Dr. Ben O’Leary

Originally from Wellington, New Zealand, Ben started exploring the outdoors while at medical school in Otago, with every possible free weekend spent skiing or tramping the South Island high country.

Since graduating he moved to Australia and trained as a rural generalist with advanced skills in anaesthetics. He is currently enjoying the challenge of remote medicine in the Torres Strait in Far North Queensland, where he is the Medical Superintendent of Thursday Island Hospital.

Prior to that he worked in Antarctica for a year as an expedition medical officer. Highlights included multi-­day sled pulling trips, quad biking on sea ice around icebergs, and photographing the Aurora.

Between work and family time he still manages to get in the occasional travel adventure including hiking in Bhutan, cycling 1000km from Lhasa to Kathmandu via Everest base camp, climbing Mt Kenya, backpacking through India, diving in Borneo, and watching a thunderstorm roll in below while climbing Mt Kinabalu.

Ben has a particular interest in expedition medicine.