Foreword

I am honoured to have been asked to provide comment on this important historical record of the doctors who have served the Richmond Valley communities. Dr Neil Thompson has produced, by single-minded determination and incredible persistence, an encyclopaedic record of the service of every medico who has practised privately in the Richmond Valley from European settlement to 1986. The reader will be astonished by the depth of research undertaken to produce this history.

While some entries are quite skeletal there are enough details to give us a flavour of the times when the doctors practised. There is a clear progression of service delivery that allowed the development of the Richmond Valley. Not just the support so necessary to encourage people to come and settle, there is a clear thread of leadership in educational, cultural, sporting, religious and political initiatives that gave encouragement for community cohesion and empowerment—and added lustre to the lives of the people in the Valley.

He provides a glimpse of their contributions in military service in war and in peace, and records their service in the good times and in the times of community peril caused by disease epidemics, floods and other disasters. The tradition of being involved in the community was established early on by the first practitioners and has continued with the contribution of some being quite extraordinary. This is echoed recently in the national medical journal, which is a traditional recruiter of doctors to areas where they are needed.

The talents and skills the medicos brought to the Richmond, began so long ago, continues to the present time, ensuring through the decades the people of the Valley were afforded access to a growing sophistication of health services unmatched in rural NSW. Each generation has stood on the shoulder of their predecessors for the betterment, not just clinically, but for the community as a whole. Most importantly he has added ‘flesh to the bones’ by including a little bit of drama and heroic exploits and emphasising the professional passions and non-professional pursuits of these early doctors (and the odd ‘quack’) along the way.

The painstaking research of this historian is to be admired all the more because it was undertaken pretty much on his own, by a doctor who soon found himself drawn to the long and tortuous task.

This authoritative tome will be a reference point for others and a foundation for future historians to follow the pathway of the doctors from 1986 onwards.

This is a ‘must have’ for all those with an interest in health care development in the Northern Rivers.

I commend Dr Thompson not only for this history but for also being a trailblazer himself, as the first Specialist Orthopaedic Surgeon in the Valley.

Brigadier the Hon Dr Brian Pezzutti CSC RFD