2006

Professor Douglas John Coster, AO.

Doug was a student at Carey in Leaving and Matriculation in 1962 and 1963. As a 17-year-old he set new records in the high jump on the day the track at Bulleen was opened, and won the Open High Jump event at the APS sports in both the years in which he competed.

Doug graduated in medicine from The University of Melbourne in 1969 and undertook surgical training in Australia and the UK.  At the age of 32, he was appointed Professor of Ophthalmology at Flinders University, South Australia. He has pursued an academic career throughout his working life and is an international authority on corneal transplantation, having published more than 300 research papers and two books. He was awarded a Centenary Medal in 2001 for services to medical technology and in 1991 was made an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) for services to ophthalmology.  
Even more than these achievements, it is Doug’s exceptional and outstanding service to the community that makes him a worthy Carey Medal recipient.   

Early in his career Doug made a commitment to achieving a sustainable long term improvement in the health of Indigenous Australians and he has been involved in the delivery of eye care in the Northern Territory ever since. He recognised the chronic and serious nature of the problem of eye disease in the Aboriginal community and the subsequent need for a sustainable multi-layered service to address the issue. For almost 30 years he has conducted clinics in Alice Springs and Darwin several times a year, not because they are part of his appointment, but because of his well-developed social conscience. On many occasions over the years, this has also led him to provide training for doctors from developing countries, particularly from the Pacific Islands and Asia.

He was instrumental in recruiting and supporting permanent eye specialists in Alice Springs and Darwin to provide more comprehensive eye care for people in remote Australia. He did this through patient negotiation with many people over many years and is adamant that a service must be led and operated from the region, not by experts based in the cities.  It is part of Doug’s character that he maintained a low profile throughout.

He established the first eye bank in Australia in the 1980s and this has served as a model for others in Australia and the Asia Pacific Region. He established, with colleagues, the Australian Corneal Graft Registry, which is the largest collection of data on corneal transplantation in the world.

Doug Coster has given exceptional and outstanding service to the community, often against difficulties and always with persistent commitment – service beyond that which would be expected of a person holding a position such as his.  He stands out from others.