Prof Chater has been a rural practitioner in rural Australia for 38 years. He was the founding convenor of the Rural Doctors Associations of Queensland and Australia as well as the National Rural Health Alliance. He has been President of the Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine. He is Secretary of the WONCA Working Party on Rural Practice and Head of Discipline Rural and Remote Medicine, University of Queensland. He has a keen interest in Rural Health Policy as it effects rural communities as well as the clinical aspects of rural practice.