Farewell and thanks: two decades of service and advocacy

After 20 years of outstanding service and advocacy, the Dean of the College of Medicine and Dentistry, Professor Richard Murray will leave JCU having made an indelible mark on health and medicine in the region.

JCU Dean of the College of Medicine and Dentistry, Professor Richard Murray to retire in 2025

After 20 years of outstanding service and advocacy, the Dean of the College of Medicine and Dentistry, Professor Richard Murray will leave James Cook University (JCU) having made an indelible mark on health and medicine in the region.

His many career highlights include leading the establishment of JCU’s Rural Clinical School in 2005 and serving as Head of the School of Medicine in 2007, which went on to include dentistry (founding Australia’s first regionally based dental program) in addition to pharmacy and general practice.

Prof Murray also led the broader Division of Tropical Health and Medicine as Deputy Vice Chancellor from 2020 to 2022 all the while serving as a powerful advocate for the role JCU plays in delivering health outcomes across northern and regional Queensland.

After working in the Kimberley region of the Northern Territory for 14 years, Prof Murray came to JCU in 2005, and he smiles with pride when recalling how the university’s health and medical programs have expanded and developed over the years.

“When I arrived the medical program was just up and running, as were new pharmacy and allied health programs, built on a foundation of nursing and public health. Over what’s been almost 20 years they’ve all just grown out of sight,” he said.

“Back then the idea that you could educate and train doctors, dentists and others in an entirely regional location, with a mission around serving rural and remote communities and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health was radical, it was fringe, it was unlikely.

“It wasn’t regarded as something that was even possible and then you know the outside attitudes changed from ridiculous and preposterous, to plausible but unimportant, then to interesting, and then obvious, and now, undeniable.

“We’re 20 years later, and the scale and impact of JCU, generally, but particularly in health and medicine, is undeniable, and we now have a richly deserved national and international reputation.”

Professor Richard Murray: “Back then the idea that you could educate and train doctors, dentists and others in an entirely regional location, with a mission around serving rural and remote communities and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health was radical, it was fringe, it was unlikely.”

Prof Murray, who studied a Master’s degree in Public Health and Tropical Medicine at JCU, was quick to highlight the role former Deputy Vice Chancellor Emeritus Professor Ian Wronski and many others have played in the advancements of the past two decades.

“It is their hard work and dedication, and that also of thousands of past and present students across these disciplines, that has helped position JCU as a national leader and difference maker in rural medicine.

“We are producing high quality graduates who are not only job-ready but pursue rural careers willingly and choose to do general practice of rural generalist medicine,” Prof Murray said.

“Recently, I attended a national meeting and JCU was just continuously quoted as the example of how to get things done as other universities and governments, state and national, try and get a better distributed, more fit for purpose, medical and health professional workforce.

“JCU has set the pace and is regarded as the exemplar in all of this and none of that happened by accident. It’s been the work of a whole stack of people, including emeritus Prof Ian Wronski as a key individual, as well as community support and all of this was what was managed collectively at JCU to create and lead over two decades.”

It’s clear that seeing the growth in the number and scale of health services available to people in Townsville and Northern Australia remains a point of pride for Prof Murray.

“Seeing the stabilisation and then growth of the health system in our community, in hospitals and small towns, remote communities, as JCU graduates came through and were joined by others who were similarly pursuing the sort of career has been fantastic,” he said.

“Things like reopening of birthing services that were closing, many of those who were making this possible came out of the programs at this university, be they doctors, midwives, or whoever, so they’re really proving that educating and training those in these communities in the North actually works.

Professor Richard Murray: “We are producing high quality graduates who are not only job-ready but pursue rural careers willingly and choose to do general practice of rural generalist medicine.”

“We’ve also seeing more research and research education going on in the North, for the North, embedded in communities, answering questions that that are priorities

from a community perspective.”

With Prof Murray’s exceptional time at JCU drawing to a close, Professor Marcus

Lane, JCU Deputy Vice Chancellor, Academy has paid tribute to him as a passionate

and effective leader of the university’s varied portfolio in health and medicine and

wished him all the best in his next chapter of life.

“Prof Murray has played a crucial role in the development and growth of that portfolio while also serving as a powerful advocate for the role our university plays in delivering health outcomes across northern and regional Queensland,” Prof Lane said.

“He has also been an important leader at the national scale helping to shape health policy, and myself and everyone who has worked alongside him have a deep admiration for Richard’s leadership and achievements over a long period of time.”

As for what exactly what that next chapter entails, outside of spending time with his family across regional Queensland, Prof Murray isn’t entirely sure, although it’s clear he intends to remain involved in his chosen field.

“I suspect once these things get into your blood, you know, trying to make health and health care and health work, health education and training work better for communities, it’s hard not to stay involved,” he said. “It won’t be in exactly the same way, but we’ll see what shape it takes.”

Prof Murray has taken a period of leave before officially finishing his service with JCU in early 2025.

Originally published as Farewell and thanks: two decades of service and advocacy