Encore: What I learnt about Australia as an Outback GP
4/16/202649 min
When Sonia Henry signed up to work as a GP in a remote mining town in the Pilbara, the experience changed almost everything she believed about Australia.
An unfortunate romantic entanglement just before her final exams left her questioning everything, just as she was about to qualify as a doctor.
To escape her life in Sydney, she signed up to work in some of Australia's most far-flung medical clinics.
While working as a GP in places like the Pilbara, outback NSW, the Northern Territory and Broome Sonia had many experiences with her patients which completely altered how she saw Australia.
Content Warning – suicide and adult themes. Listener discretion advised.
Further information
Put Your Feet in the Dirt, Girl is published by Allen and Unwin
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Clips
Showing 10 of 13Transcript preview
First 90 secondsSally Sara· Host0:00
ABC Listen: podcasts, radio, news, music, and more. Dr. Sonya Henry was in her mid-30s when she was overtaken by the desire to run from her own life. She was about to qualify as a doctor after her first career as a physiotherapist, when an unfortunate romantic entanglement just before her final exams left her questioning everything. Sonya decided to escape her old life for good and signed up to become a GP in some of the most remote parts of Australia. While working as a GP in places like the Pilbara, outback New South Wales, the Northern Territory, and the Kimberley, she had experiences which have changed her own story. Sonya's book is called Put Your Feet In The Dirt, Girl, and she's with me today to tell her story. Hello, Sonya.
Sonya Henry· Guest1:00
Hi, Sally. Thanks for having me.
Sally Sara· Host1:01
Sonya, what led you to study medicine in the first place?
Sonya Henry· Guest1:05
Uh, well, I was a physiotherapist first for actually a good number of years, 'cause a lot of people do think, "Oh, you do physio just to jump into medicine," which wasn't the case. I was really interested in sport, you know. I loved things like the Tour de France. I was a keen skier, tennis player, and I actually really enjoyed being a physio, but I sort of, I guess I wanted a bit of a change, and, um, medicine seemed like the next kind of step. And as I always say, my