First year Intern at FWLHD wins Fay Newell Scholarship

Dr Natalie Gordon is the first doctor to be awarded the prestigious annual scholarship, to benefit the people of the Far West.  

Far West Local Health District (FWLHD) Executive Director Nursing and Midwifery, Ms Wendy Gleeson, extended her congratulations to Dr Gordon.

“I want to congratulate Dr Gordon on receiving this prestigious scholarship,” Ms Gleeson said.

“I also want to thank all of the passionate applicants who applied.”

Dr Gordon is a Ngunnawal woman who moved to Broken Hill following her appointment as an intern at Broken Hill Health Service. She is deeply passionate about Aboriginal health and rural people having access to a doctor who cares for their community.

She said being awarded the scholarship for 2025 is a huge honour.

“I’m really grateful to Fay Newell for such a legacy that she’s left, and for the opportunity it’s going to provide me,” said Dr Gordon.

Dr Gordon has applied to become a Rural Generalist through ACRRM (Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine) and the scholarship will help with associated expenses, such as fees, registration and everyday costs of the training program.

“I’ve been so excited to move and live here, to be part of the community. I didn’t want to be one of the doctors who flew in and flew out, I wanted to be immersed and get to know people, and I think that was in the spirit of applying (for the scholarship).

“I think that’s really what Fay Newell anticipated would be a good outcome for the scholarship, and I just felt that the Far West people deserve doctors who would care and love them in their best times and worst times. Hopefully this scholarship enables me to continue to do that.”

Fay Newell Scholarship winner for 2025, Dr Natalie Gordon (right) with FWLHD Executive Director Nursing and Midwifery, Ms Wendy Gleeson.

The Fay Newell Scholarship is an annual award of $5,000 funded through a generous gift provided to the Broken Hill Health Service by the late Ms Fay Newell OAM.

Ms Newell was a nursing sister at the Broken Hill and District Hospital, having started her nursing career there in 1954 and retiring from nursing in 1991.

In 2009, Ms Newell was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for service to the community of Broken Hill as a nursing sister, mentor to nurses and allied health professionals, palliative care volunteer and historian. The previous year, she was named Broken Hill's Citizen of the Year in the annual Australia Day awards for her contribution to the community.

The scholarship is awarded to encourage excellence in the education and training of students in any of the following areas and the student must reside and work in Broken Hill:

• The practice or study of medicine as a Doctor of Medicine or a speciality in Medicine
• Nursing, with the essential qualifications to excel in Emergency Care and/or terminal care
• Aged care services
• A student with the qualification and special attributes to specialise as a Doctor or Nursing Specialist to care for newly born infants and their mothers and fathers, care of toddlers, children and young adults.

This is one of a range of supports available to health students studying in regional locations, including in FWLHD.

Students are also eligible to apply for the NSW Government’s Tertiary Health Student Subsidy if they are studying a health-related university degree and intend to work in NSW Health on graduation. For more information visit the NSW Health website.