country and bit hillbilly, and I needed to explore how I wanted my music to sound and evolve. In 2006, I saw this advertisement for a course with the Country Music College and thought I’d like to have a go at it. It’s based in Tamworth and held two weeks before the actual festival started. It’s an intense two-week program with skills workshops, songwriting workshops and learning about the industry and its history back to its roots in America. I got to meet singers, and writers, and producers – some great contacts.Ted Howard, a recording engineer I met at the Country Music College, introduced me to producer Rod McCormack, who lived on the Central Coast, and who is one of the best banjo players I’ve ever heard, and he produced my first full-length album , Love Someone.This album was a personal journey for me. It reflects the ups and downs of life, but it also allowed me to express some of my grief over my sister’s death. The album was nominated for an ARIA Award and Golden Guitar for Best Country Album. In 2007, I recorded a follow-up album, La La La Not Listening, exploring the joys and difficulties of modern life in Australia. This album was released on Slim Dusty and Joy McKean's Nulla label, and produced by Shane Nicholson.As it happens with musicians, finding work to make ends meet when you’ve decided to have a life dedicated to the arts was a struggle. The continuing question of do I keep my focus on my music versus focusing more on family and work. Sadly, we ended up not being able to keep the house in the hills, the bank repossessed it. This land was where we raised our children. It is a part of who we are as a family. Anyone who has ever had land will know what I mean. It is also a part of who I am as a songwriter. I believe this land is where my alternate style comes from.After losing everything, I decided to pack it in. But then one day I was waiting for my youngest daughter to finish her netball training and I was in the car reflecting on all the heartache and loss that had come before, when I thought once again about the music industry and whether or not it was worth my while. Distant thoughts of my children telling me in the toughest times, even once we had lost our family home, not to give up, came to me and tempted me to give this one last try. Maybe I should try local again. Full circle. I’ve heard we have world-class producers. Checking my phone for local producers, the first name I came up with was Anthony Lysenko. I emailed him from my phone, introduced myself and said I had about $5 if he was interested in making an album! He wrote back pretty much straight away, saying that it was one of the best emails he’d ever had and wanted to meet me straightaway. So, we met and started making an album. And what a journey it has been!I was pretty bitter about the music industry and still damaged from losing our home, so I knew this album would be very different from the others, but I was determined not to conform and make a mainstream album. It has to reflect my voice and my life.The album took me two years to make. I had to save every penny, including busking and pumping petrol to pay for it, and it actually evolved as I did, and by the end of it, I felt like I’d reached the “other side” of whatever the hell I was going through. Hence the title, I guess!In 2015, I recorded Moonshine, which is dedicated to my Dad, who died in April 2014. It was recorded live at Bill Chambers’ house with just Bill, Phil and me sitting in a circle playing the songs. The album deals with my grief about losing Dad, but there are also happy moments and stories of my life on the north coast. Financially, we were still in great difficulty. Phil and I agreed we need to get a “real” job. So, he worked full-time as a mechanic, and I also worked at the servo in Mullum for about six months.We’d been forced to find somewhere really cheap to live – by this time, the kids had left home and gone to Sydney – and we found a place at Barkers Vale, a shed for $100 per week, but with no bathroom and no toilet, so Phil had to go there and build one! That’s when Nimbin Roots Festival was born. Over the years, I’d been to a number of performances of “successful” artists – large venues, people packed in, and I always said “that’s not for me”. It felt like we had to create something just for artists who needed an outlet to perform their original music. They wouldn’t have to be famous, nor have to be successful, but just had to really mean it with their songwriting because that’s when you get back to the roots of your art.We decided to go back to the Northern Territory to get some money to help fund the start-up of the first Nimbin Roots Festival. Joy McKean, who was a terrific mentor for so many of us younger musicians, donated a caravan for us to tour in, and she told me to go and find our audience one by one and bring them here. So, we went out on the road to try to raise funds. While we had this idea for the festival, we didn’t want to tell people about it in case it didn’t work out. We got a bunch of artists who were friends over the years who said if we could sell 200 tickets, we can have this festival. With that in mind, we found work at Daley Waters pub and forged a relationship with them. They loved us, and we went back every year for ten years in a row – doing 100 shows in 100 days.(Lou in the NT with her grandson)The Daley Waters pub became our mainstay for touring. They provided a room for us. There are regular people who come to the pub every year just to see us, and many of them come down to Nimbin for the festival. In the first year, we hoped to sell 200 tickets; by the time we got up to Daley Waters, we had sold 300.After we did the stint in the NT, we came back to get the festival ready. That’s what we did every year for 10 years – a long stint up top, race back and run the festival. This year is the first year not doing the NT tour to raise awareness and funds for the festival.I had a very idealistic view about Nimbin, which is why we went there in the first place; its reputation as an alternate lifestyle village, its welcome for people of all different walks of life. It doesn’t give over to commercialism easily. It has several local festivals the village puts together, Mardi Grass, Nimbin Performance Poets, the Aquarius Festival – so a music festival embracing the roots of music should have found a definite niche in the village.People come from all over the country to Nimbin; they want to feel safe, they’re curious about the village and people. The music festival is one of the few things in Nimbin that hasn’t got some link to drugs and drug reform. They come for the quality music, and a safe family-run event where they can enjoy the warm, fuzzy vibe. Some locals look forward to the festival and enjoy it, but others have been less welcoming. Locals outside Nimbin think it’s just another weird thing in Nimbin without realising the quality of the artists and music on show. Over the ten years, I’ve noticed that very few tickets, maybe 2%, are bought by local area residents, and there hasn’t been the financial support you would expect from the Council, the chamber of commerce and the business community in the village or in Lismore. I think next year they may realise that they didn’t know what they had until it’s gone.One difficulty with Nimbin as the venue for a music festival has been the lack of a range of accommodation for visitors and undercover or indoor venues to host the event. The Nimbin Bowling Club and the Nimbin Hall have been very supportive, but the limitation has meant that ticket sales have had to be restricted to a maximum of 1,000.  Some years I’ve had a financial loss, which fortunately was covered by the tour in the NT. Last year, I had a small profit from the event.It's been an exhausting schedule for 10 years; you’ve got to have faith and dedication the whole year that it’s going to work. Reluctantly, I decided that this year will be the final Nimbin Roots Festival. The Northern Rivers area has a huge creative arts sector, but except for commercial Byron music festivals, there’s not a lot of other music festival outlets for people, just Nimbin and now Mullum. This year was the first year of the Mullum Roots Festival. Following the discontinuation of the much-loved Mullumbimby Music Festival in 2020, I saw an opportunity to fill the void and revive the town’s rich musical tradition. The absence of the Mullumbimby Music Festival has been deeply felt within our community, and I hoped they would embrace a new grassroots-focused music festival. It was a great success. Mullum people really got behind the event – nearly 65% of tickets sold were bought by locals. We had 2,500 people across 26 venues and have three more venues signed up, so we can fit in more next year. Mullum has the space to give musicians a place to perform and an audience that was appreciative of the experience to hear grassroots music, some for the first time. I’m looking forward to a long-term relationship with Mullum; I’ve got a good artistic vision for it going forward and excellent support from other people who have worked on festivals in the past and who want to be involved with this one. It is a 12-month project to actually organise and get the festival up and running, and it gets busier closer to the date. This year it’s also been a family event for me, with my Mum selling T-shirts