This year’s bumper crop included five AM appointees, 11 OAM recipients, one Conspicuous Service Medal awardee and one Public Service Medal awardee.
Eighteen of the 830 names on the King’s Birthday 2025 Honours List belong to general practitioners and rural generalists, who have built careers looking after everyone from the very youngest Australians to the very oldest.
Five GPs were appointed Member of the Order of Australia (AM), one was awarded a Public Service Medal, one was awarded a Conspicuous Service Medal and 11 were awarded Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM).
This year’s selection of awardees showcased the cradle-to-grave aspect of general practice.
Former Melbourne GP Dr Rosalie Cooper received an OAM for her service to medicine, particularly her advocacy in the Sudden Infant Death Syndrome space.
A past president of the Victorian Medical Women’s Society, Dr Cooper spent the first half of her career working as a community child health medical officer for the Victorian department of child and family health services.
Her work for Red Nose Australia (SIDS and Kids Victoria) began after her son, Douglas Alexander Cooper, died at seven weeks old.
“I stayed on their committee for about eight or nine years, and we … went through lots of different areas of research, [and then] we were recommending to people that they put their babies to sleep on the back, not on the front,” Dr Cooper told The Medical Republic.
“My baby had been on his front when he died.
“And that proved to be an important factor, because we reduced the number of deaths in that area from well over 100 a year in Victoria – about 140 I think – down to only five or six.”
Dr Cooper, who is now retired, said that working with the foundation had allowed her to connect with other parents who had been in a similar situation.
“I remember I was giving a talk to a group of parents, and a mother came up to me, and she said, ‘I lost my baby to SIDS but then when I met you … and you’d lost your baby’,” Dr Cooper said.
“She said ‘I felt a lot better because I thought, well, it wasn’t my fault, anybody could be in that situation’, which was quite a moving moment for me.”
When the state-funded health service she worked for was wound down in 1991, she moved into general practice, where she remained until 2007.
Working at the other end of the lifespan, Adelaide GP and palliative care physician Dr Lawrence Palmer received a Public Service Medal.
Dr Palmer is credited with having built the multidisciplinary palliative care service at Modbury Hospital from the ground up, but told TMR that it was still a relatively new concept when he began.
“I’ve always been interested in how people live and die, but there was no palliative care curriculum when I was a med student in the 70s,” he said.
When the Australasian Chapter of Palliative Medicine formed in 1999 Dr Palmer signed on as a registrar, and hasn’t looked back since.
“Palliative care is a real privilege, [as is] helping patients to live and die well,” he said.
“For those who are facing terminal illness, [it’s about being able] to support them and the family and provide symptom control.
“One of the wonderful aspects of palliative care is we look after patients in the palliative care ward or hospice.
“We see consults, and we see community patients and we also do work in the country, so the variety of work and work situations is amazing.”
Dr Catherine Hutton, a GP in Victoria, was appointed AM in recognition of her significant service to general practice medicine and to healthcare system improvement.
Over her 40-year career, she held advocacy positions at the federal AMA and AMA Victoria and sat on various local healthcare boards.
Dr Hutton also held a position with the University of Melbourne’s department of general practice and primary care, where she was a member of the Victorian General Practice-based Research Network for over a decade.
International Breastfeeding Journal founder Professor Lisa Amir, a neonatologist who worked in general practice for many years, was appointed AM for her service to breastfeeding research.
Professor Amir told TMR she initially got involved with the Australian Breastfeeding Foundation after the birth of her first child following her medical training and realised “there was a whole science behind it”.
“I went on and did a Masters in women’s health, and then went on and did a PhD,” she told TMR.
“I was lucky that I was working in family planning and women’s health, and I was able to really develop a career just seeing women with breastfeeding problems.”
She started the breastfeeding journal in the early 2000s, when online journals were just beginning, and ultimately spent 20 years as editor-in-chief.
Top end GP Associate Professor Emma Kennedy was appointed AM in recognition of her work in medical education.
“It’s been 25 or 30 years of balancing both being a clinical GP and being a lecturer, a medical educator and an academic in the teaching of medicine,” she told TMR.
“I’ve seen the synergy in that, and really enjoyed the fact that the skill set that I have that is person centred, is actually a really important skill set for supporting the next generation of doctors as well as my patients.”
