When Ron and Maree Tomkins made the move north for Ron’s internship at Mooroopna Hospital, Maree thought it was for two years.
That was nearly 50 years ago.
General practice, delivering babies, administering anaesthetics, chemotherapy, sports training and surgical assisting, Ron had — as many rural doctors do — a career with the lot.
In January, Ron hung up the stethoscope, satisfied with a career including 46 years as a GP with Princess Park Clinic in Shepparton.
“One of my patients I said goodbye to recalled bringing her daughter in to see me in my first year of general practice, and crediting me with saving her daughter’s life,” Ron said.
“She stuck by with me for all those years.
“I had mixed emotions when I did say I was retiring because I’ve had a good connection with a lot of patients along the way and a lot of well wishes in the past few weeks.”
Born and bred in Pakenham, Ron married Maree during his fifth year studying medicine at the University of Melbourne.
Ron’s career locally has been bookended by floods.
He joined Mooroopna Hospital as an intern in 1974 — when thousands were evacuated as the Goulburn River swelled to 12.09m — and retired just months after the October 2022 event, which fell 0.3m shy of that peak.
Despite a wet welcome, Ron said that first year in Mooroopna he was thrown in the deep end and it was one of the best of his career.
“That first year of my working life I said, this is the place for us,” he said.
“We were well received, because it was unusual for anybody at that time to choose Mooroopna Hospital as their first choice to work as an intern.
“So I was welcomed with open arms and not only treated well, respected, but I also thrived on the responsibility that was thrown upon me.”
In his second year at the hospital, Ron worked under obstetrician gynaecologist John Hetherington, who recommended him as a new associate to the GP clinic on the corner of Maude and Knight Sts.
He joined Arthur Dickmann, Frank Harder and John Gibb at the clinic running at the back of Dr Dickmann’s house.
“After 12 months I said to my colleague at the time, being a young upstart, ‘these facilities are not very good — too hot in summer, too cold in winter’,” Ron said.
So in 1978 they moved to 3 Nixon St, Shepparton — a new, purpose-built centre where it got the name Princess Park Clinic — and at the age of 28, Ron took on the practice manager role.
But that wasn’t enough to keep him busy.
On top of his general practice work he was delivering babies, doing anaesthetics and, with surgeon Ian Gunn, helped establish the oncology clinic at the then Goulburn Valley Base Hospital where he administered chemotherapeutic drugs to patients with advanced cancer.
Further down the track Ron felt a calling towards sports medicine and travelled to Melbourne once a week for extra training, and he went on to teach other local people to become sports trainers.
“As the years went by I thought I was taking on a bit too much, so the baby delivering went by the wayside and I also recognised my anaesthetic skills probably weren’t up to taking on complicated cases, and I let that lapse as well,” he said.
Instead Ron took on a role that became one of his most fulfilling; surgical assisting for 30 years with orthopaedic surgeon Richard Horton.
“Working one day a week surgical assisting was very enlightening, looking at what’s under the skin and repairing people’s joints, things like that,” he said.
Reflecting on his career, Ron said that time was something that stood out, but it was cut short when Dr Horton tragically died in a car accident on the way to work in 2014.
“The moment he was no longer with us I just didn’t feel I could work with anybody else, we had a very strong relationship,” he said.
Throughout a career spanning decades, Ron saw many technological changes in medicine, including computerisation in the 1990s — when Ron admitted himself to be “very computer naïve”.
Recognising this and the growth of the clinic, Ron and other partners decided to get a new practice manager in and then in the early 2000s moved to where the clinic is now at 172 Welsford St.
During his working life Ron also took on the role of being a designated aviation medical examiner, doing medical examinations of pilots, and was a medical officer of health, which saw him administering vaccinations.
Across a broad practice area Ron has had to keep up to date with continuous education, going to conferences and reading journals.
“My career has been very satisfying and fulfilling, there’s no doubt about that,” he said.
“Times have changed, my patient clientele from seeing anything and everything right across the board from all ages, tended to then focus mainly on the older generations.
“It’s never been dull, there’s always been something new that will crop up.”
It took a bit longer than Maree perhaps expected in 1974, but Ron and Maree have moved back to Melbourne and look forward to travel and spending time with family, including three grandchildren.