into their new surroundings very well. They are country folk from way back and fitted into the country life instantly. Our faithful stayers, Dr Morton and Liz, are into their 9th year with HVDS and continue to power away for 3 hectic days every week. We are lucky enough to continue enjoying the company of SGT Heidi Mayall (she is also part of the furniture), who happily works away as a reservist a few times a month, providing preventive dentistry. We hope all our comrades around the country are happy and healthy. We look forward to reading all the other Cadmus stories and catching up with the news from around the globe.
Kapooka Health Centre - Dental Blamey Barracks, Kapooka, NSW Ms Debra Griffin As always, this has been an incredibly busy year. Kapooka Dental loves this time of the year, when the throughput of recruits slows down a little so that we have a chance to reflect on the year that was. It is time for us to work out how we can improve, write our wish lists (a new OPG machine please), do the big catch-up, and prepare for the next 6 months that will have us running all the way through to the December madness. We lost Deb Buchanan last year to the sunshine of Queensland. The team welcomes onboard Shona Graham, who has slotted in like she has always been here. Shona makes awesome vanilla slice which is a blessing on charting days. The dental crew consists of Dr Miles Connell, Dr Robert Vella, and Dr Sharma Nand. We share our dentists with RAAF Wagga. Malinda Knight is our SDA, Kate Skeers has returned from maternity leave to DA for us alongside Shona. Rachel Maden is manning the front desk and does a fine job assisting Debra Griffin, our Practice Manager. Kapooka Health Centre has a new OC, MAJ Ann Martin. She has been a great support to all of us at dental and we thank her for her support and guidance.
Medical and Dental Services Karrakatta Irwin Barracks, Perth, WA MAJ Ray Heffer and CPL Jane Roberts Greetings from WA! The big changes over here are political: we elected a Liberal Government and we said ‘no’ to daylight saving and Sunday trading. Some might say one step forward and two steps back, but we are just happy to keep the rest of Australia out of a recession! Dental is busier than usual. As we continue to keep the SASR dentally compliant for all their overseas operations, the
tempo has been increasing, since we have also supported 13BDE for their deployments on OP ANODE and RCB 87. MAJ Djordje Zlatkovic departed for private practice in Busselton on the South West coast and is expecting to be a father for the first time early next year. We also farewelled Dr Lyle Henderson once again, who, after 30 years of loyal part-time service, has finally retired! We welcomed the new OC, MAJ Ray Heffer, from Darwin. In between bike crashes (one day he might slow down), he juggles looking after the Health Centre, working at his private endodontic practice, and teaching at UWA Dental School. CPL Joanne Reed marched in from Randwick and took time adjusting to the fact that there are two ‘Armies’ and that she is now in the West Australian Army. Jo is currently on her Subject 1 for SGT. Dr Jeff Ong joined us as a full time CHP dentist. Jeff loves the uniform and he parades as MAJ Ong in the reserve at 13CSSB. WO2 Ursula Friend was here on TDY from Randwick and has provided excellent support in preventive dentistry, for which we are very grateful. The stayers include SO1 DEN and Consultant Periodontist, LTCOL Darryl Andrews. Dr Greg Gee and Liz Vears rotate between the Army dental unit, Navy dental department, and private practice, as the mighty prosthodontic team. PTE Sarah Fisk continues her annual pilgrimage on the inter-Service snow boarding trials and followed the trials with a skiing holiday with her family in NZ. CPL “Miss Jane” Roberts soldiers on and has developed a recent interest in the Australian Customs and Boarder Protection Service! Until next year, we wish you all the best from the West!
Puckapunyal Health Centre - Dental Puckapunyal, VIC Ms Sandy Clark Hello from all of us at Puckapunyal Dental. We have had a very eventful year with people coming and going, and our dental unit has changed dramatically. Carley Tolson, our Practice Manager, got married last year and is now Mrs Kelly. Since then, Carley has had another beautiful baby girl Lilli Mae and is on maternity leave for 12 months until May 2010. Sandy Clark is now our Practice Manager during Carley’s absence. She is excited about the new challenge of running the unit and it has been a great learning experience. Sandy is also studying for the Diploma of Practice Management. We have some new additions to the unit too, one of them being Adelle Gauci, our lovely hygienist. Adelle joined us in January and has proven to be a great asset, working 2 days a week. We also have Tara Banks, our newest DA. Tara has fitted into the unit well, having only joined us in May and is having fun learning about dental in Defence. Elizabeth Hemming was happy to have completed her Certificate III in Dental Assisting in February. We are still graced by the presence of both Dr Rishindra Siriwardane (our SDO) and Dr Scott Freeman, who by some miracle, find Puckapunyal appealing. Rishi has now passed his 6 years mark here at Puckapunyal Dental and is working 4 days a week. Scott has been with us since June 2008 and is working 1 day a week. It has been a tough couple of months recently. The most challenging was ‘the great flood’ which had the unit closed for 4 days. I would like to thank everyone for their help and understanding at that time. Thankfully, the carpets and the dental chairs survived unscathed. The unit has gone through a great change in the past 12 months, not unusual in the Defence environment. I would like to say thank you to our dental team here for all their hard work and support during this time. We maintained our high standard even at the most difficult times, for which I know the members are grateful. We wish everyone the best as the end of 2009 approaches.
84
CADMUS 2009