When speech pathology student Teddy Pun arrived in Lismore in 2018 for his rural clinical placement, he brought a DSLR camera, an eye for a good shot, and very little experience of travelling rurally. He also left his UCRH orientation session with one piece of advice he had not expected: watch out for kangaroos on the road.
For someone who had come to Australia from Hong Kong as a child, and grown up largely with city rhythms, the Northern Rivers offered something different. Not just greener hills, wider skies or the quick discovery that Minyon Falls and Rocky Creek Dam were worth packing a camera for. It offered time.
“I think because I was out in the country and I had nothing else but placement, it gave me a chance to slow down,” he says. “It gives you time to sort of be with the placement.”
That space mattered. Teddy Pun had been interested in photography since high school, but university had pushed the hobby to the edges. In Lismore, he found himself finishing placement while the sun was still up, then driving until he found somewhere to stop. A roadside view. A sunset. A place that did not need a lookout sign to be worth looking at.
His placement was at St Joseph’s Nursing Home, and it was his first experience in that setting. It taught him something that has stayed with him: before the theory, before the task, there is a person. The most important thing was building a relationship, seeing the person first, and learning from their experiences and interests.
That lesson has travelled with him. Teddy Pun now works mainly with children, and says the same principle still applies. Show people you value what they have to say, whatever it is. The conversation may be different, but the spirit is the same.
Looking back, Teddy Pun sees his time with UCRH as part of his journey to becoming a health practitioner. The difference in perspective, he says, was a “great teacher”. So was the place itself.
His advice for students coming after him is simple enough: take the photos, but do not hide behind the camera. Find your own perspective. Step off the beaten path. Talk to people. Experience the place for yourself.
And, naturally, keep an eye out for kangaroos.
Watch Teddy’s video montage below:
