A Rural Generalist doctor who has served the Queensland community of Stanthorpe for over 30 years – while also training countless future doctors both in Queensland and the Pacific Islands – has received the ACRRM-RDAA Peter Graham ‘Cohuna’ Award for 2026.
Dr Dan Manahan received the Award at a special dinner in Brisbane this week, as he is unable to attend the official ACRRM and RDAA awards dinner at the Rural Medicine Australia conference in Adelaide later this month.
The Award is the highest conferred by the Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine (ACRRM) and Rural Doctors Association of Australia (RDAA).
Since arriving in Stanthorpe in 1996 with his wife Jacinta (a registered midwife), Dr Manahan has served the community and wider region with unwavering commitment. He and Jacinta loved Stanthorpe so much they raised their four (now adult) children there. They have since gone on to follow varied career paths including in performing arts, law, medicine and carpentry.
Dr Manahan has provided much-needed health services across the Darling Downs region, in areas including emergency care, obstetrics, anaesthetics, palliative care and community general practice. He has also held senior clinical leadership roles within the region’s Darling Downs Hospital and Health Service.
He has worked in Aboriginal Medical Services and outreach clinics in Queensland and nearby NSW communities including Carbal, Armajun and Goondir, and undertaken remote locums in areas of need including Doomadgee, Mornington Island, Cooktown and Weipa.
For decades, he has also been a significant contributor to the work of ACRRM, other medical colleges and university medical schools, teaching and supervising hundreds of medical students and junior doctors, and helping develop numerous medical training curricula.
In addition, he was the Foundational Medical Advisor for Queensland’s Rural Generalist Pathway, launched in 2007, helping to shape the Pathway into the internationally recognised model for rural doctor training it is today.
Since 2016 he has been an active volunteer (including Chair) with Rocketship Pacific – a non-profit organisation dedicated to improving health in the Pacific Islands through stronger medical education in primary care – travelling to the Pacific Island nations regularly to train local doctors and establish future training programs.
In congratulating Dr Manahan, ACRRM President Dr Rod Martin said:
“Dan is a true ‘local hero’ not only in Stanthorpe but across the rural medical sector as a whole, and a shining example of the breadth of skills and dedication that Rural Generalists bring to their communities.
“He is widely respected by his patients as a doctor who listens and cares, reflecting the warm, holistic, people-centred approach he brings to his work. He also has a great sense of humour which he brings to his consultations with patients and his training sessions with medical students and junior doctors.
“We are incredibly grateful for the significant contribution he has made to ACRRM over many years, from writing the first ACRRM Anaesthetics Core Curriculum through to providing training and clinical supervision for our Rural Generalist trainees for over 20 years.
“It is particularly poignant that Dan has received this Award in a year in which Rural Generalist Medicine has become truly recognised as a medical specialty in Australia, given he played such a pinnacle role in establishing the Rural Generalist Pathway in Queensland. This essentially set the critical foundation for the national recognition of Rural Generalist Medicine we see today.
“The Peter Graham ‘Cohuna’ Award is significant recognition of the enormous contribution that Dan has made to Rural Generalist Medicine throughout his career, and it is very richly deserved.”
RDAA President Professor Sarah Chalmers added:
“Dan’s commitment to Medicine shines brightly not only in Stanthorpe, the Darling Downs and Pacific Islands, but also through the many hours he has devoted to clinical teaching, supervision and curriculum development.
“His passion for Rural Medicine, for providing comprehensive care for rural and remote patients, and for teaching and training the next generation of rural doctors, is nothing short of inspiring.
“Importantly too, he has been a guiding light in encouraging junior doctors – including those on his own teams – to achieve work-life balance and spend time with their family, not just their job. Hearing this coming from a senior doctor makes rural practice much more enticing for our younger colleagues.
“He was also an early mentor to some of Australia’s most influential rural doctors, with past presidents of ACRRM, RDAA and the Rural Doctors Association of Queensland (RDAQ) training and/or consolidating their rural clinical skills under Dan’s guidance. Among numerous awards, he was recognised for the immense contribution he has made to Rural Medicine with RDAQ’s Meritorious Service Award in 2012.
“Many a junior doctor has been subjected to memorable ward rounds under Dan’s supervision, linked to days such as Talk Like A Pirate Day, karaoke challenges, and a day where all the doctors wore black tie on their ward rounds – it’s not something you see every day, but it made for an entertaining day… especially for the patients!”
Dr Manahan studied Medicine at the University of Queensland with the assistance of a Queensland Health Rural Scholarship.
During his training years, he worked casual jobs as a wardsman, dogman, Mr Whippy Man, bean picker, and for the Red Cross. For his fifth year elective, he travelled to Tonga where he undertook clinical placements on several islands – an experience that would have a lasting impression on him.
Following graduation, his early clinical practice took him to the Queensland communities of Rockhampton (he jokes that some stories will never be told from those years), Emerald and Goondiwindi. There he got to know the rural characters and wide variety of clinical work that makes rural practice so interesting and appealing – in his words, “the best job on the planet”.
Together with Jacinta, Dr Manahan continues to be deeply embedded in the Stanthorpe community. His contribution extends beyond clinical practice to active community service, including support for local sporting clubs, school events and committees, and the local Catholic and Christian community.
In receiving the Award, Dr Manahan said:
“It is a great honour to receive the ACRRM-RDAA Peter Graham ‘Cohuna’ Award. Peter’s story and those of the previous recipients have been an inspiration to me and I’m sure many others. I’ve been blessed with wonderful opportunities thanks to rural health.
“My early years in Rockhampton, Emerald and Goondiwindi cemented my love of Rural Medicine and rural life. How we ended up in Stanthorpe is a tale in itself (ask the Mrs). The farming and Italian community here have made life rich and rewarding for us.
“Ten years in leadership on the Queensland Rural Generalist Pathway was an opportunity to do what we all knew was the right way forward. The visible career pathway was key and the ducks aligned with the right people in the right places to make it happen. There are too many to name but they run across all domains, from administration to politicians, advocates to zealots, and everything in between.
“Rural Generalism’s application in Pacific Island nations is a natural fit and Rocketship Pacific has worked in developing this space with so many amazing people.
“Thank you to the team at ACRRM and RDAA for this award. Thanks to my wonderful wife, Jacinta, and my family for their love and fun and tolerance. Thanks to my God and yours for walking with me and you daily in all we do.
“It was a wonderful presentation dinner this week with Jacinta and my family present, and especially with long-term friends Peta Rutherford (RDAA CEO) and Marita Cowie (ACRRM CEO), two amazing and tireless workers for rural health.”
Outside Medicine, Dr Manahan enjoys spending time with Jacinta, their four adult children (and their partners); church activities; walking the Camino; camping and four-wheel driving; travel; gardening; and little theatre.
“And growing old with dignity, and just a little bit of sauce!” he adds.