and tickets, my sister helping with admin tasks, and my daughter and granddaughter coming along to help too. Four generations of one family all together!I need to keep this as a dedicated quality event for original music; musicians across the board can be very ego-driven, and it can be hard to keep the egos away and the self-indulgence away, and keep it entertaining so people will be interested enough in the new and unknown to come to the festival. I’ve just gotten to know through the years that I’ve got a good filter for that stuff, so I can now say to some people that I don’t want you, you’re too disruptive.Similarly, I can tell if someone really loves what they are doing. For so many musicians, it’s the first opportunity to have someone hear their music. It makes such a big difference to their perceptions of their voice and music, and if I can do this and create some success for them, then I’ve done a good job. People have come back to me and said they have buzzed for months after playing at Nimbin.Mentoring new voices and new original music is like caring for a broad family of people you’ve raised in the music industry. You’ve got to keep that support going. Next year at Mullum, there will be a Youth Battle of the Bands to encourage our younger players to showcase their music.While it’s not about the money, it has been really nice not to have to do the trip to the Northern Territory for funds this year. It’s also the first winter we’ve had down here in 10 years. Phil and I can now choose which small gigs we want to play and keep our own music fresh and alive.In the past couple of years, I’ve campaigned for an alternate-country Golden Guitar Award. Alt-country, things like bluegrass, indie folk, indie roots and other alternate stuff. It’s that whole fringe area that never goes near traditional country music. That genre is coming in really beautifully, and it’s working. Country music is very insular; I’ve worked hard to try to make it less insular and for the voice of alternate country to be heard. For an Alt Golden Guitar award, I had to put in a submission and try to teach them what alternate country music is.  Lee Kernigan and John Williamson were there at this meeting, but couldn’t get their heads around what I was trying to explain. It’s not mainstream, it’s not pop, it’s all this stuff on the fringe that needs to be recognised and have somewhere to go. Not country enough for strict country; it took two years for me to work on that project, and now, even today, the awards committee is still misrepresenting that genre. They don’t get it; they treat the Awards, so if you don’t get best country album you could win the alt country one. Moving forward, I’ve got other promotions and projects in the pipeline. I’ve been down in Sydney making a new album – the first new album in 10 years; it’s going well, we are about three-quarters through. I’m working with Peter O’Doherty at a studio at Malabar. Peter’s been a good friend for many years, and he and his brother Reg Mombasa have been very supportive of the Nimbin Roots Festival and now the Mullum one. Reg has done the artwork for many of our posters over the years, and they play together as Dog Trumpet.Phil and I have bought some land down in Tasmania, about half an hour out of Hobart, near the Huon Valley. It’s taken ten years to find our feet again and buy land again; the area is very like Huonbrook but freezing cold in winter. We’ve got 28 acres of beautiful undulating hills, a small cabin, a creek with rainforest along it with big ferns, mossy ground, and snow in winter. In my old age, I want to be able to sit by the creek, drink red wine, and watch the snow.I’d like to go to England and explore their old traditional folk and village music, most of which is the music roots for modern music. Phil and I do play “old time music” as part of our shows, me on fiddle and Phil on banjo. There’s a lot in those old-world traditions that I’d love to learn. Phil is my silent, quiet, awkward nerd, solid as a rock, partner. He’s fabulous on banjo and mandolin, but he’s so quiet! He’s shy, and even after hundreds of performances, he still gets stage fright and nervous.  I make fun of Phil for being so annoyingly shy and quiet, but by the end of the show, he’s become the hero of the show. Phil and I have been together for 35 years and married for 21. We got married at home in Huonbrook in 2004, with the kids all involved. We tried raising the kids in a music environment, took them out of school and on tours. But they all turned out “normal” people! One is a lawyer, another a psychologist and the third works with Department of Education. While they are all great singers and play instruments, none of them wanted the life we have had. They saw the struggles and have chosen to have hot and cold running water on tap. Phil and I visit, and actually, we find their life a bit boring; we get into trouble for not being “normal” enough.But we’ve got six grandkids so far, I’m hoping we may get a musician out of one of them!For information about the final Nimbin Roots Festival 2025, to be held on the 24th to 26th October – go to https://nimbinrootsfest.com/ and to buy tickets go to https://www.trybooking.com/events/landing/1310864

Joanna Martin, a Registered Nurse with more than 18 years’ experience across a range of healthcare fields, was recently awarded Nurse of the Year by the Northern NSW Local Health District. She sat down with Darlene Cook earlier this week to tell us her life story. I was born in Sydney on Gadigal land in the 1980s at the King George V Memorial Hospital for Mothers and Babies at Camperdown near Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, the eldest of two children. My parents were both Sydney University graduates; my father was a chemical engineer, and my mother started off in agriculture but then changed to teaching – she became a special needs teacher.  I had a lovely childhood with my younger sister playing around Stanmore, where I grew up, attending Stanmore Public School for my primary years. We were lucky to also spend a lot of time in the Hunter Valley at my parents’ bush property and on the south coast in Ulladulla, where my mum’s family lived. (Joanna at Primary School)I moved to Newtown High School of the Performing Arts for my high school years; I was mainly interested in piano, flute and voice. Unfortunately, I didn’t keep this going – I was a bit distracted by the social life that Newtown can offer!  I completed my HSC wanting to go to the University of Sydney to study speech pathology; however, I was once again preoccupied with my social life and missed the cutoff date to submit my course preferences. Mum saved the day by marching down to the Mallet St Camperdown Nursing Campus for USyd and begging for them to give me a place as a late entry, a couple of weeks before the course started. My plan was to transfer to speech pathology, but after a couple of hospital placements, I decided it wasn’t for me. My decision to enrol in nursing was cemented one day when I was on the train with my family, when a stranger, an eccentric little old lady wearing a red and white striped tracksuit, struck up a conversation and said, “You know, you really look like a nurse”. This was before I started nursing, but it had quite an influence on me – I still remember it quite clearly to this day. She also asked my mum how old “her father” was, not realising she was referring to my dad, mum’s husband –awkward! The Nursing degree was a 3-year degree then; in my 1st year, I did a unit on health issues for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people – it’s a mandatory unit in the degree. It was an eye opener for me; I was unaware of the impact of colonisation on First Nations people, as we didn’t study it at school, nor the ongoing and direct connection that it has to today’s health issues for our First Nations people. Learning this compelled me to change my study pathway, changing to a four-year nursing degree called Bachelor of Nursing, Indigenous Australian Health.I was very privileged in that time to be taught by First Nations academics in nursing, and I treasure the special information imparted to me by those women, and the opportunity to work with numerous First Nations organisations, including the Aboriginal Medical Service in Redfern, observing first-hand how important these services are for the community.  Part of the degree meant that I spent a few months in Broken Hill, Wilcannia and Menindee on Barkindji Country. These smaller communities exposed me to what rural and remote health care really looked like – where nurses are everything to the community. We had to be able to do anything and everything, including driving the ambulance to help clear kangaroos off the airstrip so the Royal Flying Doctor Service plane could safely land. You kind of had to be able to do it all. (Joanna doing an outreach wellness check on Menindee Lake in remote NSW)It was a really good nursing experience; it was an important post - there was no onsite medical support in the town; you relied on the RFDS for help if needed. But there was incredibly good support from the other nurses. It was an interesting time for me career-wise and I’ve always felt drawn to go back to regional and remote areas. I came back to Sydney and got a position at St Vincent's in Darlinghurst’s emergency department. It was supposed to be part of a rotation to other medical areas; I had been considering moving to paediatrics, because that was what I really wanted to do, but I just really loved the emergency work, so I stayed on working in ED for many years.   