Following the 2023 RDN Annual General Meeting at Coogee on Friday, Professor Peter O’Mara was confirmed as the new Chair of RDN. Professor O’Mara takes up the position after serving as a Board Appointed RDN Director, and brings a wealth of experience to the role. Professor O’Mara replaces Associate Professor John Kramer OAM, who is stepping down after three years in accordance with RDN’s Articles.

In recent weeks, the RDN Outreach team has been continuing its annual round of regional stakeholder meetings across NSW. The federally funded Outreach program works to increase access to healthcare services for rural, remote and Aboriginal communities and has proved highly successful.

RDN is funded to deliver The Medical Outreach Indigenous Chronic Disease Program (MOICDP) in NSW and the ACT and has been able to support a 24 week exercise program delivered by Christine Bolt at Greater Western Aboriginal Health Service (GWAHS) in Katoomba.

Last Monday 17 February, the community of Walgett commemorated the 60th anniversary of the Freedom Ride's visit to Walgett.

RDN had an extraordinary opportunity to participate in a rural health knowledge exchange and site visits in British Columbia (BC), Canada recently, in an effort to foster further collaboration and enhance solidarity and knowledge exchange.

A program on the Central Coast for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people living with a chronic condition is being praised as a “life-changer”.

Last Monday 8 September, Rural Doctors Network welcomed around 800 students, parents and teachers from more than 50 public, Catholic and independent high schools to the ICC, Darling Harbour, for RDN’s inaugural Rural Health Pathways Showcase.

On the October long weekend, RDN staff took to the sidelines of the 2025 NSW Aboriginal Rugby League Knockout (aka the “Koori Knockout”) as part of the Western NSW Eye Health Partnership (WNSWEHP) and its aim to increase access to eye health services and, ultimately, reduce the rate of avoidable vision loss in Aboriginal communities across Western NSW.

Senior Project Officer Jess Rae and Program Support Officer Tori Towney from the Western NSW Eye Health Partnership (WNSWEHP) recently hit the road to deliver a series of targeted education sessions on diabetic eye disease with staff from Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services (ACCHS) across the region.

The Outreach community witnessed a significant retirement earlier in the year, as optometrist Tony Lord stepped away from the practice in which he has helped generations of central western NSW locals maintain the clarity of their eyesight so they could continue to appreciate the “vision splendid of the sunlit plains extended”, as Banjo Paterson once wrote in conveying something of the beauty of the region.

The community of Quirindi, on the fertile Liverpool Plains of NSW, is celebrating the arrival of new doctors, following a successful recruitment drive supported by RDN Health through the Collaborative Care Program.