Brian Kenneth Hobbs

Brian Kenneth Hobbs (1937 - 2004) was a medical doctor in Adelaide, South Australia, chair of Community Aid Abroad and prominent in Aboriginal health in Australia.

Life

The son of Norman Theodore Hobbs, a prominent market gardener, and Dorothy Ada (nee Weedon), a school teacher, Brian Hobbs was born at Paradise, at that time a horticultural community on the outskirts of Adelaide. He attended Campbelltown Primary School and Prince Alfred College, where he boarded after the family moved to Victor Harbor. [Pitt H H, Wicks M N (1977)]

Having graduated in medicine at the University of Adelaide, he worked in London and Edinburgh, where he studied surgery. Returning to Australia he took up private practice at Colonel Light Gardens, spending 26 years as a family GP. Subsequently he worked for Data Aid and the Aboriginal Health Organisation and as a remote area doctor in central Australia.

He retired to Aldgate and then Hindmarsh Island in South Australia.

Community and Development Work

In addition to his work as a General Practitioner Brian was a co-founder of Medic Alert in Australia and of the Clovelly Park Community Health Centre in southern Adelaide, and taught at Flinders University.

Brian worked for most of his adult life with Community Aid Abroad and its successor Oxfam Australia, serving as South Australian Chair, National Chair, and Chair of CAA Trading. [Blackburn S,(1994).] He was instrumental in convincing then Foreign Minister Bill Hayden to withdraw aid to the Ethiopian government during their 'civil war' with Eritrea, and was a frequent guest on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's radio and television current affairs programmes, notably "PM" on Radio National and "Nationwide" on Channel 2. He was also interviewed many times for national and local Australian newspapers, especially "The Australian" and "The Advertiser", on foreign aid and development issues.

Brian was a co-founder of International Development Support Services, a consultancy subsidiary of Oxfam Australia.

Brian was a founding member and President of the Schuss Ski Club, which became the "de facto" representative body for snow skiers in South Australia.

ee also

Oxfam Australia

Notes

References

* Susan Blackburn, "Practical Visionaries: A Study of Community Aid Abroad", Melbourne Univ Press, (1994).
* H. H. Pitt and M. N. Wicks, "The Pitt Family of Payneham" (Adelaide, 1977)
* "Oxfam News", May 2004 (Obituary): [http://www.oxfam.org.au/oxfamnews/may_2004/community.html]
* Australian Broadcasting Corporation Archives
* News Corporation Archives

External links

* [http://www.oxfam.org.au/ Oxfam Australia]