Good fortune has followed John Buchanan throughout his life and career and he believes he has much to be thankful for.

So when it comes to retiring from his roles as the Chief Physiotherapist and the Director of Allied Health at Royal Perth Hospital on 14 October, positions he has held for 29 years, John plans to continue with the work that has propelled him throughout his career—helping people.

For many years John and his wife Vicki have been quietly working on a project that will offer carers of people with a disability access to free respite services.

It is a passion project for them both and new premises are being built in Lake Preston to house the service. John plans to make it his full-time focus from this month.

John collecting fresh oysters at Kalumburu in the Kimberley region.

‘There are two reasons why I decided that now is the time to retire. I’ve just turned 65 and I also have this project down south in Western Australia to assist carers of people with a disability for free, to give them a break,’ John says.

‘I’ve been devoting a lot of time to the build [of the new premises] and I am very excited for this next stage.’

Caring for people has underpinned John’s career since he graduated from the Western Australian Institute of Technology (now Curtin University) in 1980.

However, the origins of this approach can be traced back to an experience his father had when John was in Year 11.

John’s father, John Snr, had a stroke and found his way to the Royal Perth Rehabilitation Hospital.

‘I saw all the great work the physios were doing at the hospital and I decided there and then that that was what I wanted to do with my life,’ John says.

‘The work they were doing was inspiring and it had such an impact on our family.’

John’s wife Vicki at El Questro, also in the Kimberley.

John’s parents immigrated to Australia from Burma in the 1960s and the family settled in Western Australia.

While John’s brothers went on to become accountants, the thought of sitting behind a desk all day held little appeal for John.

Instead, he applied to study a Bachelor of Applied Science (Physiotherapy) and was accepted.

His career began as a graduate physiotherapist at Royal Perth Hospital and two years later he packed up and headed over to the UK to work in East London.

‘They were very impressed with the competency and work ethic of Australian physiotherapists over in the UK,’ John says.

‘Our reputation as a nation, leading the way in the profession, is highly valued overseas and it was a wonderful experience seeing how their system works and in what ways it differs from ours.’

Arriving back on home soil in 1984, John took up a role as the senior physiotherapist at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital in Nedlands.

At the same time, he began postgraduate study in musculoskeletal physiotherapy before going on to be appointed the senior musculoskeletal physiotherapist at the Royal Perth Rehabilitation Hospital three years later.

John and Vicki with APA staff including John Janesse (back left) and Gavin Hewton (right) at the APA national conference in 1994.

In that same year, 1987, John joined the Western Australian branch of the APA, eventually serving on the APA Board of Directors from 1988 to 1994.

John also served as APA Vice President in 1992–1994, a time when the Association was strengthening as a national entity.

He has contributed extensively to APA policy and governance and was involved in the creation of the Physiotherapy Research Foundation.

Giving back to the community and the profession he loves has always been a high priority for John, who says he has met a great many courageous and inspiring people through his work with the APA.

Having formed many friendships and professional relationships with colleagues around the country, John says he greatly admires the hard work being done to develop the profession by so many motivated and deeply invested people.

One of the highlights of his career, John says, was the work he did visiting hospitals and clinics in remote parts of Western Australia when he was seconded to the Western Australian
Department of Health for a variety of roles in the Mid-West, Pilbara and Kimberley regions.

Combining his passion for musculoskeletal physiotherapy with working in some of the state’s most spectacular locations made for a time in John’s life that he recalls very fondly.

It enabled him to connect with communities and help with unfolding issues at clinical, regulatory and governance levels, ranging from assisting statewide country staff with complex cases to contributing to the regionalisation of the health areas by the Western Australian Department of Health.

This experience in rural and remote parts of the state gave John a renewed appreciation for the work that solo physiotherapists do in regional areas.

‘You have to be a jack-of-all trades out there. Whatever comes through the door you have to be able to manage and it takes a very special set of skills to do that as a sole practitioner,’ he says.

It was during his time on secondment that John discovered the beauties of the Kimberley, a region that he and Vicki would spend four months in while on a travelling holiday.

‘With a mix of long service leave and annual leave, Vicki and I took four months off with plans to travel across the top of WA to Queensland and down the east coast of Australia.

'But we only got as far as Darwin because we ended up spending 12 weeks in the Kimberley and the Pilbara—and loved it,’ John says.

Celebrating their epic charity bike ride, John (far right) joins fellow team members in the 2011 Hawaiian Ride for Youth.

For the majority of his career John has been an educator—as the manager of physiotherapy services in public health, as a researcher and as a past lecturer.

He has mentored many young physiotherapists and helped them to obtain higher degrees or follow their research interests, he has inspired researcher colleagues and those on his various research teams, and he has widely shared his passion for the profession with students and peers.

‘I’ve been lucky to have opportunities fall in my lap and I have taken them,’ John says.

‘And I’ve had the good fortune to be able to travel and to help the next generation of physios coming through—many have gone on to hold top positions in business and government from when I met them as new grads.

'This profession has given me so much.’

When it comes time to retire this month, John plans to crack open ‘an expensive bottle of champagne’ with Vicki. He also looks forward to spending more time with his children, nurse John Jnr, 23, and his student daughter Maud, 16.