Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Katie Woolf spoke with Gerry Wood on the life of Dr John Hargrave AO, MBE

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Katie Woolf spoke with Gerry Wood on the life of Dr John Hargrave AO, MBE · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Pretty excited to see this bloke in the studio again.
• 0:03
  Speaker 2: Jerry, what good morning are your morning, Katie?
• 0:05
  Speaker 3: How are you really good? Lovely to see you. We
• 0:07
  Speaker 3: miss you, our old mate. We miss not having in
• 0:09
  Speaker 3: here sometimes for the week that was. I love it
• 0:11
  Speaker 3: when you text me though.
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: Ah it's okay.
• 0:14
  Speaker 4: I can actually manage texting, but Facebook, I haven't got all.
• 0:17
  Speaker 4: But I should say I was listening to you on
• 0:19
  Speaker 4: the way in and I was a bit shocked. I
• 0:21
  Speaker 4: know you went to the mad Eyes of High School,
• 0:23
  Speaker 4: but when you said you didn't know where the Sewiz
• 0:25
  Speaker 4: Canal was, I thought, I think we should be writing
• 0:27
  Speaker 4: into the Queensland Department of Education because surely you must
• 0:32
  Speaker 4: go where the Sewis.
• 0:32
  Speaker 3: Canal is Egypt. I do know.
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: I've educated myself clearly. I failed geography, uh.
• 0:38
  Speaker 4: Job, it was my favorite subject. And the sews Canal
• 0:41
  Speaker 4: has been around a while.
• 0:43
  Speaker 3: Well that's right.
• 0:44
  Speaker 4: Otherwise the ships are be coming by South Africa with
• 0:46
  Speaker 4: sales on them still okay, yez.
• 0:49
  Speaker 3: Oh dearing me, isn't it luck for me?
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: You know, when you make a mistake or when you
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: don't know something, everyone in.
• 0:55
  Speaker 3: Darwin then give you.
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: That's right. Pronunciations are a good one.
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: The line. Yeah, I never mind, though I don't take
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: myself too seriously.
• 1:03
  Speaker 3: As you know, Jerry, I'm always happy to be corrected.
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: Well, yeah, I'm not going to say anything.
• 1:09
  Speaker 3: Hey, now you I know obviously you're retired from parliament.
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: But what I love about you is you certainly haven't
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: retired from being a wonderful territory and you've you sent
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: out a press release a little bit earlier in the
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: week on what would have been his ninetieth birthday, the
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: Mensi School of Health, and it's about the on the
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: John Hargrave. Well, basically, they're pleased to announce the launch
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: of a fund to raise money to enable research into
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: the life of Dr John Hargrave AO MBE, with the
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: goal of publishing a biographical anthology of this great man.
• 1:45
  Speaker 3: Tell us a bit more about.
• 1:47
  Speaker 4: This, Well, you're prey your person you were interviewing a
• 1:51
  Speaker 4: little while ago, Linna Taro's doctor lyn Nataje would actually
• 1:54
  Speaker 4: know a little bit about John Hargrave, because Lenn's been
• 1:56
  Speaker 4: around a long time.
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: Dr John Hargrave.
• 1:59
  Speaker 4: I suppose you were someone and for a lot of
• 2:00
  Speaker 4: people would be under the radar because unless they knew
• 2:04
  Speaker 4: about him because they'd bumped into him, or they had
• 2:07
  Speaker 4: a reason for knowing him. He probably not known that well,
• 2:11
  Speaker 4: and so of course that's the reason we're trying to
• 2:12
  Speaker 4: raise money to make people aware of what this great
• 2:15
  Speaker 4: man did. So he came to the territory probably late fifties,
• 2:19
  Speaker 4: and worked with Aboriginal people in central Australia, but also
• 2:22
  Speaker 4: worked in the northern the top end, especially with people
• 2:25
  Speaker 4: with leprosy. And so he basically was groundbreaking because he
• 2:32
  Speaker 4: got away from the idea that people with leprosy should
• 2:35
  Speaker 4: be shunned and should be put in places like Mud Island,
• 2:37
  Speaker 4: which is where the Conaco Phillips is, or then Channel Island,
• 2:41
  Speaker 4: which is near the power station. That's where they were kept.
