Dr Peter Alan Harbison

FRCS FRACS 1929 - 2023

Peter Alan Harbison was born on 4 January 1929 at Terowie, South Australia. He was the second son of Dr and Mrs Ernest Harbison. His early education was at the Jamestown Primary School. When his family moved to Adelaide, he attended St Peter’s College. He was a good scholar and outstanding at sport, excelling at high jumping and hurdling, and starring at football. In his last year at school in the Intercol Match against PAC he was nominated as best on ground and awarded the inaugural Opie Medal. In 2021 he donated his medal to the School archive. Peter was Captain of his House and a School Prefect.

His grandfather, father and brother John, and other family members were medical practitioners, and it was not surprising that on leaving school he enrolled in medicine at the University of Adelaide. He qualified MB BS in 1952. That year he played in the University A team [‘The Blacks ‘] which won both the SAAFL Premiership and the Intervarsity Competition. In 1954 he played eight games with the Sturt Football Club [‘The Double Blues ‘]. Peter’s name is on a picket in the fence surrounding Unley Oval. He took up pole vaulting when he left school. His grandfather had been State Champion, and so had his father Ernest and brother John. Peter in turn became State Champion. He was presented with a blazer and tie to represent Australia at the Empire (now Commonwealth) Games, but a last-minute ankle injury prevented him from competing. However, he was later part of the medical team when Australia competed in Wales in 1958, attending to the general health of athletes such as Dawn Fraser.

After graduating, Peter worked successively at the old Royal Adelaide Hospital, the Adelaide Children’s Hospital and for six months as the Government Medical Officer on Norfolk Island. In 1955 he sailed for the UK where he worked and studied at a number of hospitals. He gained his Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1957. He became interested in urological surgery. One of his appointments was with the Urological Unit of the Ipswich and East Suffolk Hospital. During this time, he met Miss Joan Keeble. In 1960 he was appointed Fellow in Urology at the White Memorial Hospital in Los Angeles. While there, Joan flew to join him, and they were married. In June 1961 they returned to Adelaide. Peter had been overseas for six years. Peter and Joan had four daughters.

For many years he practised most successfully as a private urologist. At various times he had appointments at the old Royal Adelaide Hospital, the Repatriation General Hospital and at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital. He obtained the Fellowship of the Royal Australian College of Surgeons in 1963. He was President of the South Australian section of the Urological Society in 1976 and again in 1979, and Australian President in 1977-78. He was Examiner in Urology for the College from 1974 to 1980 and served on the Surgical Board of Urology in 1979.

Peter never lost interest in sport. He liked to organise and play tennis with his registrars. He raced several horses. He played golf almost all his life. He had the thrill of a hole in one just once, at the age of 80, and seeing it recognised on the appropriate board at Royal Adelaide Golf Club where he was a life member. He was also a life member of the South Australian Cricket Association.

He was passionate fisherman, and his family and friends had many happy holidays at Coffin Bay, where the whiting fishing and wild oysters were wonderful. Kangaroo Island fishing also proved attractive.

Before Peter retired, he worked for a short period in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and later practised in Darwin, where he had consulted for many years, and the Gold Coast. His wife Joan died in January 2013. Peter hated the telephone and never looked at a computer, but he became a voracious reader and excelled at crosswords. He regularly visited old or frail friends. He died on New Year’s Day 2023, three days short of his 93rd birthday.

Peter is survived by his four daughters – Penny, Vicki, Jacqui and oodle – 10 grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren, and by his partner Susan Brennan.