Whether they worked in villages in the highlands of Papua New Guinea or within Melbourne’s Italian community, these GPs have all made their mark.
This year’s Australia Day Honours List includes nine current or former GPs, eight of whom were awarded the medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) and two of whom were appointed Member of the Order (AM).
OAM awardee Dr Gordon Campbell may have spent the bulk of his career working as an obstetrician and gynaecologist, but in the early 1970s he did a stint in Sydney working as a GP while caring for his ailing parents.
Born in Papua New Guinea, Dr Campbell was home-school by his mother before being selected by the PNG Department of Health to study medicine at the University of Sydney.
Although he initially wanted to become a surgeon, the department of health decided that what the country really needed was a second obstetrician.
“As there was only one O&G specialist in the country, my dreams of becoming a surgeon were quashed, because there were already 12 surgeons in the country,” Dr Campbell told TMR.
“I was to begin my three years training to be able to sit the membership exams to qualify for registration with the college of obstetricians and gynaecologists.
“I have no regrets; delivering babies can be stressful for both mother and doctor, (aware of the haemorrhage and complication risks and know what to do and act quickly) but for 96% the outcome is such pure joy.
“The miracle of the safe arrival of every new baby is a magical moment I never grew tired of experiencing.”
In 1980, accompanied by another Australian doctor and two nurses, Dr Campbell spent four weeks treating Cambodian refugees at Thailand’s Khao-I-Dang camp.
By February of that year, there were some 125,000 inhabitants.
“All refugees arriving at camp were screened and triaged and hospitalised if necessary,” he said.
“Using bamboo and thatched roofing, a 1000 bed hospital could be built by able refugees in 10 days.
“For many refugees this was the first medical care they had received for five years or more.
“Each section of the camp housed 12,500 to 25,000 people, with an outpatient department.
“Each outpatient department was linked to a supplementary feeding centre where all children under age five, triaged malnourished older children and all pregnant and lactating women given extra food.
“I worked in a 2,300 high risk cohort who were being fed each day. There were very few babies under 12 months, and few babies born due to the gross malnourishment of women.”
Dr Campbell said the children would often crawl onto his lap as he worked and would hold his hand or finger while walking.
One specific patient that he remembers was a six-year-old boy who had survived being buried alive in a mass grave.
“Four days later some local villagers (perhaps heard his cry) used sticks and bare hands to dig into the ground above the burial site,” Dr Campbell said.
“This little boy was found alive, carried across the border to the refugee camp.
“His legs were flexed against his chest and he had a fractured hip. The deformities were surgically corrected and placed in traction.
“As his health, nutrition, and mobility improved, his future was uncertain when I left. All these decades later I still remember and wonder.
“… [My wife] Ann was driving, after collecting me from the airport; Emma our youngest was sitting on my knee.
“The contrast to the scene I had just left in the camp; my deep relief surprised and confused our other children, initially.
“I was physically weary and emotionally overwhelmed. I could not hold back my tears of joy and wept openly.
“I felt humbled to have had the privilege to have served along with many others and made a difference when the need was so great.”
After moving to Australia, Dr Campbell regularly did locum work in remote West Australia.
“I love the climate, I love the turtles appearing on the beach every morning while we were there over Christmas time,” he said.
“And I loved being involved with the six medical students from Perth who spent the whole year in Port Headland.”
One of the two GPs appointed AM is the late Dr Nicholas Medland, in recognition of his service to sexual health medicine as a physician, GP and clinical epidemiologist.
Dr Medland, who held a research position at the University of NSW’s Kirby Institute, died in February 2025.
His work in HIV and AIDS medicine saw him take up a post with the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention in Vietnam, where he worked for six years.
Between 2020 and 2023, he served as the president of the Australasian Society of HIV, Hepatitis and Sexual Health Medicine.
“Dr Medland was a leader in the HIV, blood-borne virus and sexual and reproductive health workforce,” said Alexis Apostolellis, CEO of ASHM.
“He was a true champion of human rights and health equity. He was a passionate, caring sexual health physician and worked tirelessly for more than two decades for his patients and his community.
“He contributed to ASHM and the sector in countless ways, and he will be sorely missed.”
Rural generalist and surgeon Associate Professor Fiona Stewart, an eminent clinical anatomist, was appointed AM for her work as a researcher, educator and academic.
Professor Stewart, who is a life member of both the RACGP and AMA, has also previously worked as a jockey and as a forensic medical officer for the NSW Police Service.
She was a foundation associate professor of anatomy at the University of New England’s rural medical school and was awarded the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons Heslop Medal in 2014.
Tasmanian GP Dr James Berryman was awarded OAM in recognition of his service to medicine.
Dr Berryman, who originally trained as a nurse in New Zealand, has called Australia’s island state home since 2001.
He credits the success of his practice, which was named RACGP practice of the year in 2020, partially to the interior design know-how of his wife Rebecca, who is herself an occupational therapist.
“There are so many practices around that have got windowless rooms and terrible décor, so we wanted to get away from that,” he said.
“Rebecca had a field day designing the place, and we made somewhere that was nice for us and as non-clinical as possible for patients.
“We started off with me, one nurse and a receptionist, Rebecca, and now we’ve got nine or 10 doctors in our own place that we built, and we’ve been here about 12 years.”
Dr Victor Buccheri received an OAM for his service to Melbourne’s Italian community over the past 50 years.
He practised in the suburb of Moonee Ponds for 34 years, and has been at his current practice in Clayton since 2006.