• 2:44
  Speaker 4: They were there during the war. But he was one
• 2:46
  Speaker 4: when they developed the East arm Leprescesrium, which doesn't exist anymore.
• 2:49
  Speaker 4: It's all industrial now. Show that you can allow those
• 2:54
  Speaker 4: people not to be shunned and put away in a
• 2:57
  Speaker 4: place where not to have contact with others, but to
• 3:02
  Speaker 4: go back to their communities. When I went to Daily
• 3:05
  Speaker 4: River in nineteen seventy, I mean I knew nothing about
• 3:07
  Speaker 4: leprosy except what you read in the Bible, you know,
• 3:09
  Speaker 4: that's about the only thing unclean sort of thing. But
• 3:12
  Speaker 4: when I went there, there were people walking around that
• 3:14
  Speaker 4: obviously had leprosy because they had sandals on, or they
• 3:17
  Speaker 4: had curled up fingers, and that was a sign that
• 3:20
  Speaker 4: had been affected by this disease. And I got reasonably
• 3:25
  Speaker 4: close to it because my future wife and Melda, she's.
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: An Aboriginal lady.
• 3:30
  Speaker 4: Her mum came from down near the mouth of the
• 3:31
  Speaker 4: Daily River and was living at the Daily Remission at
• 3:36
  Speaker 4: the time because she had leprosy, and because that was
• 3:38
  Speaker 4: one reason they were living there, because there was a
• 3:40
  Speaker 4: medical clinic there. So she eventually died from leprosy, but
• 3:44
  Speaker 4: when she was alive, we used to go and visit
• 3:47
  Speaker 4: her because they used to go back into the leproscerium
• 3:50
  Speaker 4: and get treatment and they could come back home. So
• 3:52
  Speaker 4: when she was staying there, we'd go down to what
• 3:54
  Speaker 4: is the road to East arm now, and you have
• 3:57
  Speaker 4: to go through a gate. They're knock on the caretakers
• 4:00
  Speaker 4: door and ask him to open up, and we'll go
• 4:02
  Speaker 4: down and visited her there. And then we got to
• 4:04
  Speaker 4: know a little bit about John Hargrave, so he was
• 4:07
  Speaker 4: the person there that was groundbreaking. He actually trained Aboriginal people,
• 4:12
  Speaker 4: Aboriginal men, and some of them are still alive today
• 4:14
  Speaker 4: on how to do microsurgery on these patients as well
• 4:18
  Speaker 4: as no Aboriginal people. They weren't doctors, they're still around today,
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  Speaker 4: and some of the stories I've heard it just absolutely
• 4:24
  Speaker 4: mind boggling that there were people here with very little
• 4:27
  Speaker 4: education and we're able to do microsurgery on people.
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  Speaker 3: Unbelievable. And so he trained them really to do that.
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  Speaker 4: He did all that, and he took away the stigmatizedation
• 4:37
  Speaker 4: of leprosy in the community, that it wasn't something that
• 4:40
  Speaker 4: you should push people away and lock them away forever,
• 4:44
  Speaker 4: that you should be able to treat it. And of
• 4:46
  Speaker 4: course treatment is now improved out of sight, and I
• 4:48
  Speaker 4: think there may be a very very small amount of leprosies.
• 4:51
  Speaker 4: Other people might be able to say whether that's true
• 4:52
  Speaker 4: or not, but it's basically being wiped out of the
• 4:55
  Speaker 4: Northern territory.
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: And so, Jerry, what you would like to see is,
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: and I think it's not just but others as well,
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: you would like to actually see, you know, a tribute,
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: but obviously the publishing of a biographical anthology of this
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: great man how do we do this.
