Dr Bill Griggs and his wife Dr Maree White find a spare minute together at the District Council of the Copper Coast Australia Day celebrations.

Dr Griggs was guest speaker at an Australia Day eve dinner hosted by Mayor Paul Thomas at the Wallaroo Town Hall.

The dinner was attended by 170 people and raised money for the Mayor’s Community Fund.

Dr Griggs and his wife, Dr Maree White, also attended the Australia Day breakfast in Wallaroo and award presentations in Victoria Square, Kadina.

“I was pleased to be guest speaker at the Australia Day eve dinner, and impressed with the evening’s entertainment and the people,” he said.

Dr Griggs said he was invited to the Copper Coast in 2007 as guest speaker at the Kernewek Lowender President’s Dinner.

He has been to the peninsula many times for retrievals, but enjoys coming here for relaxation, and especially enjoys sitting on North Beach — where his family has a property.

“I have Cornish roots, as does Maree,” Dr Griggs said.

“My great-great-great-grandfather was Captain Thomas Cowling, a Moonta Mining Company manager; his son Richard was a mine captain and his son William was a mayor of Moonta.

“In 2006 we travelled to Cornwall to catch up on our family histories.

“Maree is having a break from medicine at the moment, and enjoying being at home more, which gives us a chance to actually catch up and share our joint passion for photography.”

Given his dedication to so many organisations, it is a wonder Dr Griggs and his wife have time to catch up at all.

When asked about his many roles and recognitions, he said he did not give credit for individual accolades because he said he works in a team environment, and team-work is so important.

World-renowned authority

Dr Griggs is a world-renowned authority on trauma medicine and aeromedical retrieval and is one of Australia’s leading intensive care anaesthetists and medical retrieval specialists, operating a multi-national medical triage, treatment and evacuation facility.

He has been deployed many times as both a Royal Australian Air Force reservist and a civilian to disaster zones and hostile environments, such as the Gulf War and East Timor.

He is perhaps best known for his deployment in managing evacuations and victim care for the Bali bombings in 2002, the 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami and most recently, heading the medical team in the Samoan disaster.

At times such as these, he said it is difficult to deal with not only the physical trauma suffered by victims, but their emotional trauma as they struggle coming to terms with hopeless situations.

Dr Griggs invented and patented the Guide-Wire Dilating Forceps — also known as the Griggs Kit — which makes an artificial airway and has been used to save thousands of lives.

He is the founder of the Roads2Survival young driver road safety program and has been widely published in a variety of journals.

He has also worked as ambulance service medical officer for SA Ambulance Service since the early 1990s having previously spent 15 years as a volunteer ambulance officer.

Dr Griggs’ positions are many and varied and include: director of trauma service at Royal Adelaide Hospital, Director MedSTAR Emergency Medical Retrieval, associate professor at Adelaide University Clinical Associate Professor and James Cook University and director Royal Australian Air Force Health Reserves SA/WA.

He was made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List in 2003, named the South Australian recipient and national finalist for the 2006 Australian of the Year Award, awarded the “Key to the City” by the City of Adelaide in 2006, awarded the Ambulance Service Medal (ASM) in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List in 2009, and named South Australian of the Year in 2009.