Surf's up --- Dr Matt Cooper

'I reckon it is a fantastic place to live and work, and there is so much to learn. I highly recommend Australia for other overseas trained doctors.'

Dr Matt Cooper from Ontario, Canada, moved to Australia largely because of his love of adventure and because he wanted to learn how to surf. Now practising medicine in the coastal town of Wonthaggi, Victoria, Matt says he has loved every minute of the two and a half years he has been in Australia.

Matt trained in Ontario and British Columbia, specialising in general practice and rural general practice. An adventurer at heart, he worked in New Zealand, the United States and England during his training. He then spent two years in British Columbia in the Arctic Circle in a varied rural practice, working mainly with Inuit people.

It was not difficult for Matt to make the shift to Australia from Canada to practise medicine, although he has had to learn about Australia’s mixed public and private health system, and some differences in drug names.

Organising the move to Australia took Dr Cooper about six months but it was well worth the wait, as he enjoys living in a warmer region near the coast. A bachelor when he arrived, he now has an Australian girlfriend and is considering permanent residence.