Meet Dr Tammra Warby, GCPHN Deputy Chair

Gold Coast Primary Health Network (GCPHN) Deputy Chair Dr Tammra Warby (47) has practised as a GP on the Gold Coast since 2017. 

She is a Fellow of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (FRACGP), has a Masters in Health and Leadership (UNSW), a PhD in Virology (UQ) and has been involved with the GCPHN at committee level since 2018 and on its Board since 2023.  

Dr Warby is a dedicated local health professional, an adventurer and one time busker who relentlessly follows her curiosity. 

Dr Warby’s journey into medicine and leadership has been anything but conventional. 

“I was born in Brisbane where my dad built a boat and we sailed up north not long after I was born and dropped anchor in Bowen, where my parents still live,” Dr Warby said. 

“I grew up there from about age 2 until I left high school at 17.  

“All my friends went to James Cook University at Townsville, but I chose to go to the University of Queensland (UQ) in Brisbane to study science. 

“Bowen was a small town, and we were all competing for university places against the big schools like Brisbane Boys Grammar, so I always thought I needed to try that bit harder to get somewhere,” she said. 

Regardless, from about the age of 16 Dr Warby knew she’d achieve a PhD in the sciences. 

“I was really into all aspects of science.  

“My Dad bought a microscope for me to look at things I’d find in lakes and waterways and wherever, including little crystal algae creatures called diatoms, which for some reason fascinated me at primary school. 

“But I went through different phases of study interest. 

“I initially leant into neurosurgery because I found reading Readers Digest articles about neurosurgeons cool, then I found myself reading about biology and, while I didn’t know much about medicine at the time, I eventually came to it, or it came to me,” she said. 

And support was never far away. 

“Mum and dad were both very encouraging and my grandad was a priest, very religious, but he talked to me about how faith and science can co-exist, and I also had a very engaging chemistry teacher at high school.  

“In fact, I ended up teaching Chemistry at Uni to support myself through my Science degree. 

“I did Science and then Honours in Microbiology – you had to do Honours to get a PhD – and then I got my PhD scholarship in HIV research.  

“I chose that because the two big funding pots at the time were Cancer and HIV, but Virology interested me slightly more than genetics and my Honours was already studying HIV,” she said. 

But it wasn’t long before the travel bug bit. 

“I didn’t want to stay at UQ, I wanted to explore, so I went to Melbourne in 1999,” Dr Warby said. 

“To do that, I had to do my UQ scholarship remotely, so I ended up at the Burnet Institute.  

“I must have been just six weeks or so into the Melbourne move when I suddenly had an epiphany that I should do medicine.  

“So, before I knew it, I was still doing my PhD at UQ/The Burnet and studying medicine as well at the University of Melbourne, finishing both in 2006.” 

Dr Warby said one of the key attractions of Melbourne was its vibrant music scene, which she soon became immersed in. 

“I was a musician; I learned the flute originally before I picked up the guitar and a couple of us would busk to pay for our food. 

“We did a bit of recording, got on the radio and had a bit of fun, as students do,” she said. 

And if hard study and the sciences are Dr Warby’s first language, extreme travel adventures are her second. 

“I like to be out on the water whatever way I can, and I like to travel, and I like mountain hikes and exploring new places.  

“It’s kind of like, where medicine and science hopefully get you from A to B –  the point of A being knowing nothing to B knowing something – whenever I go into the mountains it’s a similar discovery process. 

“And I like the physical movement of it all; when you are using your brain all day you are not physically active,” she said. 

As if to underline the point, Dr Warby chose an unconventional way to celebrate a milestone birthday. 

“I circumnavigated Mont Blanc over 10 days to celebrate turning 40, which involved a year of training because the fitter you are, the more you enjoy it. 

“I had a sports podiatrist, a physio and running coach and I took a deep dive into the physiology of fitness because I love that stuff. 

“Our high school motto was ‘Be prepared for all things’ so it’s kind of stuck in my head, although all things sound like a lot,” she laughed. 

Dr Warby meticulously plans her hiking trips a year out for good reason. 

“I’ve hiked from Christchurch to Queenstown where I learned steep hiking, I’ve hiked in Nepal, I did Patagonia which was unbelievable, the Inca Trail and Switzerland. 

“The hikes always give me a reason to stay fit, and if each one takes 12 months to prepare for, so be it; it’s just preparing for success. 

“The walks where you must carry everything with you are the most enjoyable, although you doubt yourself sometimes at three kilometres up in the air, but nothing ever comes close to that feeling of achievement,” she said. 

Putting her best foot forward, one step at a time 

Dr Warby says her study journey, like any quest for adventure, involved a lot of planning. 

“These days I try to take one day at a time, because in the 12 years I was studying full-time, I was more focused on the day-to-day than anything too long term,” she said. 

“But looking at the next five years, it’s a challenge in healthcare to make the dollar work for you…everyone’s looking at the value proposition, so the GCPHN’s challenge over the coming years or so is to prove that value proposition.” 

Dr Warby believes another global challenge is that people expect more personalised health services. 

“There’s not one size that fits all, particularly with our aging population and the labour shortage of people who can care for them in all ways: in aged care, in the home, in all aspects. 

“And of course, there will be future challenges that we don’t know about yet, so we’ll need to be ready to meet those as they present themselves,” she said. 

Married to Andrew, a regional manager for a global software company, Dr Warby continues to balance her professional commitments with her love of the open trail.   

“Unfortunately, the pandemic and other issues, tipped the balance, which I’m looking forward to righting again” she said.