This is not Dr Buccheri’s first honour, either; in 2007, he was appointed a Knight of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Italy.
OAM awardee Dr Andrew Kwong has worked tirelessly throughout his career to pproviding strong community care to the Central Coast of NSW as a GP.
Dr Kwong has always prioritised community care as a GP, helping to establish after hours care in his region to provide extensive and accessible care to generations of families.
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“It’s a really heartfelt kind of feeling when you when you’re seeing, like the grandchildren now, apart from the contemporary patient,” Dr Kwong told TMR.
“That’s the kind of reward that is better than money, you could get great pleasure to see younger generations come up and be high achievers and the older ones gracefully getting older.”
Dr John Taylor, who was awarded an OAM, is an example of rural health generating exceptional community-based care.
Outside of general practice, Dr Taylor is also being recognised for his extensive work in marine conservation and how it intersects with medicine when it comes adapting to the surrounding environment of Busselton.
“The whole philosophy is we were very much a cradle to grave type care scenario in our practice and looking after people through pregnancies and giving anaesthetics and so on,” Dr Taylor told TMR.
“I always think the variety of rural general practice is one of the pleasures of it.
“You never know when a patient comes into the room what the what the problem is going to be.”
Another prime example of rural GPs getting it done is Dr Roberto Celada, who is receiving an OAM for his work in general practice and aged care.
Reflecting on his time in Mexico’s healthcare systen, Dr Celada has been consistently dedicated to ensuring accessible and comfortable care, greatly improving how palliative care functions in his home state of Victoria.
“This passion of mine started when I saw my patient dying in Mexico from cancer of the pancreas,” Dr Celada told TMR.
“That was in 1992 and I went there to see him pass, and the resources there are fairly limited, there was no morphine, no strong analgesia, so I saw him die in a lot of pain.
“I came back to Australia with the purpose of making sure that none of my patients had that sort of death.”
Dr Ravin Sadhai was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia for his work in general practice that has found an intersection with his community’s love for sport.
Hailing from Bacchus Marsh in Victoria, Dr Sadhai has worked extensively in establishing connections in men’s health and creating more open conversations for athletes when it comes to their health.
“What we do doesn’t matter where it is, I think you can get connections in lots of different ways,” Dr Sadhai told TMR.
“Lots of blokes don’t want to come and sit and wait half an hour to see a GP, so sometimes having a chat on the sideline is quite a nice thing.
“You can always point people in the right direction in terms of help and assistance.”
Angaston GP Dr William Gransbury was another keen medico and local sports fan who was awarded an OAM for his service.
In his 25 years as the volunteer Angaston Football Club doctor, Dr Gransbury helped introduced programs to the club which helped young people adopt healthier choices.
Within general practice, he has championed teamwork.
“The importance of teamwork in general practices is something I think, truly important, … that a practice can offer,” he told TMR.
“It was something I really, really enjoyed doing when I was practising – recognising individual skills, but also being aware of the health and wellbeing of your partners.
“I lost a couple of colleagues to suicide, that’s an ever-present risk with this profession.
“There are pressures that current GPs are under, I think, that are quite a lot more than when I started. If we can all be supportive of each other, that’s something.”
There are also a number of appointees and awardees working in and around the primary care space who warrant a mention.
Addiction specialist Conjoint Professor Nicholas Lintzeris, a founding member and past president of the Australasian Chapter of Addiction Medicine within the Royal Australasian College of Physicians, was appointed AM.
“[Addiction] is a rare area in medicine that is sort of a crossover between clinical work and public health,” he told TMR.
“It’s an unusual sector in healthcare because of that diversity of strong emphasis on public health issues as well as the clinical focus.”
Professor Lintzeris, who currently holds positions with Holdsworth House, the University of Sydney and the Penington Institute, said he hoped to see Australia rebuild its status as a world leader in drug policy.
Indigenous health advocate Leslie Collins was appointed AM for his work in the National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation sector over the last 50 years.
He was the co-founder of several outreach clinics in far north Queensland in the late 1970s and later co-founded the Queensland Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Council.
Floyd Leedie, an Indigenous health advocate who has worked as a cultural mentor to GP registrars, was also appointed AM.
Since 2008 Mr Leedie has served as CEO of Goondir Health Services, an Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation that services approximately 72,000 square kms of Queensland’s outback.
Public Service Medal awardee Maureen McCarty was recognised for her work in critical workforce planning, specifically in the development of a supply and demand model for general practice.
Anyone can nominate any Australian for an award in the Order of Australia. If you know someone worthy, nominate them now at www.gg.gov.au.
The full list of GPs honoured is as follows:
- Dr Nicholas Medland (AM)
- Associate Professor Fiona Stewart (AM)
- Dr James Berryman (OAM)
- Dr Victor Buccheri (OAM)
- Dr Gordon Campbell (OAM)
- Dr Roberto Celada (OAM)
- Dr William Gransbury (OAM)
- Dr Andrew Kwong (OAM)
- Dr Ravin Sadhai (OAM)
- Dr John Taylor (OAM)
Related non-GP winners include:
- Mr Leslie Collins (AM)
- Mr Floyd Leedie (AM)
- Conjoint Professor Nicholas Lintzeris (AM)
- Maureen McCarty (PSM)
We try our best to identify every current or former GP and rural generalist receiving an Australia Day honour. Sometimes we miss someone; please email Holly@medicalrepublic.com.au to notify us of any omissions.
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