Angus McDonell

2017 College Recipient. College of Medicine and Dentistry

Dr Angus C. McDonell is the current Queensland Commissioner of St John Ambulance Australia, and has been part of the organisation for 45 years. In his role, he oversees all of the professional development, disaster activations and incidents in Queensland.

He joined St John as a cadet when he was 10 years old and since then has held various positions at local, regional and state levels across Queensland and Victoria. Dr McDonell has also been a trainer for more than 40 years, contributing to first aid publications around Australia.

Throughout his career, Dr McDonell has served the public as a nurse, midwife, paramedic and search and rescue officer, with a focus on rural and remote medicine, including emergency medicine and aeromedical evacuation. He is currently a retrieval physician with LifeFlight Retrieval Medicine, an organisation which provides rapid medical response around Australia and the world.

Dr McDonell is a Commissioned Officer of the Royal Australian Air Force with the current rank of Wing Commander and he is a member of the RAAF Specialist Reserve where he is currently appointed as a Deputy Chief of Aeromedical Evacuation. He has previously worked as an Aeromedical Evacuation Operations Officer – Medical Practitioner, which included a posting to Afghanistan where he was responsible for the coordination of tactical aeromedical missions and the health and fitness of Australian aviators. He was also a staff physician at a NATO Role 3 Multinational Medical Unit Trauma Hospital in Kandahar.

Dr McDonell’s extensive military service also includes deployments to Bougainville, Indonesia, the Indian Ocean, and the Middle East. Dr McDonell also completed two tours in Rwanda with CARE Australia as an aid worker.

From 2010 to 2013 Dr McDonell was the Director of Medical Services on Palm Island, which involved managing a 12-bed hospital with a 4-bed emergency department, including clinical leadership across all hospital disciplines and administration. He has also worked as a senior medical officer at Ingham Health Service.

Dr McDonell was promoted to the grade of Knight of Grace in the Most Venerable Order of St John in 2015. He has also been awarded many other medals and decorations including an Australian Bravery Medal, the Bravery Medal of the Royal Australasian Humane Society, and the US Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal.

Dr Angus C. McDonell graduated in 2005 with a Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery with Honours, and was awarded the University Medal. He has also completed a Graduate Certificate of Aeromedical Retrieval.