obituaries
DR PETER ALEXANDER TOD MBBS DDR FRACR Dr Peter Tod was an environmental pioneer who published a ground-breaking work after retiring from a distinguished medical career. Peter, the sixth of eight children to Scottish immigrant father Theodore Tod and Darling Downs mother Annie Gogarth, was raised in the beautiful Goomburra valley. He had fond memories of barefoot days at the local school and riding his horse bareback several miles each way. In his later years, he would reminisce about the abundance of fish in Dalrymple Creek, which bordered the family property, and the wonderful fertility of the soil ploughed by his father with a team of oxen. Peter boarded at Brisbane’s “Churchie” and studied medicine at Sydney University. After graduating in 1942, he joined the air force and was based in Townsville and Rathmines in NSW, flying retrieval missions over the Coral Sea and to New Guinea.
Dr Peter Tod was a member of AMA Queensland for 70 years. 11 September 1918 – 5 August 2013
Upon discharge Peter and youngest brother used their back pay to buy farming land at Norwin on the Darling Downs. Despite living in Brisbane for most of his adult life this helped maintain a connection to his rural roots.
He always believed the medical profession, grounded as it is in science, should take the lead in advocacy for sustainability, as a natural extension of its commitment to human wellbeing.
He joined the Queensland chapter of the British Medical Association in 1943 and was a member for 70 years.
In 1996 Peter published Stop Thieving from our Children, a remarkably comprehensive, coherent, intelligent and compassionate work, well ahead of its time.
He finished radiology training in Sydney in the early 1950s and entered private practice in Brisbane. The radiology practice expanded and became and became Southern X Radiology. Retirement in his early 70s gave Peter time to further his passion for environmental causes. He was a strong advocate for sustainability and was especially concerned about population growth combined with rapid consumption of finite resources. Long before others were active on the issue, he formed an organisation called Doctors for a Sustainable Population.
He avidly read all the new books on limits to growth, climate change, peak oil, food security and natural resources.
He wrote with humility, yet his vision was clearer than most, and his advice more practical. Far from dated, it seems increasingly pertinent. Peter never tired from his quest to protect future generations. Despite increasing frailty, he attended seminars and discussions to engage with other sustainability types. His stooped figure and penetrating eye were familiar sights at the monthly meetings of Doctors and Scientists for Sustainability and Social Justice in Taringa. He avidly read all the new books on limits to growth, climate change, peak oil, food security and natural resources. He always had several books on him, keen to discuss the issues they raised and the actions that could best be taken to get their message out. Peter is survived by his wife Judith and five children. Q DoctorQ NOVEMBER 2013
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