Her sage advice for the doctors of tomorrow?
“I find our human condition just extraordinary – there’s really sad times and there’s really happy times and there’s times in the middle,” Professor Kennedy said.
“What I’ve learned is that there’s a few ways of seeing a problem, and so that’s the way you get around a problem – you look at it from as many ways as you can.”
Dr David Law, a GP in Tasmania, was appointed AM for his service to public health.
Originally from the UK, Dr Law travelled to Australia in the 1970s on a working holiday and fell in love with Tasmania.
“I was in Victoria on a really hot day and I had enough money left to either to go to South Australia and register or to go down to this place called Tasmania,” Dr Law told TMR.
“So I asked the guy at the airport desk, ‘where should I go?’ And he said, ‘oh, don’t go to Tassie, it’s too cold’,
“[And I said] ‘get me a ticket!’.”
Dr Law has worn various hats over the years – “I don’t think you can leave things to other people to do” – including AMA Tasmania vice-president and National Association of Medical Deputising Services president.
Previous Rural Doctors Association of Australia president and vice president Dr Peter Rischbieth was appointed AM in recognition of his impact on rural health.
Like many other rural clinicians, Dr Rischbieth is something of a Swiss army knife – he has additional training in anaesthetics, obstetrics, emergency medicine and mental health.
“That gave me a good basis to be a country GP, but I couldn’t have done the work that I was able to do in the community without the support of my wife and my kids and my mum and dad and the staff at the clinic and the hospital,” he told TMR.
“I know I’m fortunate that I get the gong, but it’s a gong that really reflects the support and help that I’ve had, both professionally and personally.”
Among the OAM recipients in the general division is the late Dr Allan Shell, who was awarded for his extensive service to the Jewish community and to healthcare.
Dr Shell is fondly remembered by his family for his excellence in community care and especially his work in improving the lives of those with dementia.
“He loved being a doctor and using his expertise to move into other areas of medicine and community care,” Mrs Roma Shell, wife of Dr Shell, told TMR.
“He would view this recognition not only as a personal milestone but also a reflection of the collective efforts and support of his family, colleagues, patients, friends and the community that has been integral to his journey.”
Dr Carolyn Lawlor-Smith’s work in the field of assisted dying has earned her an OAM.
The South Australian GP has helped to introduce laws to help those in need of assisted dying and palliative care.
“I feel it’s a great thing you can do to help people to make that, make it a choice, really, at the end of their life,” Dr Lawlor-Smith told TMR.
“There’s a lot of denial of death, and I think that if you acknowledge that you die, you live, you live each day much better.”
Regional and rural medicine was well represented, with OAM recipient Dr Alan Secombe’s career being a shining example of what rural medicine can do for communities.
Dr Secombe spoke strongly on how some of his highlights of his career were in how his medical career allowed him to greatly engage with his community.
“It’s important to become a part of the community, apart from just being their GP,” Dr Secombe told TMR.
“One of the highlights of my medical career was becoming more involved in the education of GP registrars and medical students, allowing them to think more about a possible career in in regional or rural medicine.”
Establishing effective rural health infrastructure is no easy feat, and Associate Professor David Rimmer’s proficiency in just that is part of why he’s being awarded an OAM.
Education has become a part of Professor Rimmer’s legacy, building sustainable workplaces for many generations of future rural generalists to be enriched by.
“I have a great belief that these young doctors want connection, and they want meaning, and they can get that if you teach them how to be curious and how to be kind,” Professor Rimmer told TMR.
“That family aspect to it, and the continuity as the circles go round in medicine in rural areas is, you know, it’s really rewarding and it’s really good to be part of that.”
Conjoint Associate Professor Mark Bloch, a GP in Sydney with a special interest in HIV medicine, was awarded an OAM for service to medicine.
He has been working on Oxford Street, at the heart of Sydney’s LGBT+ community, since 1983 and treating patients with HIV since 1985.
When he started out, Professor Bloch’s patients had a 12-month life expectancy; today, they live close to a normal lifespan.
“I’ve been very involved in research over a number of years, and it’s been very exciting to be on the cutting edge of medicine, but also very gratifying to see how much the research has helped develop more effective and better tolerated medications,” he told TMR.
