Ms Wilkes (pic­tured right) also was the recip­i­ent of the CRANAplus Excel­lence in Remote and Iso­lat­ed Health Prac­tice Award.

When we think of mass sport and music gath­er­ings in out­back Aus­tralia, Birdsville on the edge of the Simp­son Desert soon comes to mind. 

Think of the chal­lenges fac­ing nurs­es as tourists gath­er for these events, and motor­bike acci­dents will pop up as a strong contender. 

Not so obvi­ous, how­ev­er, but high on the risk assess­ment list at the Big Red Bash in Birdsville (pic­tured below) is the over-zeal­ous response from Nut­bush enthu­si­asts tak­ing up the fes­ti­val call to strut their stuff as the music starts.

“Desert sand and Nut­bush may not be the best com­bi­na­tion,” Sue told the audi­ence at the con­fer­ence dur­ing her pre­sen­ta­tion to share the lessons learned from mass gath­er­ing events in Birdsville and the impact it has on the health­care ser­vices and community.

“Inter­est­ing fact about the Nut­bush, it can be con­sid­ered a high-risk dance as the last two years has seen bro­ken bones, sprains and car­diac issues, just to name a few presentations.’’

Birdsville, smack in the mid­dle of Aus­tralia, has a pop­u­la­tion of 106 accord­ing to the 2021 Cen­sus. That fig­ure can fall to about 60 in the sum­mer, says Sue.

“So, while the music fes­ti­val and the Birdsville Races attract many thou­sands of peo­ple, the small events also have a big impact on the town, as well as on the Birdsville Pri­ma­ry Health Cen­tre and Cen­tral West Hos­pi­tal and Health Ser­vice,’’ she says.

“The pop­u­la­tion can triple for the week­end with events that attract a few hun­dred peo­ple, such as Bron­co Brand­ing, the rodeo, the Simp­son Desert Ultra, golf events and car rallies.

“While some will say they are not mass gath­er­ing events, the increase in pop­u­la­tion will have a sig­nif­i­cant impact on the nurse’s abil­i­ty to pro­vide safe care. Whether it’s a rodeo with 300 peo­ple or 12,000 peo­ple for a music fes­ti­val, the impact on the health ser­vice and com­mu­ni­ty is significant.’’

Sue’s con­fer­ence pre­sen­ta­tion out­lined the col­lab­o­ra­tive effort by the whole com­mu­ni­ty to han­dle mass gath­er­ings, list­ing numer­ous agen­cies and indi­vid­u­als involved, rang­ing from the event organ­is­ers and secu­ri­ty to the Roy­al Fly­ing Doc­tor Ser­vice and police offi­cers, fire ser­vice and SES vol­un­teers, the shire coun­cil and locals, as well as Birdsville Pri­ma­ry Health Cen­tre staff and the Cen­tral West Hos­pi­tal and Health Ser­vice of which the health cen­tre is a part.

“We all work togeth­er to give the tourists the best expe­ri­ence pos­si­ble,’’ says Sue.

Unknown to Sue as she spoke, she had been nom­i­nat­ed by her work col­leagues for the Excel­lence in Remote and Iso­lat­ed Health Prac­tice Award, the nom­i­na­tion empha­sis­ing her com­mit­ment to every­one in the Birdsville com­mu­ni­ty: local patients, clin­ic staff, vol­un­teers and oth­er agen­cies in town; along with tourists, event par­tic­i­pants and visitors.

The nom­i­na­tion began by stat­ing that Sue, an expe­ri­enced Reg­is­tered Nurse and Mid­wife, ​“demon­strates a depth of knowl­edge and skills at an advanced prac­ti­tion­er lev­el in a rur­al and remote set­ting with lim­it­ed resources. Susan is a strong advo­cate for patients – par­tic­u­lar­ly in ensur­ing access to appro­pri­ate­ly skilled staff to ensure their ongo­ing health and well­ness along with emer­gency care response to locals and vis­i­tors alike. This includes through­out mass gath­er­ings and events.’’

Over the last three tourist sea­sons, Sue has been involved in mak­ing sig­nif­i­cant changes in plan­ning and prepar­ing for events, both large and small. Inter­a­gency plan­ning is part of the col­lab­o­ra­tive approach.

