Christmas Dinner and Lecture
Tuesday 2 December 6.00 pm at the CSIRO Lecture Theatre, Castray Esplanade, Hobart
Starting at the much earlier time of 6.00 pm for the lecture followed by a two course Buffet meal at 7.30 pm. Wine and beer will be available for purchase at the venue, which is licensed. BYO is not permitted.
RSVP is Essential by 21 November 2013. The price is $40.00 per person. It is possible to attend the lecture and not the dinner but RSVP is still required .
For security purposes we require names and addresses for all attending. Those with special dietary requirements should contact the office.
After a four month voyage from England 29 year old William Russ Pugh arrived in Hobart on December 10 1835. Failing to secure a position as a doctor and having his offer of marriage to Cornelia Kerton, a fellow passenger rejected, he re-embarked on the Derwent for Sydney, only to discover the same situation pertained. Returning to Hobart the Derwent arrived on January 31 1836. Pugh resolved to walk “to the North” seeking employment prospects and perhaps a second chance to secure a wife. He and a companion left Hobart on February 6 1836 and four weeks later Pugh arrived in Launceston. The travellers stayed at a number of homesteads on the way, one of them still owned by the same family which welcomed Pugh on his journey.
In this lecture, based on extracts from Pugh’s diary published in the Illustrated Tasmanian News of December 6 1934 John will describe the settlers they stayed with on the journey and the interesting propositions put to Pugh. At almost every lodging Pugh was presented with a choice of career to pursue – medicine or mutton. Fortunately for Launceston, and for Australian anaesthesia, he chose to set up a doctor’s practice. The talk will provide a new view of the Midland highway for the current traveller.
Dr John Paull, MB, BS, Dip Ed, FANZCA.
After an exciting career in clinical anaesthesia, administration, teaching and anaesthesia research for over 35 years, John retired in 2007. He has authored more than seventy peer reviewed scientific papers and written a number of book chapters for anaesthesia texts. He has held senior positions in Government boards of enquiry and professional bodies. Since 2005 he has been endeavouring to discover more of the real Launceston doctor, William Russ Pugh, his innovations, his triumphs and tragedies. Not just the first doctor in Australia to offer ether anaesthesia to surgical patients, but an active scientist and supporter of local good causes Pugh set an example to his colleagues but attracted vicious professional jealousy. He was a founding member of the Royal Society of Tasmania.
After eight years research John has unearthed many interesting and controversial aspects of Pugh’s career and has now completed Pugh’s biography ‘Not Just an Anaesthetist: the remarkable life of Dr William Russ Pugh MD’, revealing the life and times of Pugh and his wife Cornelia in the bustling mid nineteenth century Launceston.
John has an appointment in the School of Humanities at the University of Tasmania as a University Associate and is the Immediate Past President of the Northern Chapter of the Royal Society of Tasmania. He is currently the Honorary Archivist of the Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists.
