Vascular surgeon-turned-vigneron, Professor Robert Lusby has been recognised for his significant service to medicine and medical education and research in the form of an AM.
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Dr Lusby, of Pokolbin, specialised in carotid surgery which prevents strokes, and has led an interesting life in the medical field, helping to pioneer some important developments.
He trained at the University of NSW and St Vincent's Hospital, before spending time at both Bristol University and the University of California and achieving his MD.
He returned to Australia to the University of Sydney in 1983, and became the youngest person in the country to be appointed Professor of Surgery at age 36.
Since then he has been heavily involved in the university medical field, including positions as Head of the University of Sydney Clinical School at Concord Hospital and Associate Dean of the Faculty of Medicine.
He has also been president of the International Cardiovascular Society Australian and New Zealand Society and a consultant surgeon to the Australian Army and the Australian Defence Force.
Dr Lusby served in the Royal Australian Medical Corps in the 1990s, being deployed to Rwanda, East Timor and Bougainville with the UN Peace Keeping Force.
He said the experience was positive, and felt offering his services to the military would be a "good thing to do".
"It was good to have the presence of a medical force to support the troops on the ground," he said.
"They knew if they got injured they'd be looked after.
"It's very rewarding to use your skills where they're really, really needed."
During his time with the army reserve, Dr Lusby said it was important to have an outlet from the intensity of the experience.
It was around his time in Rwanda in 1994 that he and wife Mary bought a block of land in Pokolbin and with the help of their four children planted vines and olive trees to develop Tintilla Estate.
He was a pioneer in this field as well, the first in the Hunter Valley to plant sangiovese grapes.
Dr Lusby has now retired from surgery and his position as head of school, but is still active as deputy chair of the ANZAC Health and Medical Research Foundation, on the board of Asbestos Diseases Research Foundation and involved in the Uralla Shire Development Advisory Committee as well as running the winery.
He even compared working on the winery with his work in the medical field, saying that pruning the vines "is a bit like surgery".
"Like most surgeons I'm a hands-on person," he said.
"I find it much easier to do things with my hands, and I enjoy it."
Despite all of these achievements, Dr Lusby said it was unexpected when he found out his colleagues had nominated him and that he would be awarded an AM.
"It's a great honour," he said.
"I'm grateful to my colleagues to be thinking of me.
"It's recognition of not just me but what we've achieved together."
