Dr Sue Charlton AM, 1943–2026

When news of Dr Sue Charlton MACP’s passing spread across the physiotherapy community earlier this year, it was met with a collective pause – a reflection on a life that helped shape paediatric care, rural health, professional leadership and community philanthropy across generations. 

Those who knew Sue personally described her as warm and formidable, generous and steely, deeply practical yet visionary. 

For those who knew her professionally, she was a doyen of paediatric physiotherapy in South Australia and beyond, whose career exemplified what it means to be a skilled clinician and a compassionate community member. 

Sue’s work cannot be neatly separated into ‘professional’ and ‘community’ because the two were so intertwined in her life. 

Her identity as a rural paediatric physiotherapist in Mount Gambier, South Australia, informed her philanthropy. 

In turn, her philanthropy reflected her commitment to families and her leadership within the profession stemmed from her belief that children in regional Australia deserve the same quality of care as those in metropolitan centres. 

Sue began her physiotherapy career in the mid-1960s, at a time when paediatric practice, particularly in rural settings, was still emerging as a distinct speciality.

Colleague and friend Helen Burgan APAM recalls encountering Sue in 1965 at the then Adelaide Children’s Hospital, when Sue was already in her first year as a qualified physiotherapist. 

‘Even then, she was already a competent and confident paediatric physiotherapist and a mentor to me,’ Helen recalls. 

‘She was innovative and a strong advocate, always looking to promote her profession.’ 

Helen says that Sue’s influence helped steer her own professional path. 

‘Much of the job as an aide involved orthopaedic paediatrics and I decided very early on that that was what I wanted to do when I graduated – and I am sure it was the same for Sue.’ 

Although their careers later took them to different parts of the country, the two women remained connected through the APA Paediatric group, at both state and national levels. 

Sue established a private paediatric physiotherapy practice in Mount Gambier at a time when private paediatric practice was uncommon, especially in rural Australia. 

She built a service that became a lifeline for families across the Limestone Coast. APA Honoured Member and Specialist Paediatric Physiotherapist (as awarded by the Australian College of Physiotherapists in 2008) Melissa Locke FACP, who worked closely with Sue through national paediatric leadership roles, describes this as one of Sue’s most significant contributions. 

‘She was a pioneer,’ Melissa says. ‘Speaking as someone who also started a private paediatric practice, it was really hard to do. I learnt an enormous amount from her. We shared many of those challenges.’ 

Sue’s clinical focus included, but was far from limited to, developmental hip dysplasia in infants, an area where she worked in close partnership with her husband Peter, a country GP with a strong obstetric practice until his retirement in 2023. 

Sue and Peter were not just practitioners; they were advocates embedded in their community. 

Melissa describes them as ‘a great combination’, both deeply invested in the wellbeing of children, families and the broader Mount Gambier community. 

Sue’s influence extended well beyond her clinical work. 

She took on leadership roles at the APA, particularly in the Paediatric group, where she served as president while Helen was a state representative. 

Helen describes Sue as a tireless worker who played a key role in organising a national paediatric conference in Alice Springs – an event that was a landmark moment for the group. 

Melissa first met Sue when Melissa was elected as the Queensland representative on the APA National Advisory Council and Sue was the chair of the Paediatric group. 

This period coincided with significant structural change within the APA, including the shift from siloed speciality conferences to more integrated national conferences. 

‘Sue brought that rural perspective that meant you were inclusive of all stakeholders,’ Melissa says. 

‘She was a powerful advocate for rural health and for paediatrics but also for physiotherapy as a whole.’ 

Melissa remembers countless hours spent working alongside Sue during this time – meetings, debates, negotiations and strategic planning would shape the future of paediatric physiotherapy. 

‘She didn’t muck around,’ Melissa says. ‘She’d get that steely look in her eyes and you’d know she was advocating, whether for a child, a family, physiotherapy or rural services.’ 

One of the most remarkable aspects of Sue’s career was her commitment to learning, right to the very end of her professional life.

In 2019, at the age of 76, Sue completed her PhD through Flinders University, focusing on improving early identification of neonatal hip instability in babies born in regional South Australia. 

For Melissa, this achievement encapsulated Sue’s character. ‘She completed a PhD at 76; that says everything about her. My lasting memory is that Sue continued to reinvent herself. Age did not define her.’ 

Sue, who was also an APA Titled Paediatric Physiotherapist, held adjunct lecturer roles at both the University of South Australia (now Adelaide University) and Flinders University, mentoring students and contributing to the academic development of rural and paediatric physiotherapy. Her teaching was never abstract. 

It was grounded in real families, real communities and real clinical challenges. Alongside her physiotherapy career, Sue made an extraordinary contribution to community philanthropy through her leadership of the Stand Like Stone Foundation in Mount Gambier.

As inaugural chair, Sue guided the foundation through its formative first decade, retiring from the role in December 2014. 

Under her leadership, Stand Like Stone surpassed $1 million held in trust for the Limestone Coast community and distributed more than $600,000 to local causes – milestones that reflected not just financial success but also community trust. 

Sue’s influence extended nationally through her role as founding member, director and chair of what is now Community Foundations Australia (cfaustralia.org.au). 

Her work helped shape the community foundation movement across the country. In recognition of this lifelong commitment, she received the Community Foundations Australia Lifetime Achievement Award in 2016, later renamed the Sue Charlton Lifetime Achievement Award in her honour. 

In January 2014, Sue was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for her significant service to the South Australian community through philanthropic charitable organisations as well as her contribution to physiotherapy. 

Despite her professional achievements, those closest to Sue remember her first and foremost as a wife, mother, grandmother and ‘true country woman’. 

Melissa recalls visiting Sue and Peter’s farm with her own young children – memories that have stayed with them into adulthood.

‘They still talk about seeing a cow being born, riding on the back of the ute standing up and jumping down to shut the farm gate. Sue and Peter opened their home. They were generous of spirit.’ 

She also shared a story that captures Sue’s feisty humour and sense of balance between work and family; at one point Sue brought her three young children to Peter’s medical practice and said, ‘Here, I thought you might like to see your children!’ – a playful but pointed reminder of how hard they both worked. 

When asked how Sue should be remembered within physiotherapy, Melissa is unequivocal. 

‘She will be remembered as a doyen of paediatrics, especially rurally, but really across the profession,’ she says. 

‘She was a tireless worker, a tireless advocate, a great hostess, generous with her knowledge and her spirit, and a brilliant communicator.’ 

Perhaps most importantly, Sue modelled what it means to practise in a truly family-centred way. 

Even as her own body aged – particularly her hips and knees, a familiar reality for many paediatric physiotherapists – Sue never lost her love for getting down on the floor with children. 

‘She stayed young at heart. She never stopped loving physiotherapy and what it could do for people.’ 

Sue’s legacy lives on in multiple ways: in the clinicians she mentored, the children she treated, the families she supported, the students she taught and the community foundation she helped build. 

For her family – Peter; her children Matthew, Kate and Lucy; and her grandchildren – Sue leaves behind memories of love and dedication. 

For the physiotherapy profession she leaves a model of what it means to practise with skill, courage, humility and heart. 

‘Sue walked in the shoes of her patients and families but she was pragmatic enough to step back and say, “How are we actually going to make this work?” That is the kind of physiotherapist, and person, she was,’ Melissa says.