St Vincent's Darlinghurst is just near Kings Cross and the pressure of the high volumes of patients coming through, while stressful, also built up a camaraderie that helped pull you through some of the really challenging cases. Also, the sense of connection to community you get from looking after some of the really prominent local people and particularly with the homeless community, the relationships we built were quite lovely. One claim to fame is that I appeared on Channel 9’s Kings Cross ER while working at St Vincent's! Kings Cross ER was a unique, fly-on-the-wall look at the experiences of the staff and patients at the always busy emergency department at St Vincent's Hospital. Back then, I really liked the high-powered, fast-paced variety of emergency department work; it also offered a pathway to career progression in nursing, which was influenced by some great colleagues, nurse educators and clinical nurse consultants who were really passionate about developing younger nurses’ careers. (Jo with Ciggy Butt at a Koori Knockout at Henson Park Oval promoting the Quit Campaign for NSW Health)I guess some people are really drawn to ED work for many reasons. Something I really appreciate about the work I’ve done there is that I’ve made lots of long-lasting friendships. Tim Ayers is one of the Clinical Nurse Consultants with the Movement Disorder Neurology Service here, and his wife Gemma is a Midwife at LBH and are both still close friends who I met back at St Vincent's ED. They welcomed their second new baby just this morning; congratulations Tim, Gemma and Amelia!! I met my husband Chris when working in emergency – he was a paramedic at that time. After a few years together, we decided to move to what we thought would be a slower pace of work life – to the Northern Rivers. We did a sea change in 2013 – moved to Byron for the proper sea change life; back then, you could afford to live in Byron. After we moved out of our rental, the prices went through the roof! I worked at Ballina hospital ED on their casual pool very briefly before applying for a job in Lismore at the Base Hospital, again working in emergency as a clinical nurse specialist for some of this time.  Lismore Base Hospital’s ED has a great team there as well with the same sense of camaraderie and connection over the work. I still have lovely friends from my time there. I met my current manager, Kath Shaw, also a nurse, in the Lismore Base ED. When I told people I had worked at the infamous “Kings Cross ER”, they would say, “Gosh you have seen some things”, and my response was “yes, but we see more at Lismore Base”. The huge geographical area, combined with isolation, economic pressure, natural disasters and limited resources, made this probably the most challenging environment to work in. I think this was highlighted for me, coming from the city where everything is at your fingertips. After working in Lismore for a few years, I had my first baby. We now have three boys, who are 9, 6, and 4 years old. Getting that work-life balance was essential. My husband Chris is currently studying for his Master's in Primary Teaching, so I am fortunate that with shiftwork and Chris studying, I could still progress my career while we were having our children. We’ve always managed the balance quite well, working shiftwork helps with that, but we still rely on childcare and daycare services. With Northern Rivers Family Daycare, we were lucky again in getting into the system before some of the barriers to getting into childcare started happening. Similarly, we bought our house just before the prices really rose exponentially; we know how lucky we are. We don’t have family to rely on up here, so it’s just us doing it.  During this time, I moved back to Ballina ED to work closer to home, which is also a great department, where teamwork is essential in keeping chaos at bay. After our first baby arrived, I started to think that emergency wasn’t for me anymore, especially the thought of potentially having to work each Christmas and miss out on sharing those important times with the children. I think I made that a firm decision when my eldest boy was about two.  I enrolled with the Australian College of Nursing and did a Graduate Certificate in Child and Family Health. This work is a community-based role with no shift work. With this role, every woman who has a baby gets offered a visit from a specialist Child and Family health nurse, who support swomen and families to be the best parents they can be, do child development checks and provide immunisations.I worked in the role at a few locations, mainly Lismore and Goonellabah, and for a short time at Casino, casually for a couple of years after having my third baby. I think I am still an ED nurse at heart, but it was the right decision at the time. I still work casually in community health, as a nurse audiometrist, supported by this local health district to complete the study required for the role last year. In 2022, another new direction saw the opportunity for my current permanent role as a Domestic Violence Prevention Officer. I was talking to an old friend from ED, Kath, who was just leaving this position. I thought it sounded like a good role for me, but the position had already been filled. However, it was readvertised about four weeks later, and I applied and was successful. My role is to support health staff to identify and respond to Domestic Violence.  There are many factors that contribute to the impacts of violence. Supporting health staff to have the knowledge around this, and to be trauma-informed as part of our response to people, is a huge part of my role. We look less at the “what” people do and the ways in which they present to health services, and more to the reasons “why”; what experiences have they had in their life that make them vulnerable. This is so important because we know that our responses to people really affect how and whether or not they later seek more help after those initial responses. (Joanna Martin - Nurse of the Year)My role comes under the policy and programs team within the Integrated Prevention and Response to Violence Abuse and Neglect (IPARVAN) service. This is a strategic role concerned with supporting the health policy around family violence, staff responses to clients disclosing domestic violence, prevention work and education. Maintaining connections with non-government services in the sector is a big part of the role, too, knowing that many of our clients rely on these services to provide other needs outside of health, such as legal advice or financial assistance. I can really see how the IPARVAN team definitely makes a difference; they are totally dedicated, and our managers are supportive and approachable. They make it really easy to do well and achieve great outcomes. In time I would certainly like to see no need for this kind of work; it’s not a reality, but hopefully the small steps we take do make a difference. Statistics indicate it’s not getting better, however it is common knowledge that this is a very difficult area to collect data on. Positively we do know that community attitudes to domestic violence are improving, which is one aspect of change needed to address it on the whole. What’s in the future? I feel I will stay in this role for some time; the position is so interesting, my managers and team are very supportive, and flexible around my days so I can do clinical work outside of my two set days in this role. I still do casual clinical work as an Audiometry Nurse with Community Health. Outside of work, I really enjoy walking and being as active as I can, but I’m not really interested in team sports; I’m just not competitive in that way. I like cycling – the whole family has done parts of the rail trail – the kids love their bikes. I love camping and exploring the region.  I love my books; I’m a very eclectic reader; I’ll read anything anyone hands me, really, happy to give it a go; I belong to two library book clubs and the kids are all readers too. My 9-year-old is into Harry Potter and fantasy action books.  I’ve come back to playing piano again after many years; no particular style – just self-entertainment – I enjoy tackling classical pieces as well as well-known pop ballads. The kids are keen for me to master the very famous Rimsky-Korsakov piece, which is unlikely but I may give it a go! My kids are also learning and enjoying the piano. I go to community events if they interest me; I attended parts of the Lismore Women's Festival, and I’ll probably drop into the writers’ festival this month and catch up with friends.  We have a dog – a bitza girl called Sookie – named after a famous vampire novel heroine, but her name also reflects part of her persona! She and the kids love to get to the beach whenever we can – just so they can bring tons of sand home with them.  The boys are heavily involved with soccer; they love the game and all of them are in teams. Chris coaches one of the teams.   Ideally, I’d love to see my boys grow up to be gentle and open and not affected by this culture of misogyny that many are born into. All we can do is set a good example for them at home. 

