Rural Doctors Network and CWA of NSW mark thirty years of making a difference together

Last Monday, Rural Doctors Network and the Country Women’s Association of New South Wales (CWA) celebrated thirty years of collaboration at the commencement of the 2026 CWA of NSW State Conference at Forster, where Rural Doctors Network CEO Richard Colbran gave the opening address.

In keeping with CWA’s firm roots in tradition and clear focus on the present and future needs of country communities, the conference was full of colour and energy, with the official guests being piped to the stage, a Welcome to Country by Aunty Elvena Paulson and a passionate rendition of the national anthem that would have done the Wallabies proud. The packed agenda for the conference featured four days of debate and discussion, including on community health needs.

“Rural Doctors Network works to build health access for all, but our founding vision came from family doctors in county New South Wales, so it has been our privilege to partner with a grassroots community group like CWA NSW for these three decades,” said Mr Colbran.

“The agenda for this year’s CWA Conference tackled the big issues on the minds of country people – health, education and infrastructure – so it was my great honour to be invited to participate and celebrate a great milestone and to reflect on how we can build on that legacy over the next three decades."

When the two organisations first began to collaborate in 1996, CWA was preparing to celebrate 75 years of steadfast service to country Australia, while Rural Doctors Network was not quite ten years old. Rural healthcare had been a central concern of CWA from its earliest years when it founded emergency and maternity hospitals in country areas, while Rural Doctors Network had brought a fresh passion to the cause.

"It was wonderful to have Richard open this year's conference given the significant milestone we've reached with Rural Doctors Network this year. For the past 30 years the association has supported RDN with Bush Bursaries, and we've worked together to advocate on a raft of health service issues for remote, rural and regional areas," CWA of NSW President Tanya Jolly said.

"Rural Doctors Network is so important for country communities, in delivering programs and products to improve health and wellbeing in what are often under-resourced areas, and we look forward to continuing our partnership with them into the future."

It was the foundation of the Bush Bursary program in 1996 that first formally brought CWA and Rural Doctors Network together as partners. Inaugurated for medical students with support from local government shires in 1996, the program became the Bush Bursary and CWA 75th Anniversary Scholarship for 1996/97 Financial Year, when 14 students were sent to Rural Health Training Units for an orientation week at Orange, Wagga Wagga, Dubbo and Tamworth and then two weeks in a rural community during their summer vacation, giving exposure to both clinical practice and country life.

Administered by Rural Doctors Network with the funding from councils and the CWA, the scheme has now placed some 511 medical and nursing students in all, and a recent study found that 54% were still working in regional, rural, or remote locations.

Over the summer of 2025/26, some 33 medical, nursing and midwifery students participated in placements and the enduring success of the program is explained by the passion of its participants.

“I was a CWA Bush Bursary recipient at Leeton in about 2005,” says RDN Board Director Dr Amanda Brownlow, who now works as a GP at Narromine and remembers that her bursary helped her on the journey to committing to rural practice.

“It offers the chance for people who may be ‘rural curious’ to have firsthand experience of rural health without the commitment of an extended placement,” she says. “This helps set them up for success in a rural health career, whether its ends up being a short-term experience or a life-long adventure.”

It’s a sentiment echoed by 2023 CWA Bush Bursary recipient Allie Bicknell, who grew up in Brisbane, spent her bursary at Cowra and Canowindra, and is now studying for a Bachelor of Medical Science, Doctor of Medicine at the University of New England in Armidale. “I came into Medicine not having a background in health and the bursary gave me an opportunity to see the whole approach to the care of a rural community,” Allie says.

“I was involved in every facet of the patient journey in the Health Care System. I spent time with doctors, nurses, allied health, pharmacists and I was able to speak with patients on their experience in the health care system. Having this insight so early in my degree cemented my wish to become a Rural Generalist.”

For Allie, it was the people she met that made the experience a life changer. “I have an incredible friendship with the other student I was with on the Bursary and Ros Bullock, the doctor I was assigned with for my Bursary, is very much a mentor and friend for life,” she says.

Dr Bullock is a former RDN Board Director, who has been an enthusiastic supporter of the CWA Bush Bursaries and credits the CWA with assisting her own career in rural medicine in a profound way.

“I was initially drawn to the ethos that the CWA exists to reduce the isolation of rural women,” recalls Dr Bullock. “A CWA representative warmly welcomed me and my family in 2006 when I started as a registrar, and I have not forgotten that first encounter,” she says.

“Through the relationships I developed with the CWA branch in Canowindra, I was able to establish a practice in town and am extremely grateful for the encouragement and support of individuals and the branch to do this. I hope they are reaping the benefits of having a procedural rural general practitioner firmly planted in their community.”

“Now, every year the CWA branch helps me host two medical students through the Bush Bursary scheme and every year we are encouraged by the stories these students take back to their city medical schools about their experiences living and working in a rural community.

“It seems like every time the students come is blessed, because I cannot script their experiences better in terms of the medical exposure, community involvement and what they see of my life as a mother of four in Canowindra.”

At the conclusion of their conference in Forster, the CWA of NSW reported that more than 50 motions had been endorsed by delegates and will now be carried forward as advocacy priorities for the next 12 months, including a number of community health initiatives.

The Bush Bursary Scheme is one of a range of rural immersion programs run by the Rural Doctors Network to encourage healthcare students into rural health careers, including Rural Resident Medical Officer Cadetships, the Outreach Student Placement Program and Go Rural Road Trips. Read more here.

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Related reading:

• Alex has One Piece of Advice: Take the Opportunity (Broken Hill University Department of Rural Health)
• Bush Bursaries: “A deeply inspiring and transformative experience” (Rural Doctors Network)
• “I wish I could have stayed longer”: Bush Bursary students bound to be back! (Rural Doctors Network)