Dr Tatum Bond

Emergency Specialist & DEMT, Cairns Base Hospital

A proud Ngajanji woman living and working on Girrumay Wallaburra Yindinji land, Tatum is a full-time Emergency Specialist and DEMT at Cairns Base Hospital, and a casual Retrieval MO with Cairns RFDS. A long-serving member of ACEM’s Reconciliation Action Plan Steering Group, she mentors First Nations doctors and hopes to see more Indigenous FACEMs through training.

Dr John Waterfield

Emergency Physician, Townsville University Hospital

Originally from Gloucester in the UK, John graduated from the University of Birmingham Medical School before emigrating to Australia in 2014. He completed his Emergency Medicine Fellowship in 2022 and now splits his time as a Staff Specialist at Townsville University Hospital and a Pre-hospital and Retrieval Specialist with LifeFlight Retrieval Medicine. He has also served as an expedition medical officer for Intrepid Travel across their 2024 and 2025 seasons. Outside medicine, he’s often found on the golf course, or hiking with his wife and their two dogs, Dave and Tilly.

Dr Shannon Baso

FACEM & Clinical Toxicology Fellow, Cairns Hospital / NSW Poisons Information Centre

Shannon is a FACEM and Clinical Toxicology Fellow at Cairns Hospital and the NSW Poisons Information Centre. Firmly team Snake — bring her a live one, not a dead one, or she will judge you — she’s considerably less keen on team Spider, and grateful FNQ has no funnel-webs to test that theory.

Dr Sarah Fairhall

Rural Generalist, Allergy & Paediatrics, Cairns Hospital

Sarah is a Rural Generalist with a special interest in allergy and paediatrics, working across paediatric and adult allergy services at Cairns Hospital. She’s focused on making allergy medicine practical, evidence-based and accessible — for patients and parents as well as clinicians working outside specialist settings.

Dr Adam Holyoak

Critical Care Specialist, Townsville University Hospital

Adam works in a variety of roles across North Queensland — as a critical care specialist at Townsville University Hospital, in pre-hospital and retrieval medicine for LifeFlight, and as a Rural Generalist and Rural Generalist Anaesthetist in the Torres Strait. His research interests centre on toxinology, coagulation and trauma.

Dr Stephen Whebell

Intensivist & ICU ECMO Lead, Townsville University Hospital

A North Queensland local and JCU graduate, Steve completed an ECMO and severe respiratory failure fellowship in London in 2020 — excellent timing professionally, poor timing in every other respect. His true passion is mechanical ventilation and high-frequency waveform analysis, a topic he promises not to talk about.

Dr Colin Banks

ED Physician, Townsville University Hospital

Colin is an ED physician at Townsville University Hospital, drawn into research by the frustration of watching countless unnecessary CTPAs turn up clinically unimportant PEs. His answer: get serious about safely minimising imaging — hence the ongoing obsession with the D-dimer threshold.

Dr Amanda McConnell

Emergency Physician, Cairns & Founder, TEM Connect

Amanda is an Emergency Physician in Cairns and the founder of TEM Connect. She has research and clinical interests in trauma, infectious diseases, regional and remote medicine and clinical forensics. Outside work, she’s usually planning the next hike, lifting something at the gym, hunting for the perfect mid-century house, or pretending life is under control with good coffee and loud music.

Dr Katrina Starmer

FACEM FACRRM, Cairns Hospital & Royal Flying Doctor Service

Katrina is a dual fellow in Emergency and Rural and Remote medicine. She works at Cairns Hospital and for the Royal Flying Doctor Service. Her work involves the Powerful Pictures Study, which seeks to improve the current models of care used to detect underlying heart disease in First Nations Peoples.

Dr Colin Banks

ED Physician, Townsville University Hospital

Colin is an ED physician at Townsville University Hospital, drawn into research by the frustration of watching countless unnecessary CTPAs turn up clinically unimportant PEs. His answer: get serious about safely minimising imaging — hence the ongoing obsession with the D-dimer threshold.

Dr Amy Neilson

Senior Rural Generalist & Senior Lecturer, Medical Education, JCU

Amy is a Senior Rural Generalist with Advanced Specialised Training in Emergency Medicine, and an academic, writer and speaker. Since 2014 she’s worked extensively in medical humanitarian aid across disease outbreak and conflict settings, and is no stranger to FNQ, having worked in Mount Isa, Doomadgee, Mornington Island and Bamaga.