In fact, Dr Colin Chilvers will be the guest speaker at this June’s Pugh Day lecture, celebrating Australia’s first surgical anaesthetic, administered in Launceston in 1847.

His work in Tasmania and across the world has seen Dr Chilvers appointed as a Member of the Order of Australia. 

The soft-spoken anaesthetist said he was “quite embarrassed” when he was notified of the award, believing there were others much more deserving.

RELATED: Full List of Tasmanians named on the Australia Day 2018 honours list

“You try to do the job well and do the extra things, which I think a lot of healthcare workers do, teaching, extra research, overseas aid work and other volunteer work, and I am a bit concerned because a lot of other people in Tasmania do a lot of that kind of stuff as well,” he said. 

Not only has Dr Chilvers spent more than two decades dedicated to his speciality in Launceston, but he has been a member of humanitarian medical teams at least five times with Medecins Sans Frontieres Australia.

Dr Chilvers’ Pugh Day lecture will focus on anaesthetic overseas aid and the contribution of Tasmanian anaesthetists.

He said the example set by other doctors he admired was what inspired the work where he was most “useful”.

“In countries that are undergoing conflict, [it’s about] being in a position to treat a lot of people for life threatening injuries and being in a position to do a lot of good.”

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He has spent time volunteering in Yemen, Nigeria and Pakistan with Medecins Sans Frontieres, and has also worked in the Pacific Islands, East Timor and Singapore. 

But it was working in Tasmania that helped prepare him for those experiences.

“I got a very good anaesthetist training job in Tasmania and I trained in Hobart, Launceston and in England, Canada and Melbourne, but the place I found that worked the best, was the most interesting, and where I felt the most supported was Launceston,” Dr Chilvers said.

He has also been recognised for his work as a clinical senior lecturer at the University of Tasmania, his work with the Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists, the Australian Society of Anaesthetists, conference convening positions, and his publications.

Growing up there was never any doubt he would be a doctor, it was the perfect mix between working with people and with science, he said.

“I think people gravitate to the specialities that suit their personalities … the anaesthetist tends to be more on the quiet side than perhaps the surgeons but we like to think we’re the most reliable.”