As you will read, Edward (Ed) John Bennett has left a full life. Ed worked hard on his education, his job, his sport, his volunteer life, and his family. Darlene Cook sat down with Ed so he could tell his life story. I was born in 1940 in Casino, the youngest child in a family of six, with three brothers and two sisters. I have to admit that being the baby of the family meant I was probably spoiled a fair bit by my parents and older siblings.I know my younger sister, who was six when I was born, was so happy because she now had a real live baby doll to play with!My father’s family were working at Wyan Station when he was born in 1886. They then moved to Wooroowoolgen Station, near Casino, where my father had his three years of schooling between the ages of 10 and 13. In 1899, they moved to the western portion of Dyraaba Station and lived at Theresa Creek.It is interesting that I have as many tertiary qualifications as my father had years at school. This is a big jump in one generation, but it is due to the difference in opportunities that we had.By the time I was born, the family lived on a 400-acre dairy farm at Simpkins Creek, Mummulgum, which my father operated in conjunction with a grazing property at Theresa Creek.During WW2, farming was a Reserved Occupation, and many farmers were not accepted to enlist in the armed forces. However, like many other farming people, my father joined the Volunteer Defence Corps, a part-time military force modelled on the British Home Guard.There were some food and clothing shortages during the war years. I remember my mother’s joy at bringing home a bag of rice in 1946 – a small luxury at the time. Electricity and a telephone were finally connected to the farm in 1948. Life on the farm was not all work and no play. Every year we had a beach holiday, camping at Evans Head for a month from Boxing Day. However, it was not for all the family. There was not much time at the beach for my father and brothers because the cows still had to be milked, so it was Mum, my sisters and me at the beach.(Ed on family holiday at Evan’s Head)My four oldest siblings completed their schooling at Mummulgum Primary School, proceeding beyond sixth class to what was called super primary, or seventh and eighth division, until they reached leaving age.Most of us rode a horse to school, except the younger of my sisters, who preferred a bike. My younger sister was the first to go to high school in Casino. She left school while in 4th year to work in a bank in Ballina. All my siblings married and moved to their own dairy farms around the district.(Ed on his pony Tim on the farm at Simpkin Creek, Mummulgum. Ed used to ride Tim the two miles to school.)My mother encouraged me not to leave school early, but to continue my education through high school; I attended Marist Brothers School in Casino for 1st to 3rd year and then Casino High for 4th and 5th years.I was the first family member to complete high school and go on to higher education.I was fortunate to win a Teachers College Scholarship to the University of New England in Armidale, where I studied Geography, Economics, English and Geology. I gained my Teaching Certificate at Sydney Teachers College.I met my wife, Denise, at a dance at Sydney Teachers College in 1960. Denise came from Wagga Wagga, and we married in Wagga in 1962. We have two daughters, Susan and Megan.In August 1964, we bought a property of just under 5 acres fronting the Wilsons River upstream from Lismore that had been a market garden. Over the years, we have observed many floods at close quarters. We ran a couple of cows for many years. We are still there today, and a ride-on mower has replaced the cows.In 1961, I began my teaching career at Ashfield in Sydney, then spent two years in Albury. In 1964, I transferred to Richmond River High. In 1990, I took a position as Head Teacher Administration at Casino High, where I retired at the end of 1998.(Ed with one of his classes at Richmond River High School in 1967)I well remember my start at Richmond River High School. After my transfer to Richmond River was finalised, I received a welcoming letter from Ray Blue, who was the Master in charge of the Commerce Department that I was to join. Amongst other things, he said, “as a fit young male, you'll be expected to do four things.”First was playing in the cricket team that was made up mostly of Richmond River staff because Southern Districts Cricket Club had just re-formed, and one of our staff members organised a ready-made Reserve Grade team, which the club was happy to adopt.Second, was to play golf as several of the staff, including the Headmaster, were keen golfers. This suited me as I had been a member of Albury Golf Club. My golfing career started when I was in my fourth year at Casino High. One of my best mates was Bill Bosley, a classmate who was a leading NSW junior golfer. He invited me to have a hit with him when he used to practice after school. My brother, Don, bought a second-hand set of clubs for me and I was ‘hooked’.(Ed driving on the 1st tee at Lismore Golf Club)Third, was to join the Civil Defence flood boat group because it was run by one of the staff, and about ten staff members were active floodboaters. Just one week after school started in 1964, I was out on the river in a boat learning the ropes.Fourth, was to “give the lizard a run” at the Metropole on a Friday afternoon. I was unfamiliar with the saying, but soon found out it was going and having a beer with the staff at the end of the week.Sport, travel and community service have always played a big part of my life. In the past 61 years in Lismore, I’ve been involved with a variety of organisations and activities.As a student at Casino High, I represented the school in rugby league, athletics, cricket and tennis and played cricket with the Teachers team in the Casino competition. At home, I played for Mummulgum Cricket Club in that local group competition. While at university in Armidale, I played cricket and rugby union, and while at Sydney Teachers College I played for Fernleigh in South Sydney Junior League.Here in Lismore, I played cricket for Southern Districts for almost 15 years and served in both President and selector roles during that time.I joined Lismore Golf Club in 1964, and I am still a regular player. Soon after joining, I was elected to the committee on which I spent a total of twenty-five years, including some years as President, and Captain. I was granted life membership of the Club in 2015.As well, I worked as an official at the Australian Open Golf Championship in Sydney on 15 occasions between 2006 and 2024.In addition to golf, I play tennis once or twice each week.Travel has taken me to just over fifty countries and all seven continents, including Antarctica and to all corners of Australia.(Ed and Susan kayaking in Antarctica)During my children’s school years, I served on committees of St Carthage’s P&F and Richmond River’s P&C.I was a keen bushwalker, and after retirement, I was a member of the Northern Rivers Bushwalking Club committee, including some years as President, and led many Sunday walks.I’ve been a member of U3A for over 30 years, and I’ve been a convenor of a French class and am currently a convenor of a tennis group. I’m also the organisation’s Public Officer.The history of this area, and my family history, are both important to me. I have been a member of the Richmond River Historical Society for many years and was Secretary of the Society for ten years.I have served in the SES for over 60 years – and earlier this year I received a 60 Years Service Certificate. I joined in 1964 and spent 11 years in the Lismore Flood Boat Group. Since 1975, I have been involved in flood intelligence, firstly at Richmond Tweed SES HQ, now called the North Eastern Zone, at Lancaster Drive, Goonellabah and since 2016 at the Lismore City Unit in Brunswick Street. (Ed, Denise and Susan on the day Ed received his 60-year SES service award)My role in Flood Intelligence involves monitoring rainfall and stream conditions in the Wilsons-Leycester catchment during flood events and providing information and advice to local and regional Incident Managers to assist them with operational planning and management. I am assisted in this by about thirty people who belong to a catchment Floodwatcher Group.The floodwatchers often provide very useful information about rainfall, stream levels and road conditions, which supplements data from the automatic rain and stream gauges in the catchment. During the quiet periods between flood events, I continue to collect and analyse historical flood data in order to better understand how floods develop and behave, with the aim of providing the best possible service to the community during times of flooding.What of the future? Well, at this stage of my life, a quieter life beckons, but while I remain fit and able, I will keep on playing golf and tennis and will continue to indulge in another passion, travel, with Denise.

