Medal for medical musician

EVERYTHING Dr John Gault has done in his life, he has “enjoyed heartily.”

Dr Gault has been an influential member of the local medical community, an enthusiastic participant and benefactor of the arts community since moving to Bendigo in the early 1960s from Melbourne, and is one of the city’s latest recipients of the Medal of the Order of Australia.

He’s a former chief cardiologist and physician at Bendigo Health, where he worked for more than 50 years, and was the chair of St John of God Bendigo Hospital’s Medical Advisory Committee for a decade.

The award for Monash Rural Health Bendigo’s best performing academic student in the first clinical year cohort is also named in his honour.

“I come from a medical family,” he said.

“My parents were both missionary doctors in India and my grandfather was an eye specialist, so I really never thought of doing anything else.

“In medicine I was just in the right place in Bendigo, in a provincial town, instead of trying to be a part of the big time in Melbourne.

“I liked being a physician, where you could analyse the patient’s history and then work out the diagnosis, then dictate a letter to the general practitioner with good English, spelled correctly.

“So I enjoyed my work very much, and looked forward to what had to be done every day.”

After Dr Gault moved to Bendigo, he became a founding member of the Bendigo Concert Orchestra in 1961, followed by the Bendigo Symphony Orchestra in 1981.

“Somebody was asking me about why so many doctors play musical instruments,” he said.

“I think it’s because in order to do medicine, you have to go through a pretty difficult course over a long period.

“You have to be somewhat obsessive about working.

“Even now, I start every day playing the violin or viola until lunchtime, then after that my time is free. So that sort of personality, I think, is good for music because you’ve got to practise.

“If you don’t practise, it’s no good!”