MUDRIH 20th anniversary dinner a great success
A group photo of those who attended the 20th Anniversary Dinner
What better way to celebrate the best of being rural than to taste the best of local food and wine while looking out across green Gippsland pastures to the hills!
Thirty-one willing School of Rural Health staff and some partners joined MUDRIH’s commemorative dinner at the Traralgon Winery mid-October.
From the warm welcome with wonderful wine, great canapés and conversation, the evening moved on to guest speaker, Professor Elaine Duffy.
There could be no better person to pull together the threads of MUDRIH history, as Elaine was a foundation member of the School of Rural Health along with Professor Roger Strasser.
She described the early days of working in a ‘broom cupboard’ in the old Moe Hospital but, despite the low resources, she emphasised that the School of Rural Health was established on a foundation of enthusiasm and determination.
Guest speaker Professor Elaine Duffy with MC, Mollie Burley
Elaine offered high praise for the way the School of Rural Health and MUDRIH in particular has evolved and pointed to interprofessional collaboration as the way of the future. Some previous colleagues of Professor Duffy were able to attend and enjoy the relaxed atmosphere to have a chat with her.
Many staff contributed details which added to the ambiance of the event. Cathy Beamish put together a collage of slides that showed continuously on the wall, while Helen Chambers created a commemorative folder which sported a nautilus image with a School of Rural Health event timeline spiralling around the image. The Indigenous acknowledgement was led by new staff member Katie Yeomans.
The evening was rounded off with the presentation to Elaine of a superbly crafted original artwork by local Indigenous artist, Nannette Channing, who presented the gift herself.
If corridor conversations since are any guide, the dinner proved a great success, with comments such as “wish we could meet more often like this” and “it’s inspiring to stop and reflect about how much has been achieved at MUDRIH since it’s ‘broom cupboard beginnings’ 20 years ago.”