On Monday, June 16 2025, Ros Irwin passed away. Ros loved Lismore and dedicated her life to improving the city as she saw it, so much so thatRos was a Lismore City Councillor for nearly 18 years and the Mayor of Lismore for three years. In 2019, former Lismore App journalist Liina Flynn sat down with Ros to chat about her life story. This is Ros Irwin's Sunday Profile.Once the mayor of Lismore and an academic at Southern Cross University, Ros Irwin now spends her time doing everything she can to help our endangered koala population with Friends of the Koala. With her partner Bill Shaeffe, they have transformed their property into a koala sanctuary under a perpetual conservation agreement. Her mission now is to create a better future for koalas.Walking through the Friends of the Koala (FoK) Care Centre and koala tree nursery on Rifle Range Road in Lismore, FoK president Ros Irwin shows her obvious passion for koalas.At a large wire net enclosure, she points to a large koala who is making a loud grunting noise (like a pig), while hiding inside a clump of eucalyptus branches.“That’s Triumph, when he makes that noise, it means he’s a randy boy,” she said.Nearby, another koala called Marley is the oldest koala FoK has in care. “We had to get a tree climber to rescue him,” Ros said.In another caged enclosure, signs on the door pronounce the koalas inside are Lauren, Charlotte and Sweetie.“Sweetie can’t be released due to state government law that a sterile koala can’t be released into the wild,” Ros said. “It’s a shame because she could be looking after the young koalas.“Lauren has retrovirus, and her kidneys packed it in. It could be the end of her soon.”Ros Irwin has spent her life helping people, and now she devotes her time to helping our endangered koala populations. Over the last three years, FoK has rescued 438, 369 and then 394 koalas per year.“50% of the koalas rescued in NSW are rescued by Friends of the Koala,” Ros said. Big job“FoK takes my time and my concern. “It’s a huge undertaking, and I’m not sure where we are going if we can’t meet the ongoing costs of running the care centre.”These days, Ros spends her time writing grant submissions, annual reports and newsletters, and is on the regional koala conservation committee.“I spend a lot of time educating people about what a healthy koala is, especially kids in schools,” she said.“If we can teach kids about koalas at a young age, we know they will tell their parents to slow down when they see koala signs on the road.(Friends of the Koala care centre, koala tree nursery)Tough game“It’s a tough game to be in when you look at the koala statistics.“It’s financially difficult, and it keeps me awake at night.“In Port Stevens and Gunnedah, there are no koalas left – and Kyogle council still need to identify how many koalas they have in their area. We rescued 27 koalas there last year, and they were mostly euthanised as sick animals.”Funding Recently, FoK received a $56K community projects grant to construct 3.5m fence to make an enclosure at the care centre into a koala kindergarden - and Ros wrote the successful project application.Ros is also working on the Hinterland Project, where Ballina Byron, Tweed, and Lismore councils work together and give FoK $15K a year for three years to pay for a vet and vet nurse.FoK also received $50K from National Parks and Wildlife for rescue equipment. But Ros said the problem is a lack of funding for long-term maintenance.“Lismore Council doesn’t fund us, except for $2000 a year to take dead koalas to the tip,” Ros said.“We rely on donations - a big donation funded our new office, and public education centre, and a vet building, but we need sponsorship.“We are running a volunteer organisation, but have to pay staff too, and we’re not funded for ongoing running costs.”Volunteer jobsRos has been the president of FoK for two years and has spent five years on the committee.“We have our annual general meeting on October 24,” she said.“We desperately need a treasurer - a retired auditor or an accountant would be good. We need a vice president too.“Most people want to do practical jobs like collect leaves for the koalas every day, and we are always looking for help - especially on the committee.”(Ros and Bill looking at the collected leaves for feeding koalas)Ros and BillRos and her partner Bill Shaeffe have been together for 13 years and have a koala kindie at their 4.65 hectare property in Caniaba.It’s an animal sanctuary with a conservation listing in perpetuity, making it land for wildlife, protected under State Government legislation.“We can’t look after it forever, and we want to make sure it will always be there for koalas,” Ros said.“We spent five years every Sunday clearing weeds from gullies and now have the Bush Connect program helping with rainforest regeneration.“We’ve rehabilitated three different types of rainforest, and we’ve seen koalas using the rainforest too. It's cool in hot weather for them.“We soft release them there first into big trees so they can build up their muscle tone, and later we’ll release them close to the place they were taken from.”Ros and Bill are also staffing the FoK rescue phone one day a week.“We are also rescuers, and we might get called to a rescue at 1am,” she said.“I picked up a burnt koala from Drake after bushfires. It had blood in its kidneys and was put down.“It’s a huge responsibility, and you learn a lot about koalas. It’s a 100% full-time job. “Bill and I laugh – there’s no retirement for us.“Our passion originated when Bill picked up a big male koala hit by a car. “When he was brought to the care centre, we tipped the cage a little so we could slide him out, and he screamed. Every bone in his body was broken.“When koalas are first hit, the adrenaline kicks in and they race up a tree.“So when we go to collect them, we need to put a trap around the tree to stop them jumping into other trees.“They are not stupid animals – they don’t actually sleep 24/7. They rest for about 18 hours. “If you are under their tree chatting, they know and will move ten minutes later. They know what we are doing. “Koalas are amazingly gentle, lovely animals.”Ros had been scratched by a koala once and said it hurt.“We are lucky at our place. We have 54 trees in the koala kindie,” she said.“We had one dominant male koala we released called Sid. “He comes back near our place to visit, and he impregnated a young koala called MacKenzie. “She loves to hang in the French forest redgum tree, and we saw her one day there with a baby with her. She came home with her bub to show us.“Beyond the kindie, there are more trees, and we saw a wild koala there. It could have been one of the baby koalas we released; they are chipped but not tagged.“We are trying to find out where and how far koalas move using spatial analysis with GPS. “It’s a project with wild koalas where we track them. This info will feed into the koala management plan in the area.“FoK also spent 20K on research by Sydney University to find out why koala joeys often die after they are released. “We don’t know why. It’s the first study done. (One of the koalas in care climbing in its enclosure)Labour of LoveIt’s a labour of love for Ros and Bill, and they raise a family of koalas. “It’s good for your soul rescuing and looking after koalas,” she said. “So few of them get released into the wild. “They are a complex animal and their closest living relative if the wombat.“We need a better state government strategy for them and deal with the biggest problem which is the removal of their habitat. “We are driving them to extinction.“When we remove their habitat, it puts them on the ground and they get stressed, diseased and attacked by dogs. “The stress stimulates the koala retrovirus – its like AIDS. And chlamydia affects the females, giving them cystitis on their ovaries and makes them infertile.Recently, FoK responded to a call by someone who found a dead koala found hanging by its head on a farmers gate.“We know it was attacked by a dog," Ros said.“We need to educate people to train their dogs not to attack a koala, or to fence their yards and stop koalas getting onto their land.“Dog attacks are the worst - at least a car hitting one means immediate death. Hot spots“Some of the hot spots where koalas are hit on the roads are on Wyrallah Road at the Bora Ring, Ruthven and McKies Hill Hall.“That’s where we want to see 40 kmh signs posted on the roads, but that needs $40K in funding.(Ros, outside of one of the FoK koala enclosures)CouncilRos spent nearly 18 years on Lismore City Council as a councillor, from 1992 to 2008, as well as being deputy mayor for two years, then Mayor.She was also on Rous County Council as the chair for two years and a member of the Local Government Association Board for five years.“I always said when I was on Council I wanted to get a koala plan on management in place,” Ros said.“Bob Gates was the mayor then, and it didn’t go anywhere. I knew back then I wanted to work with Friends of the Koala. “I was very busy at that time. “I was working full time and doing my PhD in political science, conducting research into women leaders in government in five countries. “I took six months off work to finish my research, and then I met Bill and didn’t finish it as quickly as I wanted.“My studies were done at night, and I had trouble sleeping then. I’d be awake at 2am and do my study then.”Ros also worked at Southern Cross University as a lecturer in social sciences for 15 years, before leaving Council to work in Bill’s coffee business, Caddies Coffee. After they sold the business, the two of them took on their koala conservation work full-time.Loving Lismore“I love Lismore,” Ros said. “We have a diverse community here, and it’s accepting of everything.”Ros grew up with a father who worked for the Commonwealth Bank, and they moved a lot for work to different Australian capital cities.“I was always the new kid in town. It was hard to make friends when you move all the time. “So when I came to Lismore, I found community and felt like I belonged here.“My upbringing made me more introspective and more of a hermit. “It’s important to be reflective.“If anyone says they don’t regret anything they have done, they are not being honest. Everyone makes mistakes.“Being a politician means you need to be in touch with what people in the world are feeling.