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surgery program. Aboriginal people, who were hiding in the bush for fear of being forcibly isolated, began presenting for medical care and surgical procedures. By 1970, under
Hargrave's guidance, leprosy was under control with only sporadic cases appearing. Hargrave, himself, described his work to eliminate leprosy as 'a concerted case-finding program, active treatment and the abolition of isolation (which was counterproductive since it made people hide)'.
20:
114:. He had one sibling, Barbara Kathleen Hargrave, who was born in 1928 and died after 2017 in Tasmania. John's father, Norman Hargrave, was born in Yorkshire, England and died in Perth, Western Australia in 1938, at the age of 41. At the time of his father's death, John Hargrave was seven years old. Hargrave's mother, Madeleine Hargrave, was born in Tasmania in 1896 and died in 1970 in London.
95:
expanded to include interstate doctors and nurses, and
Hargrave formalised it into the Australia South-East Asia Rehabilitation Foundation (ASEA Rehab). Today ASEA Rehab is known as the Overseas Specialist Surgical Association of Australia (OSSAA), and it provides specialist surgery to people living in the poorest regions of Timor Leste and Eastern Indonesia.
205:. Hargrave was in his mid-twenties and embarking on his career as a medical officer at the Royal Darwin Hospital. The two became firm allies and friends, and wrote letters to each other for almost 20 years. Pink's handwritten letters to Hargrave are now part of a Private Deposit Collection at the University of Tasmania.
193:
was a celebrated anthropologist, artist and
Aboriginal-rights activist who played a significant role in Hargrave's understanding of Aboriginal people, their culture and tribal beliefs. Born in 1884 in Tasmania, Pink led an adventurous and long life, developing a friendship with Hargrave at the age of
174:
Also, in 1982, Hargrave was appointed a specialist hand surgeon at the Darwin
Hospital and continued to provide medical care and surgery. He learned to speak at least six Aboriginal languages, so he could communicate with patients across the Northern Territory. He also got a pilot's licence and flew
151:
Hargrave set up an operating theatre at the leprosarium in 1962, and was the first surgeon in
Australia to perform reconstructive surgery on leprosy patients. He described the role of reconstructive surgery in correcting deformity, as 'important to leprosy control because it gave people hope and was
66:
When working as a survey medical officer based in Alice
Springs in 1956, Hargrave conducted health surveys of all Aboriginal settlements and missions across the Northern Territory. As a result, he was the first to record, at a population level, the burgeoning crisis in Aboriginal health, including a
94:
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Hargrave led volunteer teams of medical specialists and nurses to Timor where they performed reconstructive surgery on patients with deformities and disabilities arising from leprosy, poliomyelitis, burns and congenital defects. By 1995, his volunteer program had
90:
Leprosy was introduced into the
Northern Territory from South-East Asia towards the end of the 19th century, and by the 1950s it had reached epidemic proportions among the Aboriginal population. In 1962, as the medical officer responsible for leprosy control, Hargrave established a reconstructive
178:
In the late 1980s, nursing colleague Ellen Kettle brought
Hargrave's attention to untreated deformities caused by disease and congenital defects in the islands of Eastern Indonesia. This led Hargrave to investigate and then establish a new volunteer medical program, which continues today as the
166:
By 1967, Hargrave had developed a specialised training course for the detection of leprosy and care of patients. The program proved so successful that, by 1981, it led to the closure of the East Arm
Leprosarium amid recognition that leprosy was an illness that could be treated in the community.
58:
During his 45-year medical career, Hargrave was a pioneer in the development of reconstructive surgery and microsurgery in the
Northern Territory, Timor and Eastern Indonesia. He predominantly operated on deformities resulting from nerve damage in leprosy patients. He also performed the first
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people, who had never before seen white people and whose tribal land was in the midst of a severe drought. When the patrol located the Pintupi people, Hargrave examined them and concluded they were 'in excellent condition, well built, well-nourished and healthy'. It is, therefore, 'a medical
170:
In 1982, Hargrave was appointed director of the central office of the Division of Aboriginal Health in the Northern Territory Government. In this role, he was responsible for the formalisation of Aboriginal health worker training in the Northern Territory. He coordinated and oversaw the
74:
and fully examined 713 people. He organised for 43 patients to be flown by the Aerial Medical Service into Darwin Hospital for chest X-rays. He achieved their cooperation by promising to do everything he could to ensure they were flown back to the mission on the same day.
163:, who was a leprosy expert and a pioneer in the development of tendon transfer techniques. Hargrave trained in transplanting tendons and restoring movement to fingers and thumbs, and he put these surgical skills to use in the East Arm Leprosarium on his return.
