Zakia Sharif: Why much-loved Toowoomba obstetrician is heading to Hobart

A Toowoomba obstetrician, who was much-loved by her patients, has revealed why she is departing the Garden City for the Apple Isle.

Dr Zakia Sharif.

Doctor Zakia Sharif has bid a fond farewell to Toowoomba, her mind “full of beautiful memories” as she heads south to Hobart to take up a new role as a specialist obstetrician and gynaecologist.

She has left an indelible mark on the lives of numerous families across Toowoomba in the eight and a bit years she spent in the Garden City delivering newborns.

After arriving in Australia in 1999 from her homeland Iraq, she completed her training as a doctor and then an obstetrician gynaecologist, fought off breast cancer, and worked in different locations across the country including Adelaide, Perth and Launceston.

But February 11, 2013, when she first set foot in Toowoomba, was different for Dr Sharif.

“Toowoomba is the only town that welcomed me from the first day I arrived here,” she said.

She began working at Toowoomba Hospital before moving into full time private practice through St Vincent’s Private Hospital in late 2015.

“I imagined myself after the first year in Toowoomba that this will be the place where I will retire and I will die,” Dr Sharif said.

“And I didn’t really think the day would come where I would leave Toowoomba and I don’t think I will ever find somewhere that will accept me as Toowoomba accepted me.”

But a combination of a health issue and professional pressures meant she needed to move on, Dr Sharif said.

She said she felt “very privileged” to have cared for “so many beautiful sisters and mothers” and to have delivered their children during her time.

“My mind is full of memories. I really can’t remember one or the other because its all full of beautiful memories,” she said.