• 5:10
  Speaker 4: Well, we've asked the Forest Peter Forrest and Sheila Forest
• 5:14
  Speaker 4: is well known to put together a book which would
• 5:19
  Speaker 4: highlight the life of doctor John Hargraves, and they will
• 5:22
  Speaker 4: do research and interview people who knew him because he
• 5:25
  Speaker 4: affected lots of people, not just those involved with leprosy.
• 5:28
  Speaker 4: He was in Team Moor and he helped train te
• 5:32
  Speaker 4: mare Ease people on facial reconstruction surgery, so there were
• 5:36
  Speaker 4: people there with faces that were distorted in that. So
• 5:38
  Speaker 4: he when he retired from doing the leprosy work in
• 5:41
  Speaker 4: the Northern Churchy went to Team or as well, so
• 5:43
  Speaker 4: he taught those people. But he had an effect on
• 5:46
  Speaker 4: other doctors because he was such a great man. He
• 5:49
  Speaker 4: did fight bureaucracy at times. Other times there were people
• 5:52
  Speaker 4: that didn't agree with him and that, but he trained
• 5:55
  Speaker 4: other doctors and some of those doctors are supportive of
• 5:59
  Speaker 4: this as well. We've got a list there who they were.
• 6:02
  Speaker 4: Ted Egan, for instance, knew of me very well. He's
• 6:05
  Speaker 4: going to put a forward to this bibliography, so that's fantastic.
• 6:09
  Speaker 4: But there are a number of other people who are
• 6:11
  Speaker 4: supportive of him. We've got the help of the Menzi
• 6:13
  Speaker 4: School of Health. So they are allowing us to use
• 6:16
  Speaker 4: their web page to raise the money. So people wanted
• 6:22
  Speaker 4: to put money towards this, and I think, look, it
• 6:24
  Speaker 4: really is a great, a great idea that we do
• 6:27
  Speaker 4: tell people about this important, the important work of John.
• 6:31
  Speaker 4: He did die last year, by the way, and it
• 6:33
  Speaker 4: would have been his nineteth birthday today. They can get
• 6:36
  Speaker 4: onto the Menzi School of Health web page. You click
• 6:39
  Speaker 4: on support us and go down carefully to what it
• 6:42
  Speaker 4: says tribute to doctor John Hargrave and you can give
• 6:46
  Speaker 4: twenty five dollars or you can have multiples of twenty
• 6:48
  Speaker 4: five dollars. So well now we just put twenty five
• 6:50
  Speaker 4: if you can put four twenty five. Yeah, so we
• 6:53
  Speaker 4: need a reasonable amount of money to be Yeah, I
• 6:57
  Speaker 4: think that somewhere. My guess is it's probably somewhere between
• 6:59
  Speaker 4: at least thir forty thousand dollars to bring out a
• 7:01
  Speaker 4: good one.
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: And any words, yet Weather Twiggy and his and his
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: wife Sheila are going to get behind this as well.
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: I haven't heard anything.
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  Speaker 4: I know that doctor Hargroves didn't work so much in
• 7:14
  Speaker 4: Western Australia.
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  Speaker 2: There are other doctors working out there.
• 7:16
  Speaker 4: He was mainly working in the northern Terrify as the
• 7:19
  Speaker 4: top end in Central Australia, and then of course he
• 7:21
  Speaker 4: did move off. As I said to Timor, but he
• 7:24
  Speaker 4: was just a wonderful man because I think people haven't
• 7:28
  Speaker 4: who weren't involved in those sorts of things how much
• 7:31
  Speaker 4: about it. Because he was a humble man as well.
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  Speaker 4: He didn't get up and make big statements about what
• 7:36
  Speaker 4: he did. It's just that the people who were affected
• 7:39
  Speaker 4: by him, and so my wife still remembers him coming
• 7:41
  Speaker 4: down to Daily River and checking the family regally to
• 7:45
  Speaker 4: find out if they had leprosy because Mum had it.