270:. Surgical colleague Dr Phillip Carson noted in the Royal Australasian College of Surgeon's obituary that Hargrave's "fortitude and productivity through the highs and lows of this challenging condition were both remarkable and inspirational."
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and, in 1947, was awarded the Lance Hunt Memorial Prize. He was dux and a prefect, and graduated with a first class pass in his final year at Wesley. In 1954, Hargrave studied a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery at the
283:
After moving to Tasmania in 2000, Hargrave was diagnosed with severe triple vessel coronary heart disease. He recovered well from surgery but, in 2013, he developed severe aortic stenosis and needed further surgery.
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responsibility', he wrote in his report, 'that they be left entirely alone' and 'should be protected from further contact with white people, as this inevitably leads to their contracting diseases foreign to them.'
740:
141:
In 1959, Hargrave was appointed medical superintendent of the East Arm Leprosarium near Darwin, which was operated by the Northern Territory Administration of the Commonwealth Government.
309:
and died peacefully on 6 August 2020, with good friends by his side. In the days leading up to his death, a number of friends and family reported that he had phoned them to say goodbye.
254:
In 2021, the NT Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Health Worker & Practitioner Excellence Awards introduced its highest award, which is named the Dr John Hargrave Honour Roll.
171:
implementation of a policy that recognised the role of traditional Aboriginal medicine in health care, as well as community involvement in the training of Aboriginal health workers.
138:
In 1956, Hargrave began work as a survey medical officer based in Alice Springs. In this role, he was also known as the first Aboriginal health officer in the Northern Territory.
801:
98:
Among his colleagues and patients Hargrave was regarded as a surgical pioneer, a living legend, an icon of surgery, a living saint and a pioneer to Aboriginal Health Workers.
431:
182:
Hargrave retired from the Northern Territory Health Service in 1995, and moved to Tasmania in the late 1990s where he built a house overlooking the Derwent estuary.
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In 2022, the Northern Territory Minister for Infrastructure, Planning and Logistics approved the naming of the John Hargrave Building at the Royal Darwin Hospital.
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781:
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procedure to be performed at Darwin Hospital. Hargrave was one of the first surgeons in Australia to perform reconstructive surgery for claw hands.
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706:
370:
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Between the mid-1980s and early 1990s Hargrave had four operations on his back. Following these surgeries he experienced mobility issues.
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821:
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298:. His lung issues recurred in April 2020, and he was admitted to hospital and then re-admitted within a month of being discharged.
35:
791:
127:
739:
Northern Territory Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Worker and Practitioner Excellence Awards (26 April 2022).
555:
59:
successful digital re-implant in the Northern Territory, when he re-attached a young man's thumb, as well as the first
294:
In September 2019, Hargrave underwent complex redo heart surgery and recovered well, despite a postoperative bleeding
31:
79:
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targeted at destigmatising the disease. It attracted patients who would otherwise have hidden in the bush'.
806:
239:
ESR Hughes Award (Royal Australasian College of Surgeons) for distinguished contributions to surgery (1999)
48:
594:
671:
Find & Connect Web Resource Project, Australian Government, 14 May 2021. Retrieved 26 April 2023.
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156:
306:
71:
644:
405:
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123:
498:"The best of both worlds: Aboriginal health then and now – the Eric Johnston Lecture, p.12–13"
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MBE helped Hargrave compile the first register of leprosy patients in the Northern Territory.
796:
707:"Health policies and the development of Aboriginal self-management in the Northern Territory"
118:
681:
776:
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453:
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In June–July 1957, Hargrave was medical officer on the historically significant Patrol to
8:
44:
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Dr John Hargrave was an Australian surgeon who worked to eliminate leprosy in the N.T.
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scholarship and travelled to India to work under the renowned orthopaedic surgeon,
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was a renowned Australian surgeon whose work resulted in the near elimination of
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and on one of these occasions he required thoracic surgical intervention.
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in South Australia. In 1987, he was awarded an Honorary Fellowship of the
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Australian National University North Australia Research Unit, Darwin 1991
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Leprosarium, which replaced the leper colony known as Channel Island in
190:
23:
Dr John Charles Hargrave (Acknowledgement to Library & Archives NT)
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In the 1970s, when Hargrave was in his forties, he was diagnosed with
288:
60:
328:"Treated like lepers: Honouring the dead at Darwin's leprosy island"
70:
In March–May 1957, Hargrave undertook a comprehensive survey of the
19:
432:"Health Services in the Northern Territory – a history 1824–1970"
248:
Royal Australasian College of Surgeons International Medal (2007)
83:
40:
47:. In 1959, Hargrave was appointed medical superintendent of the
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Fleming MB, Keith; Devanesen MB, Dayalan (3–6 September 1985).
