LIFE Flecker House
SON OF MY FATHER DR TIM WARNOCK
Flecker House has four clinical specialists whose fathers also practiced medicine in the Far North: Dr. Tim Warnock (Paediatrician), Dr Mike Mansfield (Ortho and Sports), Dr. John Knott (Vascular Surgeon), and Tom Wright (Obstetrics and Gynaecology).
Tim did his basic training in Brisbane, advanced training in Brisbane and Sydney, then headed to the UK on 12 months’ foreign exchange to work at King’s College Hospital in London, where he became involved in diabetes research.
That’s pretty unique; around fifty years’ involvement in medicine in the Far North for those families.
“However, I wanted to work in a general district hospital, so I was based at hospital in a little town called Farnborough in Kent for 12 months.
PHOTO BY PHOTOHOLICSTUDIO
Locally raised Paediatrician Dr Tim Warnock lived and breathed medicine from an early age, gaining experience in his father’s very popular general practice in Babinda, and to this day very proud of the iconic Irish doctor.
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“Growing up in Babinda was just brilliant. Everyone knew one another and dad, ‘Dr Bob’, was a household name; everyone loved him and the local community health centre in Cardwell is now named after him,” says Tim.
WORDS BY SUZY GRINTER
The Warnock boys went off to boarding school at Ipswich Grammar. After leaving school Tim took off to University of Queensland to pursue medicine, returning home in the holidays to work as receptionist in his dad’s practice. “When I did my elective at the end of fifth year, I could choose to go anywhere basically, so I drove from Brisbane through to Launceston with two female student friends. “On arrival, the Medical Superintendent asked what we wanted to do while we were there. ‘Medicine. Medicine,’ said the girls in quick succession. I said ‘Not surgery’,” laughs Tim. “The Med Super suggested Paediatrics, and I thought that sounded just great.”
CairnsLife 62 Magazine
“I arrived back in Cairns in January 1990, just after number two son was born. At the time, there were three of us doing paediatric work, and in 1998 we started a multidisciplinary diabetes clinic. I was the medical representative for the Cairns Hospital adolescent ward project this year and I liaise monthly with the Child and Youth Mental Health team as well as belonging to that dying race of visiting medical officers. So, what does a Paediatrics Specialist do on his rare days off? “Photography. In fact, I’m working with two solicitors on a Tanks exhibition called ‘Docs Day Off’. Past President, and now Vice President of the Cairns Photographic Society, I usually put a few photos in the Cairns Show, and I’m sponsoring the Young Photographer section this year. “I’ve developed a bit of a reputation for being the baby photographer at Caesarean Sections. I pinch the camera from dad, to take memorable pictures of their beautiful healthy baby being born while the camera is forgotten as dad’s attention is entirely focused on the arrival,” Tim laughs.