When Dr Colin Rose was sent to undertake three months of general practitioner training in rural NSW as part of his senior residency at Royal North Shore Hospital, he didn’t expect to fall on his feet. But, 47 years later, that’s exactly how he describes his transition into the community of Taree.
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“I had never lived outside of the city, and didn’t really have a plan to do general practice, but I arrived here and it just fit,” he explained.
Now at the end of a career spanning almost five decades, featuring the delivery of more than 3000 babies, an OAM and the development of an unprecedented local palliative care program, Taree’s favourite doctor has a heart full of memories and not a single regret.
“People have been remarkably generous and complimentary, wishing me well,” Dr Rose said of decision to hand over the reins.
“Forty-seven years is a long time, I’ve been involved with so many families, as one family pointed out in a card, I’ve been there for births, deaths, marriages, divorces and workers compensation cases,” he laughed.
I have had the most wonderful, rewarding practical life in medicine, but the single highlight has been being taken into the community.
- Dr Colin Rose
With almost half a century of memories to choose from, Dr Rose plucks two special moments and highlights not only the significance of each for himself, but also in depicting the welcoming, “one big family” nature of the Taree community.
The first happened just weeks ago, when Dr Rose and his wife, Di took a load of garden clippings to the tip.
“These two fellows came over and said, ‘Dr Rose you’re retiring!’ and I said, ‘That’s right boys.’ ‘You’re not going to move, you sit there and we’re going to unload this car!’ they said, and they stood us aside and unloaded the car for us.
“These boys are twins I delivered, who are now 40, it was quite something.”
The other story Dr Rose shared was the moment he realised he had come to the right place.
“I love this story because of what it says of the town,” he began.
“We had a new-born baby who was quite sick, and we stabilised it but didn’t have breathing machines for babies here in those days, so all we could do was put a tube into the baby’s lungs and hand-ventilate it.
“A nurse and I then had to transfer the baby down to Sydney, but in those days there were only two air ambulances, and they were busy, so we called the commercial airline that had a flight out of here about to leave, and they held the flight up to wait for us.
“They made room for us in the back of the plane, hand-ventilating this baby the whole way down to Sydney.
“The pilot asked passengers to stay seated while we got the baby out, and as we got out everyone on the plane clapped.
“It was so nice, but the part that really moved me was when we got back to Taree, and for the next week, every day three or four people rang to see how ‘our town baby’ was going. That’s when I knew I had come to the right place.”
In a decorated career of achievements and memories, Dr Rose identifies one factor as the key to his success, the support of his wife.
“Di does so much for the community, as well as keeping the ship afloat at home, we are a good team, I give her complete credit for at least half of my success,” he explained.
“We were a bit overwhelmed about seven years ago when I received an OAM for my work in palliative care, and then Di was awarded one for her community service soon after, it just topped it all off and was so great for her work to be recognised.”
Now in retirement, Dr Rose looks forward to getting more involved in community causes and getting some work done in his garden.
“I have had the most wonderful, rewarding practical life in medicine, but the single highlight has been being taken into the community,” he said.
“That connection is something I value so much, and I’m not going to let it fade at all. It makes it a lot easier retiring knowing that I’m not actually going anywhere.
“I’ll still be around, I’ll just have time to man the odd Rotary Club Bunning’s barbecue now, and I look forward to catching up with all my friends in the community there.”