Abstract

I was a Consultant Neurologist in Edinburgh for almost 9 years before I moved to become a Senior Staff Specialist at the Canberra Hospital in Australia in 2003. This was for a combination of reasons, including the fact that Canberra offered much scope for development and I didn’t see too much hope of that in the UK National Health Service (NHS). Even though Canberra is the capital of Australia, it is unlikely that many readers will know much about it. It is relatively small, about 350 000 people, and though the area has been populated by the Ngunnawal people for at least 21 000 years, it was only named Canberra as recently as 1913 when it became the seat of Government for the new Commonwealth of Australia.

Canberra is a naturally beautiful city and, because it is relatively new, it is very well-organized with an extremely good road system, excellent