Professor Fred Hollows (1929–1993), ophthalmologist, came to Australia from New Zealand, where he had trained as a doctor. Completing his specialist training in England and Wales, in 1965 he began work as an associate professor of ophthalmology at the University of New South Wales. Soon, he began investigating eye disease in Aboriginal communities and became a foundation member of the Aboriginal Medical Service in Redfern. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s he worked to raise public awareness of ill-health prevailing amongst Indigenous people, while pioneering treatments for trachoma and other eye diseases that halved the incidence of curable blindness in Indigenous populations in more than 450 outback communities. He also established successful eye treatment programs overseas, notably in Nepal and Eritrea, for which he was recognised with the Order of Australia. Hollows was named Australian of the Year in 1990, awarded the Australian Human Rights Medal and was given a State funeral following his death from cancer three years later. The Fred Hollows Foundation continues his work, spearheaded by his widow Gabi Hollows, who is a designated Living National Treasure in her own right.
