Brendan Simpkins

YOU are only as good as the people around you.

That is the mantra of Gawler’s Dr John Willoughby, the town’s latest Order of Australia Medal recipient.

Announced as part of this year’s batch of Australia Day honours, Dr Willoughby received the accolade for his service to ophthalmology and to sailing.

In a career spanning more than 40 years, Dr Willoughby has taken in some of the state’s most picturesque locations, working outreach to Angaston since 1979 and to Kangaroo Island from 1979 to 2008.

Today, Dr Willoughby is based at Gawler where he is director of Gawler Eye and Laser Clinic.

Dr Willoughby has a strong love for the Island, setting up his own winery, Bay of Shoals, near Kingscote.

In fact on his first day of private practice, Dr Willoughby boarded the Troubridge ferry and headed over to Kangaroo Island.

Despite ending his outreach to KI in 2008, Dr Willoughby still regularly makes the trip from the mainland.

He has also taken his expertise outside of Australia to the pacific islands, through his work with the non-profit eye-surgical and clinical team Vision of Islands.

The team provides medical outreach to the citizens of Tonga and Tuvalu, performing cataract surgery and laser for diabetes, providing training and medical equipment.

Dr Willoughby said people on the islands develop cataracts quite young.

“Tuvalu is sort of disappearing under water a little bit, and because of more extreme weather events there is more storm surge blowing salt up onto the land,” he said.

“They are losing some of their crops, so it is possible they are getting cataracts a bit earlier because of dietary deficiency.

“About three quarters of (patients) have a fluffy white cataract where all they can tell is day from night, and it makes a big difference when it is operated.”

He founded the charity in the 1990s and since 1996, Dr Willoughby has performed 12 surgical tours in Tonga and seven in Tuvalu.

Unable to travel to the pacific last year due to COVID-19, Dr Willoughby is itching to get back over.

He described his work on the islands as “very rewarding”.

Approaching 73, Dr Willoughby still performs around 1000 surgeries a year, but is slowly easing his foot off the pedal.

He said he enjoys living in Gawler and working with country people.

“I just enjoy country people, I think they’re a lot more fun and easy-going,” he said.

“When you are out in the country you can be consistently seeing the same person from start to finish.”

Outside of work, Dr Willoughby is an avid sailor, having competed in the Sydney to Hobart yacht race in 2012, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2019.

He won the Melbourne to Hobart Yacht Race in 2010.

He was due to compete again in 2020, however was halted because of border restrictions due to COVID-19 and the outbreak of the northern beaches cluster just before Christmas.

Dr Willoughby and his crew travelled from Adelaide to Sydney on his yacht Enchantress but just minutes after docking were notified of the race’s cancellation.

Dr Willoughby’s love for sailing stems from his father, who sailed on the Nerida with winemaker Tom Hardy in the 1930s.

He was lucky enough to sail with Nerida’s crew on a couple of trips as a teenager, exposing him to South Australia’s “fabulous” islands.

Dr Willoughby paid tribute to his staff, both at the Laser Clinic and Bay of Shoals, for their constant support and helping his businesses become what they are today.