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Philip Nitschke was born in the
small South Australian town of Ardrossan in August
1947 to his school teacher parents, Gwen and Harold.
Moving frequently as a child around country SA,
Philip graduated with a Science degree (Honours)
from Adelaide University in 1968, only to enroll
in his PhD in laser physics at Flinders University
the following year.
Rejecting a career in Physics but
with PhD in hand, Philip tried many jobs including
working with Aboriginal Land Rights Activist Vincent
Lingiari at Wave Hill in the early 1970s; his first political cause.
Following several years in the Territory,
Philip spent time in Melbourne before returning
to Alice Springs to work for 8 years as a Ranger
in the Parks and Wildlife Service.
Following an accident where his
heel was broken Philip needed to retrain and at
35, he attended Sydney University Medical School.
Upon graduation, Philip returned
to the Territory, this time to Darwin where he
completed an internship at the Royal Darwin Hospital.
A long-time activist in the peace and anti-nuclear
movements of the 1980s, Philip was soon involved
in a whistleblowing incident about the Hospital’s
alleged under-preparedness for the visits of US
nuclear powered submarines.
Leaving the bureaucracy of the Hospital
workplace behind him, Philip branched out on his own, establishing an after-hours medical
service and working primarily with drug users. At that time and unlike other states,
the Northern Territory had no methadone treatment
program. It was during this time
that Philip first heard of the plans of then Chief Minister Marshall
Perron and started to speak out on the VE issue and why the law was a good idea.
The rest, as they say, is history.
Today Philip lives outside of Darwin. In his spare time he enjoys going bush, drinking beer at the local Humpty Doo pub and riding his old Cossack motorbike (replete with sidecar).
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