“But a lot of my work has been on the coal face, in day-to-day treatment of people with HIV.”
Former Woollahra Council deputy mayor Dr Gregory Levenston, who has worked in general practice in Sydney’s eastern suburb, was awarded an OAM for his service to his local community.
Dr Levenston has also worked in drug and alcohol counselling and has been active on the South-East Sydney Local Health District board.
The treatment of chronic illnesses and development of palliative care is an especially hot topic right now, and that is in part due to the extensive contributions of Port Macquarie geriatricians an GP Dr Colin Crighton, who was awarded an OAM.
Dr Crighton obtained the first funding of $152k for palliative care in Port Macquarie.
“I took an interest in palliative care, which I ended up lecturing and providing a service at the hospice,” Dr Crighton told TMR.
“Now that’s where my wife comes into it, because she is the former president, secretary, treasurer of the Hastings home hospice, which raises money for people who are dying.”
Chronic disease management in rural areas is an especially challenging, which is why it’s perhaps no surprise that Dr Margaret Niemann was awarded an OAM for her extensive work in the field.
Dr Niemann worked extensively in Indigenous health, helping to increase the recognition of issues facing rural and remote medicine.
“It’s been good to see more people taking more interest, there’s increased numbers of people trying to take control of the health of themselves and for their communities,” Dr Niemann told TMR.
“You also need the people who are able to work, that improve the organisation and the support and the structures and that’s hard work.”
Working in rural health for over 30 years and teaching for over 20, the late Dr John Dyson-Berry exemplified the values that general practice prides itself on.
Dr Dyson-Berry was awarded an OAM for his extensively well-rounded career going from specialising in paediatrics in his early career, to specialising in geriatric care in the latter half.
“He helped found the rural doctors Association, he was one of the founding members of that,” Mrs Julie Kelm, wife of the late Dr Dyson-Berry, told TMR.
“I suppose John was old school, he still maintained that old school persona of seeing patients outside the practice and home visits and things like that, which I don’t think the modern ones do as much.”
Dr David Iser was awarded an OAM in recognition of his near half-century of working in general practice and rural medicine. He also won Victorian Rural Doctor of the Year in 2008.
“It’s been an honour to actually be able to involve patient care over a long period of time,” Dr Iser told TMR.
“There’s been many highs and lows, of course, involved in that, but it’s been good.”
“Treating generations of families, seeing people grow up and develop, and that’s been a real highlight and that’s the beauty of the long-term GP in a small country town.”
The lone GP Conspicuous Service Medal awardee was Major Julie Doherty, who fellowed with the RACGP in 2021.
Major Doherty served as the senior medical officer of the Australian Defence Force 2nd Health Battalion, where she oversaw improvements in education, training and preparedness of individual clinicians.
Her work specifically focused on trauma care and blood-based resuscitation.
An honourable mention also goes to Queensland nurse and midwife Dr Gwenneth Roberts, who was appointed AM in recognition of her significant service to the Anglican Church of Australia, particularly within the movement for the ordination of women.
Dr Roberts is also a domestic violence researcher, and has contributed to RACGP guidelines on working with patients who are survivors of abuse.
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:
- Professor Lisa Amir (AM)
- Dr Catherine Hutton (AM)
- Associate Professor Emma Kennedy (AM)
- Dr David Law (AM)
- Dr Peter Rischbieth (AM)
- Conjoint Associate Professor Mark Bloch (OAM)
- Dr Rosalie Cooper (OAM)
- Dr Colin Crighton (OAM)
- Dr John Dyson-Berry (OAM)
- Dr David Iser (OAM)
- Dr Carolyn Lawlor-Smith (OAM)
- Dr Gregory Levenston (OAM)
- Dr Margaret Niemann (OAM)
- Associate Professor David Rimmer (OAM)
- Dr Alan Secombe (OAM)
- Dr Allan Shell (OAM)
- Major Julie Doherty (CSM)
- Dr Lawrence Palmer (PSM)
We try our best to identify every GP and rural generalist receiving an Australia Day award. Sometimes we miss a couple – email [email protected] to notify us of anyone who has been overlooked.