“I was a rebellious kid. I wanted to study law, but discovered boys and didn’t do so well at school, so I had to do extra school studies to get accepted into university. “Then I went to Latrobe and did legal studies.”Ros first came to Lismore after working around Australia for the public service in employment and industrial relations.“I came to Lismore as a corporate services manager, and I was also working at Council, writing management plans for them before I ran for Council myself. “I had a good understanding of what to do as I went to every council meeting. “I looked at people who hadn’t read the document before the meeting and thought, I’m going to run.”So Ros ran on a community independent ticket with Diana Roberts, and Lyn Carson was voted in as councillor in 1992.“We doubled the number of women on council,” Ros said.“I say to anyone wanting to run for council next year that if you are interested, do it. “You can make changes and get things done.“One of the changes I brought in was to get the votes of councillors recorded so they were accountable for their decisions, and introduced public question time.  “It wasn’t always easy being a councillor – people hate you or love you.“If you can please 60% of the people, you are doing well.“Being on council is politics - and being a woman on council does bring discrimination.“I always treated everyone with respect until they showed me that I shouldn’t.” When Ros decided to leave Lismore City Council, she said she knew it was time.“Every meeting seemed the same,” she said. “If you are smart, you know when it’s time to go.“I walked away, and I only go back to meetings now if they involve koalas.“Now I just want to help people and koalas. “Money doesn’t make me happy, but it would be good to have more to help the koalas.”If you would like to help out Friends of the Koala or find out more information, visit https://www.friendsofthekoala.org/

There’s a new top dog coming to the Richmond Police District.The Lismore App had a chat with incoming Superintendent Scott Tanner, who starts his new role in the local district tomorrow, taking over from Supt Toby Lindsay. We wanted to find out more about who he is, where he’s been and what direction he wants to take local policing in - especially as we move into a new era of living under Covid restrictions. Superintendent Scott Tanner is a self-professed Bali bogan who loves rugby league and is ready to take serious action on domestic violence. As he takes over the head police role, he is ready to bring his empathy and people skills to the region and take the district into a new era.“My motto is that I want police to be approachable and for the community to have faith and trust in them – after all, we go to work to look after and protect the community,” Supt Tanner said.“I’ve developed community engagement skills over the years and want to make sure our police force does a good job and are supported in what they do.”Before coming to our local area, he was Superintendent in the New England Police District and has moved around regionally over the course of his career, gradually moving up the ranks of the Force.Why join the police?“I was 19 when I joined – before that, I did odd jobs and went to university for a while, but it didn’t suit me,” he said. “I was in Port Macquarie and a friend’s dad was a police inspector there. That was my first link with police, and I admired and looked up to him and thought it would be a good career, so I joined the police. I was in training on my 20th birthday.”Training“Back then, the emphasis was on physical fitness and teamwork. I’d played football all my life and sport and the police force have a lot in common. I looked forward to the camaraderie that’s a part of police culture – and it’s about having a good time.”Supt Tanner graduated from police training in Newcastle as a Probationary Constable and started doing demonstration patrols in different locations for three months at a time. In1994 he, transferred to Grafton, then moved around NSW, to Nymboida and Manilla near Tamworth, Gunnedah, Coonabarabran, then Dubbo and Armidale.He moved up the ranks from Constable to Sergeant, then Inspector, until he was promoted to Superintendent in the New England region. He said while the aspirational career path moves toward the role of Commander, he’s just focusing on his new role as Superintendent and is looking forward to the job ahead.What does the Superintendent role entail?“I am the commanding officer in charge of all district police, and I set the strategic direction of policing crime and engaging with community,” he said.In the Richmond Police District, he has 190 staff – but in his previous role, he had 209 and managed three large police stations in Armidale and Moree.“I’m used to big stations,” he said. “To do the job takes empathy and people skills. Communication is the key. You need to be well organised and give people your time.Tough things“As police, we see the best and worst in society. We attend fatal motor vehicle accidents, suicides, murder scenes - heartbreaking stuff.”It was not an easy career path sometimes.“I was only 20 years old when I graduated, and I had to go to people’s places where domestic incidents had occurred and tell people a lot older than me how to run their lives – that was hard," he said.Scary momentBeing a police officer is not for the faint-hearted. Supt Tanner said he had already spent 13 years on the tactical squad, involved in sieges and high-risk incidents.“We were faced with guns and cranky people with knives,” he said. “You rely on your training to get through that stuff – and we have good trainers, role models and mentors.What does it take to be a police officer?“Common sense is a big part of it – so is being part of a team. You need to have a bit of get up and go, be a good communicator, and have a crack. It’s the greatest career."Great things He said some of the good things about the job are getting to interact with different people, giving them an opportunity to change their life direction.“In the western region, I’ve been working with Aboriginal communities - running fitness programs, Sydney trips and one-on-one mentoring with kids,” he said. “It’s important to help break kids out of cycles that lead them into crime and poverty – it helps them get jobs and a better life.“In the Lismore PCYC, the Fit for Life program is an example of this. It’s part of the Rise Up strategy to empower young people to make better life choices.“It’s often as simple as interacting with them in a positive way when attending a job.Positive influence“For example, if I see a kid riding a bike with no helmet, I’ll refer them to the PCYC or buy them a helmet – that’s a positive influence, not a negative interaction.Sport“I’m also a big Newcastle Knights tragic. I love rugby league, and I played for the Grafton Ghosts when I was younger.“We played against the Marist Brothers team quite often, and I remember they were a strong side back in the day.“I also used to coach the under-16s team and won a premiership with them.”COVID and policing With police playing a big role in policing the Government’s constantly changing Covid-19 regulations, how does Supt Tanner see this role changing in the future?“It’s a difficult balance. If you said 12 months ago you can’t leave home because of a virus, it sounded crazy,” he said.“When Covid initially hit, we engaged with people and explained why we were doing it. We worked with the Aboriginal community on a daily basis to protect them.“While the Government decides the rules and enforcement is a part of it, as Covid goes on, we need people to take personal responsibility.“If I can come to Richmond and not issue one ticket, I’ll consider it a complete success. I know people are doing it tough and losing their jobs, but people are also losing their loved ones.“Police have been given a lead role in protecting community – 'Serve and Protect' is our motto, and we will make sure we get through this Covid crisis. This lifestyle is the new normal, and it’s a bit of an adjustment period for people.What’s his plan for Richmond Police District?“First, I listen to the police already working there and get a sense of what has been working and what can be improved.“We are lucky here, Richmond cops do an outstanding job. It’s not about re-inventing the wheel.”Focus on domestic violenceSupt Tanner said he intends to bring a strong message that domestic and family violence is not okay.“Domestic and family violence incidents were high in the western region,” he said“It’s been something I’ve been involved in for years – the rising number of them means I focus on checking up on those people with restraining orders and engage with the victims to break the cycle.“In New England, if I issued a restraining order, you would expect to be in court - no buts or maybes. I will be strict on protecting those who can’t protect themselves."“We know the time between an arrest and court is the most successful time to change someone’s behaviour. We want to break the cycle of people ending up in jail."“Often, when someone commits a crime, there’s a lag time of up to six weeks before their court time. That’s when they should be under scrutiny and can practice self-awareness and make a change."Rural crimeSupt Tanner said he will also be taking a hard line on rural crime.“Rural crime could be everything from stealing firearms, growing drugs or trespassing,” he said. “There is already a great rural crime prevention team at Richmond.”Life and familySupt Tanner is married and has four older children and one foster daughter.His wife is also a police officer and will be taking up the role of Sergeant in charge of domestic violence incidents at Richmond Police District next week.When it comes to living and working together, Supt Tanner said, “At work, I’m the boss and at home, she’s the boss.”“She’s passionate and good at her job, and I’m lucky to have her,” he said.“We met in the police force when I worked in Tamworth, and then we got married.”HolidaysSupt Tanner said he is a Bali bogan who will, unfortunately, be going through withdrawal from his island paradise this year.“I can’t go to Bali with the family this year because the borders are closed, so overseas holidays are on the back burner,” he said. “We took a caravan holiday earlier this year instead."Scott Tanner starts a new role as Superintendent of the Liverpool Police District in western Sydney. We wish him and his family all the best and say 'thank you' for doing an excellent job in Lismore and the Northern Rivers.

