Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

HART Gavin BSc (Hons) MD BS MPH (Harvard)

FRACMA FACSHP

1939-

Gavin Hart was born in Yorketown, South Australia, on 17th May 1939. He was the son of Keith Hart, a farmer and long serving councillor and Mayor of Edithburgh and Frieda Louisa, nee Gericke.  Hart went to primary school at Edithburgh and high school at Minlaton and Adelaide High School.  He was awarded the top scholarship for year 12, the Archibald Henry Peake Bursary, in 1956. He went to the Adelaide Teachers College, on leaving school from 1957 until 1960 and did not complete his Diploma of Education as he then went to the University of Adelaide where he completed his B Sc (Hons) in Organic Chemistry in 1961. He taught at the Adelaide High School for a short time after completing his BSc. He moved to Papua New Guinea (PNG) as a Patrol Officer in 1962 and an agricultural chemist in PNG from 1963-1964.  Whilst in PNG, he married Astrid Heyne in Port Moresby.  Astrid was born in Soekaboemi in Java.  She spent her early years in a prisoner of war camp with her mother.  Hart and Astrid had three children between 1967 and 1973. They returned to Australia and he commenced medicine, at the University of Adelaide, graduating in 1969. Hart was awarded the Australian Medical Association Leadership award in 1970.

Hart had volunteered for the CMF and served from 1963 to 1966 before joining the regular Army in 1967, studying medicine under the Medical Undergraduate Scheme. He undertook military training at Healesville, adjacent to the Healesville Sanctuary in Victoria. Hart found the course physically demanding but enjoyed the company and comradeship of other health professionals taking the course with him.  It was at the end of the 12 week course that he was offered a posting to 1st Aust Fd Hosp, in Vung Tau, Vietnam, the location of the 1st Australian Support Group.  Despite being away from his family he thought that the unique experience of war trauma would be beneficial to his medical practice. He describes his time in Vietnam where he gained much experience in trauma surgery from treating soldiers with bullet or shrapnel wounds saying “…a pinhole wound in the neck may be produced by a fragment which comes to rest in the pelvis, after destroying much of the liver, and perforating the bowel” . Many of the patients required large blood transfusions and hospital staff would regularly donate their blood during a patients operation. He also served for a short period of time in 8 FdAmb at Nui Dat, where he looked after short term stay, low level care patients.  It was not all work and recreation hours would be spent at the Peter Badcoe Club which had a swimming pool and tennis court. During this posting the dentist introduced him to the functions of the Stock Exchange, which was the stimulus for his lifelong interest in stocks and shares. Hart, like other medical officers, provided services to some of the civilian people in nearby villages. It was while in Vietnam that he became interested in the problem of sexually transmitted diseases amongst military personnel. He found that the Army treatment guidelines, especially for gonorrhoea, to be inappropriate.  After discussions with John Pearn, a paediatrician from Queensland he was to take charge of the STD clinic and, at this stage, was able to collect data for his thesis. He was then posted as RMO and 2 IC of 1 Aust Fd Hosp.  When his CO, Lieutenant Colonel Mike Naughton, moved to Saigon as ADMS, Hart was pressed to become his deputy and promoted to major in 1971. This posting brought him in contact with the Australian Army Training Team as part of his duties as their regular doctor. Hart had eight weeks leave, on return to Australia, and then was appointed CO at Taurama Medical Centre in PNG from 1972 to 1973.  During this posting he also worked as an anaesthetist in Port Moresby Hospital.  After this posting he left the regular Army and continued in the CMF from 1974 until 1978. He wrote a number of papers relating to the impact of sexually transmitted disease on soldiers during the Vietnam War.  His papers included detailed documentation of the activities of the local prostitutes and their pimps.  This area of clinical work was not well managed by consultants, on short term postings, who had little experience in the field, or indeed the Army. Hart had considerable contact with the United States medical services in sexually transmitted disease, especially the evacuation hospitals, which provided a higher level specialist service to soldiers transferred to them. He commenced the field work for a thesis for a Doctorate of Medicine, using material from the Army and in PNG.  He enrolled in his doctorate in December 1972 and submitted it on 2nd December 1973, the day after he ceased active military service.  He was awarded the Doctorate by the Adelaide University Council on 7th May 1975 in absentia.  He was issued with the Australian Vietnam Medal and Vietnamese Medal. He is also entitled to the Active Service Medal and Australian Defence Medal.

After his return from Vietnam, Hart commenced civilian employment as a Clinical Assistant in the Venereal Disease Control Centre in South Australia, in 1974. This was then followed by a period in the United States from 1974 to 1976 as a Visiting Specialist at the Centre for Disease Control, Atlanta, Georgia and, on a NHMRC Fellowship, at Harvard University. He was given a Certificate of Appreciation from the Centre for Disease Control. He worked in Western Australia from 1977 to 1980 in Community and Child Health and in addition he was a Lecturer at Western Australia Institute of Technology and Claremont Teachers College. He was employed by the South Australian Health Commission (SAHC), on return to Adelaide from 1981, as an Epidemiologist and was a Lecturer at Flinders University of South Australia. Hart became a leading expert on the transmission of and treatment of STDs and was Associate Professor and Director of the Sexually Transmitted Disease Control Branch of the SAHC, later of the Royal Adelaide Hospital, from 1986 to 2007, becoming the expert voice in South Australia on HIV/AIDS. Hart always maintained his association with Flinders University. This had been interrupted by a period from1996 to 1998 as Technical Director Sexual Health and HIV/AIDS Prevention and Care Project PNG.

He was a World Health Organisation Consultant. Many activities linked him to a number of other countries in his medical specialist role and as an educator over the years from 1978 to 2001. Hart was made an Honorary Fellow of the College of Venereologists of Sri Lanka in 2001, for his work in implementing a 5 year STD control plan. In pursuit of his interests in STDs and in natural history he has visited many countries including Madagascar, Galapagos Islands, Okavango Delta, Canada, Alaska, Amazon Basin and the Andes Mountains. He continues with his many interests including gardening, especially growing fruit, and natural history.  He lives in Eden Hills.

Sources

Blood, Sweat and Fears II: Medical Practitioners of South Australia on Active Service After World War 2 to Vietnam 1945-1975.

Summers, Swain, Jelly, Verco. Open Book Howden, Adelaide 2016

Uploaded by Annette Summers AO RFD