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  Speaker 1: So I would bet that there's a lot of Territorians
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: that are probably in a similar boat. And you know,
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: I just think it's so incredibly important when you've got
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: you know, people like doctor Hargraves who've done incredible work
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: for terror tos's. You know, you're talking about life changing
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: stuff here. I would love to read more about him.
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: I would love to know more about him, and I
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: think that there'd be a lot of others feeling the same.
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: Where can we go to if we want to maybe
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: make a donation?
• 8:12
  Speaker 4: So, as I said, you go to the MENSI School
• 8:14
  Speaker 4: of Health website. You just click on where it says
• 8:16
  Speaker 4: support us, and then you go down. You follow it
• 8:19
  Speaker 4: down and you'll get to a place there says tribute
• 8:22
  Speaker 4: to doctor John Hargrave and then you can click on
• 8:24
  Speaker 4: that and put your donations in. So that'd be good
• 8:27
  Speaker 4: if we'd love people to donate him. It's a small
• 8:30
  Speaker 4: amount because I think this is this is the life
• 8:33
  Speaker 4: of a doctor that really was a true territorium and
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  Speaker 4: a legend, a humble legend, the legend we shout about,
• 8:40
  Speaker 4: but someone who did so much good for people in
• 8:42
  Speaker 4: the Northern Territory and many Aboriginal people will remember him,
• 8:47
  Speaker 4: especially in the communities and people in teamor so.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, a wonderful person.
• 8:51
  Speaker 3: Oh good stuff for Jerry would.
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: Before I finished, Yes, I did you get vaccinated?
• 8:57
  Speaker 3: How did it go?
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: Oh?
• 8:58
  Speaker 2: I hard even knew they did it?
• 8:59
  Speaker 3: Really? Yeah?
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: Yeah. My wife went too.
• 9:04
  Speaker 4: She kept asked me what it was for, because that's
• 9:06
  Speaker 4: part of the part of the problem with dementia, unfortunately.
• 9:09
  Speaker 4: But she was happy to go. And there was lots
• 9:12
  Speaker 4: of rural people. I went to the Hope to do one,
• 9:14
  Speaker 4: lots of people. It was like going back and having
• 9:16
  Speaker 4: a bit of a armed as all the people I
• 9:17
  Speaker 4: hadn't seen for a long time, so it was very nice.
• 9:20
  Speaker 4: And look, I'm one of those who very much supports vaccination.
• 9:24
  Speaker 4: I'm one who had polio, and I know that if
• 9:27
  Speaker 4: the vaccination had been around when I was very young,
• 9:30
  Speaker 4: I would not not have had polio. So I've got
• 9:32
  Speaker 4: an arm that doesn't quite work as well as it should,
• 9:35
  Speaker 4: and I just say to people, look, don't listen to
• 9:38
  Speaker 4: the anti vacks. It is important that we control this disease.
• 9:41
  Speaker 4: And I'm an example of where when it's not controlled,
• 9:44
  Speaker 4: what has happened only mild. But I know that many
• 9:47
  Speaker 4: of my people in my age, and I was in
• 9:49
  Speaker 4: hospital with quite a few of them who had polio,
• 9:53
  Speaker 4: it was a terrible disease, and vaccination changed that. In fact,
• 9:57
  Speaker 4: polio I think is nearly wiped out out due to
• 10:00
  Speaker 4: the help of Rotrie and Bill Gates. I think maybe
• 10:04
  Speaker 4: in one African country left, and if it can get
• 10:08
  Speaker 4: wiped out altogether, so many children will have a much
• 10:10
  Speaker 4: better future.
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: So much important.
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: It's a very powerful message, Jerry, that one. I think
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: you hit the nail on the head there, and what
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: a good example to give.
• 10:19
  Speaker 3: I really appreciate you coming in this morning. I've missed you.
• 10:22
  Speaker 3: We're gonna have to get you in a bit more often. OK,
• 10:26
  Speaker 3: that's Jerry Wood there