Dr Chris Ingall is an extraordinary human. He has a bedside manner that should be bottled.As a leading paediatrician, he has helped families in their time of need and helped a community by having the vision to form the popular 'Our Kids' charity. Our Kids has raised millions of dollars for life-saving paediatric equipment that our community wouldn't otherwise get. That equipment has helped thousands of people and families during the worst of times. Then there is Our House, another legacy where people have access to subsidised accommodation as they or their relatives receive treatment at Lismore Base Hospital.Thursday, April 17, was Dr Chris Ingall's final day of work. The tributes rolled in from the many lives that he has touched since his arrival in Lismore in 1987.I had the pleasure of sitting with Dr Chris at his medical rooms near Lismore Base Hospital in January 2022, and recorded a Sunday Profile. This is the life story of a man who will be sorely missed in his profession; however, you will continue to see him on the streets of Lismore or on his bike out for a long ride. I was born in Sydney at the hospital in Crown Street, I think it was.We lived in Maroubra in the Sutherland Shire for a while, then moved to Cheltenham and then down to Cooma for five years from when I was about 10 to 16.Dad was a fang, a dentist, and it would be fair to say he was a restless soul, so after about five years in a place, he would pull up stumps and go somewhere else. He did this all his life, really; seven years would be a good innings anywhere.There were a lot of different schools over the years. Monaro High School in Cooma was interesting because it had engineers from all over the world due to the Snowy Hydro Electric scheme in the ‘60s and ‘70s and their kids all went to Monaro High. We had this bevy of enormously intelligent engineers' sons from all over the world, so it was quite interesting growing up there.For the last three years of schooling, I went to boarding school. Dad sat me down one time and said, “I like their product, son. So you're going to go to Joeys at Hunters Hill” (in Sydney). I started boarding at Joey’s for Years 10, 11 and 12.I didn’t cope too well, no, let’s say I coped, but I didn’t enjoy it very much. I couldn’t see the point of it. Why would you take someone away from their family and friends? I think it was for a common good, from my Dad’s point of view, that I would perhaps do better academically. I asked him what he meant about liking Joey’s as a product later, and he said their values and service, and it’s true, Marist Brothers are all about service. You've got god’s gifts and the community with those gifts, and that was a fairly strong message in my time at Joey’s.Joey’s was, of course, huge at rugby. I was in the sevenths (laughs). We used to train three or four times a week, and we would play Aloysius thirds or Barker firsts and beat them 44 nil, it was nuts. Back then, rugby was part of the religion. There was Kings and Riverview, our closest rival and the one we wanted to win. Everyone had to turn up for the big games, and everyone had to know the war cry. I have occasionally gone back to Joey’s for a 10-year reunion or something, and there's all these kids in the stands during a crucial part of the game, and they're all on their mobile phones.When I graduated, the family had moved back to Collaroy, which was good. I received a letter in the mail from the Board of Studies, which had my name and the letters acau, all lower case, and it was signed at the bottom. It was my Year 12 result.(Chris with Jenny, Gabrielle and Billy, his younger brother and sisters in 1976)I went to my brother, who was a year ahead of me and had started medicine at Sydney Uni, and I said I got this and he said, “Yeah, I got one of them”. I said What does it mean and he replied, “Just ask Dad” That's typical big brother.So, I went and asked Dad what it meant, and he said, “Your brother got one of them. Go ask your brother” I said No, I asked him, and he said to ask you!He told me ‘all courses, all universities’. I said," That's good, right?" and he said, “Yeah, son, you can do law or medicine. If you do law, you have to sell your soul. Come back to me tomorrow”.I came back to him the next day and said, “Dad, I don’t want to sell my soul and he said, “Right medicine it is then,” and that was it.With medicine, I thought I could do so much good, or it would be so interesting and then when I got in it, I realised it was where I wanted to be.Today, you can see kids in so many courses where they are just not a good fit, even in medicine, when I get the young ones coming through, so I am very fortunate that I landed in a place that suited my temperament and skillset. I loved my university days; they were just the best.While at medical school, I knew I wanted to do paediatrics. Paediatrics is about growth, people growing. Why does my finger grow? Why does it stop? Why does a child grow? Why does a child stop growing? How do they grow? It fascinated me and I thought this is really interesting and embryology is part of that, how do my organs form? Of course, we know very little now, we’re still largely clueless, but we observe it and it’s fascinating and wonderful. At that time, I said I have to do paediatrics.When I completed my studies, I graduated with second-class honours and went to North Shore for my first intern year. I went there because my brother went there; there was a lot of slipstreaming in those days.North Shore had good rotations, and soon I went to Gosford, and I really enjoyed that size hospital. Back then, Gosford was very much like the size of Lismore when I came up here after I finished paediatrics.So, I finished at Gosford and came back to Camperdown (children’s hospital). There was a wonderful man called John Overton who was rung up by a local anaesthetist, Bob McGuiness, who was in Gosford, and Bob said You have to take this bloke. Then a position came up and I applied with other folk and got the job.I loved Camperdown. Everyone knew everyone, and there were a dozen consultants, there were probably 20 registrars, some residents, and everyone was very supportive. It was like a family.One time, there was a transport for an indigenous baby in Alice Springs who needed respiratory support, and the plane from Adelaide had broken down. So, they asked me to go and get this baby and take it to Adelaide. I asked how, and they said get a cab out of Richmond (Western Sydney), where we have a Hercules waiting for you. So, we took an empty Hercules to Adelaide, intubated and ventilated this tiny baby and put it on life support, handed the baby over and then flew back to Sydney to the dawn.They are unforgettable moments, I must admit. It was wonderful to think that you are giving this child a chance. Paediatrics is full of that, as I’m getting on I see people in general practice or residents and they say I couldn’t do paed’s because they have a child that age, so it’s very touching in that way, and I’ve got grandkids now who are that age. You can’t escape that as a person, but you try to be a professional and say it is not going to stop me doing the job, but equally it is a privilege. At the end of the day, you say this is a really great privilege to be able to step into a person’s life and help at that moment.(The 2022 Our Kids Calendar)Do you bring home those emotions with you?I would be lying if I said you don’t bring them home to a degree, because you do. I would come home and say to Cath “I think I need a beer, today was a tough one because we lost a baby” and then we would talk about it. What is the expression? A trouble shared….You just muddle through, and everyone did their best. As you get older in the game, say a baby comes into ED (emergency department) there might be two anaesthetists, two ED staff and a number of nurses and they’re waiting.They will call me in, and I can see that the baby has already left, but they’re still ventilating, and there is still a heartbeat. At that moment, I’ve got to be the closest person to that baby. So, you would come up and I would say, “Just let me do this bagging here now,” and you just gradually let everyone off the hook.You bring the parents in and you get them to touch their baby and talk to them as they know their voice, talk and touch, you get the parents to be part of it. Then you say “I’m really sorry” and then you don’t say anything for a minute, they know, they know.They surface again and I say, “If we keep going like this, we’re not going to do him any favours. His pupils are not reacting, his mind has left. We might keep his heart going, but does he want that? Do you want that? They cry some more, and I say this is my decision, this is not your decision. I think we need to allow him to go. Nature needs to take your baby now. We’ve done everything we can here, but this is his time, and this is not on you.I leave them with their baby and make cups of tea. Everyone did what they could, they couldn’t have done any better, there was no cause in this from them (staff) and the outcome that no one wants. Then I go home and have a scotch.When did you come to the Northern Rivers?I came to Lismore straight from finishing at Camperdown in 1987.David Gilmour, who was the only paediatrician in the Northern Rivers, was looking for someone to share the on-call with. There weren’t too many people in Grafton and Tweed then so David was a very busy man although they would have been choppered in and out.He did a one-in-one for about 9 years, I did a one-in-two for about another decade, and then Dr Ian Lennon and David Meldrum came, so now we have it down to one-in-four.I was clueless when I came up as to how long I wanted to stay for. I remember thinking about what it was going to be like up here. I knew I wasn’t a city guy; I didn’t enjoy the city that much. It is like a treat-to-people ratio, you know, this has got the right treat-to-people ratio up here, it’s just nice.When I came to Lismore, I met my wife Cath in 1993, so 28 years ago. She had been living in Sydney then came to the Northern Rivers.We haven’t had any children together, but have children each from previous marriages, three for Cath and two for me.Sue, my first wife and I have two girls, Jessica and Camilla, who are both in Sydney.