My Rural Story

Shannon Springer

My name’s Shannon Springer, I was born andraisedinMackayinNorthQueensland. I’m an Aboriginal, South Sea Islander man from there, and spent a few years, my younger years, in Longreach which is in fromRockhampton. I went to school there for about four years before moving back to Mackay. I spent most of my life there. Originally I didn’t start out to be a Doctor or to be a GP, which I am today, or an academic for that matter. I was really interested in playing rugby league and I had a scholarship to play football and after I finished year 12, I moved to Brisbane to try and pursue that career. Whilst I wasn’t that good at football, I was also enrolled at university and I studied a degree in Indigenous Primary

Health Care which I studied around a whole range of people, a whole range of Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander people, which were really inspirational for me. Afterfinishingthatdegree Idecidedtostart studyingmedicine. It was through a whole bunch of encouragement and support from a whole lot of non-Indigenous people as well, that I enrolled in James Cook University in Townsville which had a strong focus around rural, remote, tropical health and Indigenous health. So, I studied there, it was a six year course and I really enjoyed it. It had lots of placements in rural, remote areas in Kowanyama and The Cape, Ayr, Mount Isa, Charters Towers, so it

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