“I am already start­ing to pre­pare for 2025, lock­ing in staff so flights and accom­mo­da­tion can be booked,’’ she says.

Sue has also turned her atten­tion to cal­cu­late the cor­rect staffing ratio for a mass gath­er­ing event held in these small remote communities.

In 2023, the music fes­ti­val had mul­ti­ple para­medics and a doc­tor onsite and in 2024 they changed their focus of med­ical care to doc­tors, nurs­es and para­medics. Even with an increase in med­ical cov­er­age at the music fes­ti­val, the clin­ic in town had more pre­sen­ta­tions this year, even though crowd num­bers were down by thousands.

At the Birdsville Races (pic­tured left), the clin­ic is the only access point for med­ical care, and while the num­bers are less than half of the music fes­ti­val, the num­ber of pre­sen­ta­tions and retrievals are sim­i­lar, there­fore requir­ing the same staffing num­bers for both events.

“We are con­tin­u­ing to col­lect data to allow us to sup­port the argu­ments towards an evi­dence-based mod­el,” says Sue.
​“Informed by the ele­ments of safe­ty for mass gath­er­ing events in remote environments.

“We are doing this in col­lab­o­ra­tion with Pro­fes­sor Pauline Calle­ja, James Cook Uni­ver­si­ty, to inform an evi­dence-based work­force mod­el in rur­al and remote envi­ron­ments in mass gath­er­ing events.’’ 

The addi­tion­al staff that Sue brings out to Birdsville is com­prised of senior clin­i­cians who know Birdsville and can sup­port oth­er nurs­es with an inter­est in devel­op­ing remote area nurs­ing skills. 

“This team can there­fore take care of the com­mu­ni­ty as well as respond to the addi­tion­al clin­i­cal demand that mass gath­er­ings and large vis­i­tor num­bers bring in a very remote envi­ron­ment,’’ she says.

“With the grad­u­ate nurs­es com­ing out, there is an oppor­tu­ni­ty for the trans­fer of skills. For exam­ple, nurs­es com­ing out before the event itself have a chance to learn how a remote clin­ic oper­ates, an oppor­tu­ni­ty to expe­ri­ence day-to-day running.

“This will include liais­ing with the RFDS, respond­ing to ambu­lance call­outs, and pro­vid­ing pri­ma­ry health care for the whole com­mu­ni­ty. It doesn’t stop.

“They get expo­sure and expe­ri­ence with out­back sit­u­a­tions and devel­op their skillset – and we do get a lot of motor­bike incidents.

“Two of the girls have asked to come back next year to work dur­ing the tourist sea­son to gain more expe­ri­ence in the pri­ma­ry health­care setting.’’

As her nom­i­na­tion stat­ed: ​“Sue has addi­tion­al­ly demon­strat­ed a pro­found and last­ing con­tri­bu­tion to the pro­fes­sion­al growth of junior nurs­es through her men­tor­ship and guid­ance. Sue encour­ages col­leagues to grow with­in their role offer­ing sup­port, edu­ca­tion and guid­ance, and is known for her integri­ty, excel­lence, inclu­siv­i­ty, respect and social justice.’’

Sue has been nurs­ing for 35 years.

I’ve always gone back to the Bush, she says, point­ing out that she is a coun­try kid, hav­ing grown up on a dairy farm, she said.

Start­ing as an Enrolled Nurse work­ing in places like Goondi­win­di, she then trained through uni­ver­si­ty to be a Reg­is­tered Nurse. 

“I spent some time in the big smoke in Mel­bourne in emer­gency and ICU, con­sol­i­dat­ing my skill set,’’ she says. 

“I then worked as an agency nurse in many parts of Aus­tralia, before train­ing as a mid­wife and head­ing back to out­back Queens­land to work.’’

Sue came back to Birdsville in 2022 to do some relief work for the Cen­tral West Hos­pi­tal and Health Ser­vice – and stayed.

“This is a very inclu­sive com­mu­ni­ty, very sup­port­ive of myself and the oth­er nurs­es,’’ she says.

So, it is no sur­prise that Sue’s nom­i­na­tion also empha­sised her ​“strong bond with her com­mu­ni­ty, going the extra mile, not because it’s required but because it is the right thing to do’’.