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Fellowship of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (1987)
482:. Darwin: Northern Territory Department of Health. p. 15.
451:
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his twin-engine plane around the state to visit his patients.
107:
251:
Patron in Tasmania for the Menzies School of Health Research
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Dr Jai Raman, Cardiothoracic Surgeon MBBS, MMed, FRACS, PhD
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Cincin Emas Klas 11, Nusa Terggara, Timor, Indonesia (1996)
287:
In 2009 and 2014, Hargrave suffered two major episodes of
67:
vast number of treatable medical and surgical conditions.
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WHO Fellowship to study leprosy in South East Asia (1962)
212:: letters from Olive Pink to John Hargrave 1956 to 1974.
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In 2012, Hargrave transcribed Pink's letters into a book
82:. The government patrol set off in search of the nomadic
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72, when he contacted her and she agreed to meet him.
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Fellows of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons
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531:
Overseas Specialist Surgical Association of Australia
454:"Report on Patrol to Lake Mackay Area June/July 1957"
371:"John C. Hargrave: Obituary of John Charles Hargrave"
620:"Place Names Register : John Hargrave Building"
197:At the time, Pink had finally been granted land in
301:In August 2020, Hargrave checked himself into the
117:In his secondary school years, Hargrave attended
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714:Digital Library, Health, NT Government Australia
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817:Medical doctors from Perth, Western Australia
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242:Honorary Doctorate, Charles Darwin University
782:University of Adelaide Medical School alumni
458:Centre for Indigenous Family History Studies
203:Australian Arid Regions Native Flora Reserve
812:Members of the Order of the British Empire
245:Professorial Fellow at Flinders University
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403:
280:, a disease of the thoracolumbar spine.
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643:Wesley College, Perth (1 January 2023).
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480:Annual Report 1985–86, Special Article 2
224:Member of the British Empire (MBE)(1967)
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787:20th-century Australian medical doctors
452:National Archives of Australia (1955).
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375:Royal Australasian College of Surgeons
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128:Royal Australasian College of Surgeons
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496:Hargrave, John C. (9 November 1992).
404:Devanesen, Dayalan (21 August 2020).
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144:Between 1957 and 1959, pioneer nurse
560:Royal Australian College of Surgeons
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645:"Gallery of Honour, John Hargrave"
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556:"A hero of surgery: John Hargrave"
106:John Hargrave was born in 1931 in
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822:Members of the Order of Australia
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369:Carson, Phillip (October 2020).
326:Lemke, Laetitia (24 July 2016).
155:In 1962, Hargrave was awarded a
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554:Surgical News (December 2020).
741:"Dr John Hargrave Honour Roll"
728:National Library of Australia.
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792:Leper hospital administrators
745:Northern Territory Government
624:Northern Territory Government
502:National Library of Australia
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230:Order of Australia (AO)(1995)
186:Olive Pink: mentor and friend
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726:The book is now held at the
406:"Tribute – Dr John Hargrave"
7:
689:Women's Museum of Australia
478:Devanesen, Dayalan (1986).
10:
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682:"Kettle MBE, Ellen Sarah"
595:"My mentor John Hargrave"
157:World Health Organization
233:ANZAC Peace Prize (1996)
307:Hobart Private Hospital
276:Hargrave suffered from
210:From Yabbula to Yabbula
72:Bathurst Island Mission
430:Kettle, Ellen (1991).
216:Recognition and awards
124:University of Adelaide
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119:Wesley College, Perth
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669:East Arm Leprosarium
807:Australian surgeons
593:Raman, Jai (2019).
691:. 14 October 2022.
45:Northern Territory
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527:"A brief history"
201:to establish the
112:Western Australia
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797:Leprologists
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80:Lake Mackay
766:Categories
629:2023-02-01
507:14 October
313:References
191:Olive Pink
161:Paul Brand
102:Early life
750:30 August
654:1 January
604:18 August
565:18 August
536:18 August
463:18 August
415:18 August
380:18 August
337:19 August
289:pneumonia
61:free flap
332:ABC News
305:unit of
49:East Arm
525:OSSAA.
179:OSSAA.
84:Pintupi
43:in the
41:leprosy
710:(PDF)
685:(PDF)
435:(PDF)
108:Perth
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