About Us

Our vision of ‘A Healthy, Vibrant Outback Queensland’ shapes our values, partnerships and commitment to building a workforce in and for our region. 

What is the Centre for Rural and Remote Health?

The Centre for Rural and Remote Health (CRRH) James Cook University (JCU) is part of the Australian Rural Health Education Network (ARHEN), a national network of 15 University Departments of Rural Health (UDRH) funded by the Commonwealth Department of Health under the Rural Health Multidisciplinary Training Program.

Where is the CRRH?

The CRRH’s region covers the outback, remote and rural areas of North West, Lower Gulf, Central West and the Western Cape Queensland and spans more than 600,000 square kilometres – more than 50% of Queensland!

The Centre for Rural and Remote Health (CRRH) has four hubs:

1. Mount Isa (our main site) on Kalkadoon land
2. Cloncurry on Mitakoodi land
3. Longreach on Iningai land
4. Weipa on Waypundun land

We acknowledge the Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the Traditional Owners of the lands and waters where we operate our business. We honour the unique cultural and spiritual relationship to the land, waters and seas of First Australian peoples and their continuing and rich contribution to James Cook University (JCU) and Australian society. We also pay respect to ancestors and Elders past, present and future.

Our Purpose

• We have a strong focus on public health and so CRRH is committed to working with communities, health professionals and services in discovery of sustainable and enduring solutions to remote, rural and Indigenous health challenges and health workforce maldistribution. We are building a health workforce in and for our region that will make a difference.
• Provide authentic multidisciplinary training and experiences for students and health professionals in distinctive rural and remote settings
• Innovating and developing an evidence base for the efficacy of rural and remote health services and practice; and rural education and training strategies in delivering Indigenous, rural, remote health and workforce outcomes
• Working with and supporting communities, services and health professionals to improve Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health
• Increasing the number of rural and remote origin health and medical students; and maximising the investment of programme funds in rural, regional and remote areas for the maintenance of well supported, rurally located academic networks to enhance the delivery of training to students, health professionals and the provision of effective health and medical services to communities.

Our History

The Centre for Rural and Remote Health was founded in 1997 in Mount Isa, Queensland. In January 2001, the Centre for Rural and Remote Health became incorporated into James Cook University as a part of the Faculty of Medicine Health and Molecular Sciences, now the Division of Tropical Health and Medicine (DTHM). The Centre's founding Director was Dr Dennis Pashen with Dr Elizabeth Chalmers the Deputy Director. In 2011, Professor Sabina Knight took post as CRRH Director.

The Centre for Rural and Remote Health is an internationally recognised, community engaged, regionally focused and multi-site University Department of Rural Health distributed across the vast catchment of Outback Queensland.

Today, the purpose of the centre is to attract, build and retain a high quality health workforce in rural, remote and outback Queensland, and in doing so, improve the health of outback communities.