(Chris being a Dad with daughters Jessica and Camilla in 1990)Jessica is more a business head and works for Nickelodeon and Channel 10. I ask her what she does, and she says, “I do lunch” (laughing), so she's working the sponsorship side of it.Camilla runs her own company called Unfolded, which deals with interior design; she is more creative. During lockdown, she spent three months in Ballina, doubling her business, which proves that a lot of jobs can now be based anywhere.Cath has three children: Adam, Julia and Alyce. Alyce is working in the children’s ward as a nurse.There is no medicine in the family anymore, but perhaps they saw what I did and said Are you crazy? (laughs).The three ticks for our kids were that they woke up in the morning to a job they liked, they would find a partner they enjoyed living with, and they don’t do drugs, but after that, they are on their own.We are very fortunate; I feel very blessed about that. With kids, you just can’t chart their life. They all come home for Christmas; they are all healthy, so we are very lucky.How do you unwind?I’ve always loved cycling, the joy of cycling.I will cycle a few times a week in the mornings between 5 and 6:30, and it lifts my mood and gives me a little bit of buffer. I can handle things so much better if I have been riding the bicycle that morning for a tough situation or conflict.This weekend, I’ll ride the low-tide beach from Patches to Broadwater or up to South Broadwater. I’ll be the only bloke on the beach now because the cars are gone from South Ballina beach. I just marvel at being able to drive my car 25 minutes and then ride my bike in the wilderness. It’s just such a beautiful part of the world.(Our Kids board members, from left, Tanya Jones, Tanya Kirkland, Dr Chris Ingall, Suzette Pearce and Rebekka Battista)How did Our Kids come about?When I came here in ’87, I realised pretty quickly that the budget didn’t stretch to paediatric equipment very easily.If David and I had a child that needed ventilating, a newborn, and the plane was coming, we would just bag that baby for four hours because there was no ventilator. I was thinking there has to be a better way, a machine that does this for me.We couldn’t use an adult machine as it delivered too much pressure, too much volume, so we would try to put a ventilator on the list and it would get up near the top, and then it would get knocked off by an ICU purchase or a theatre purchase.That is just the way it is, having a small paediatric unit in a large adult hospital. So, I thought to myself, god helps those who help themselves, so let’s start a fund.Initially, the idea came with a family who had two boys with muscle dystrophy, and then another girl was born with another muscle problem.We take our muscles for granted. When you have a muscle problem, just about everything that you can imagine is affected. It is a very expensive life in terms of ventilator support, being able to be lifted everywhere, transport, wheelchairs, cars and hoists. So, these families went and started fundraising, and it split one of them and nearly split the other one because the fathers, who were good, honest tradies, couldn’t stump up $65,000 for this or that. So, the mums started fundraising, and the fathers would say no, no, that’s my job to provide for my family.I thought there is something fundamentally wrong with this picture, that is something that the community, I am sure, if they knew about it would back. I also knew that the community would not back random families they have never met asking themselves is this the real deal? Trust would need to be built.So, I thought if we start off with hospital equipment and build trust, then we can start looking at the same money also helping the community. We call that community grants now, and NDIS has largely taken the burden off that, which is terrific, but that was the first arm.Then, through the hospital, we started to fundraise, and the calendar was the first thing we did, and getting sponsors for that. We didn’t have a thousand calendars back then, You walk into Australia Post now, and there’s like how many calendars. So, we made some money each year from that.It took a year or two to get our first piece of equipment. The Local Health District (LHD) do their best to go dollar for dollar or the like. Then we started growing events, then started developing a form around that, but basically Annie Curtain, Austin Curtain’s wife, was absolutely amazing at the outset, she was bringing community support in.There was just a small little group of us. There was a fundraiser that had to be paid out of the funds we raised, which is still the case. There has never been that leg-up if you like. The LHD helps us in other ways like insurance, rental on our office and things like that so it’s a relationship.Rebekka Battista took up the fundraising role. Rebekka has always had a flair for that; she has always been that person with a big heart and a great way with people.That really started to give us some momentum in the community. I’m watching all this happen and thinking, why is anyone interested? I am interested because I want this piece of equipment, but you’re interested, why? It has almost grown around me. I am that, in case of emergencies, break glass person now.It’s grown up since then, with the events and people wanting to be on the board. People like Bronwyn Curtain, Annie’s daughter-in-law, has come on the board, Simon Stahl from Northern Meats, Mark Pearce, Suzette Trinity, Luke Houlihan, Damien Chappelle, Tanya Jones and Tanya Kirkland, Kevin Carter from the Base in finance, people with a diverse range of skills sit around and they all keep this thing happening. I am still amazed.I want to have enough money in the bank to get through COVID or enough to get us through the global financial crisis, so I am now just that guy.The ventilator finally came after two or three years.(Dr Chris Ingall with one of the first resuscitaire purchased in 2014)The people of the Northern Rivers can identify with the hospital and identify with Our Kids as something that if they put a dollar in there, then most of it, if not all of it, will get to buy that piece of equipment.Now, what we’re hoping is that children and grandchildren of people in the community who have received benefits from the equipment to keep them local, are saying Hang on, that was good, and now they’re starting to come in. It has a lovely natural build now. That only happens when you continue to be honest and be transparent.Charity is a business, and you have to be savvy to build relationships and sponsorships and talk to the community, none of which I had at all, but I watch the people around me say “say this,” so I say it, and it’s great, it works.We have reached over the $2 million mark, and everyone seems to be really happy to be part of it, so I’m really happy.This is an ongoing process because equipment always dies, equipment runs out of software, support, it fades out from being useful, plus equipment gets more and more sophisticated, so the piece you have now will be outdated in the years to come, it is a never-ending bucket.What is lovely now is the registrars come up here from Sydney, Newcastle or down from the Gold Coast, and they say “wow, we don’t have one of these”, but we do.I love going to the annual calendars launches, you see these little kids, who all have an issue that’s seen them come through the children’s ward, and they are so chuffed, they are like a celebrity.They say, "there’s my picture," and they love the photo shoots, and the family does too. It puts a positive spin on their difficulty, and I had never thought of that angle. Now, that is the greatest thing, the same as the ‘Day Out’ we have in Ballina. I never thought of that as being something high on the scale, but now it is the one I love the most because it's free, and you get all these mums pushing prams, coming in and seeing a show like Peppa Pig. It is a good two hours of entertainment with the kids beside themselves, enjoying it.I say to myself, I get it, I get it now, these are the people who keep us in business.(Dr Chris Ingall arm wrestling Commando at the annual Winters Ball event)What about retirement?I don’t know. I am trying to build succession with the younger paediatricians because I think it would be good to have a paediatrician or paediatricians taking that central role if there needs to be a piece of equipment explained.Recently, I went along to the charity golf day in Lismore and got up and explained what it is we are buying and what it does, and people are just so interested. Tradies and business people around town are hearing a story of a three-week-old baby who needed this to be put into their chest, their lung came back up, got them on the chopper, and they’re doing fine. That is what this piece of equipment does; this is where your money is going.Plus, what new equipment do we need or don’t need?Understanding the general community, the hospital community, all giving it continued momentum, I am very thankful for that.Then my role becomes less and less.Happy Retirement Dr Chris Ingall and thank you.