Alpine Healthcare & Urgent Care Services - Mt Buller Medical Centre

Rural Generalist

Founder and CEO of Australian Rural Medical Services

Practice Principal Perisher Medical Centre

Dr Lincoln Pike started his studies in the 80’s. Soon afterward he took a short break to work as a ski instructor/patroller/photographer in Aus, Japan and NZ. Twenty seasons later he returned and completed his training. He commenced at Perisher Medical Centre in 2006 and took over running the practice in 2022. Between snow seasons he has worked at Yoorana Gunya AMS on the Lachlan River where he developed a side-passion for aviation. He became a Designated Aviation Medical Examiner in 2009 and worked at Wilkins ice runway with Australia’s Antarctic Aviation programme.

Lincoln is now applying his Alpine Medicine experience to lead a remarkable group of health professionals running Perisher Valley, Mt Buller, Falls Creek and Mt Hotham Medical Centres and training the next generation of Alpine Sports Medicine specialists.

In Lincoln's downtime, he loves nothing more than getting out on the snow with his two teens, racing with the Perisher Masters and flying over the Australian Alps.

Areas of interest

• Alpine Sports Medicine
• Medical Education
• Aviation Medicine
• Indigenous Health

Nicole Hart is a highly experienced Registered Nurse with nearly three decades of clinical practice across acute, critical care, rural, and leadership settings. She holds a Bachelor of Nursing and a Critical Care Certificate from Monash University and has built an extensive career within Monash Health and rural Victorian health services. Her background includes ward nursing, intensive care, palliative care, asthma management, and advanced critical care roles.

Nicole has significant expertise in Intensive Care Nursing, progressing to roles such as Critical Care Nurse Specialist, Critical Care Liaison Nurse, ANUM, NUM, and Practice Manager. Her ICU experience includes Medical Emergency Team and Code Blue response, deteriorating patient management, and participation in major national and international critical care research trials. She has contributed to education, preceptorship programs, end-of-life care initiatives, and hospital policy development, including National Standards for Medication Safety and Comprehensive Care.

In rural and alpine settings, Nicole has held senior leadership positions at Mt Buller Medical Centre, coordinating multi-trauma medical rescue operations, managing GP clinics, overseeing facility operations, and leading multidisciplinary teams in high-pressure environments. She has demonstrated strong skills in triage, workflow coordination, inter-hospital transfers, procedural sedation support, and emergency response, including COVID-19 triage, testing, education, and vaccination.

Currently, Nicole continues to practice across multiple settings including intensive care, interventional radiology, cardiac catheter laboratories, and rural urgent care, combining advanced clinical expertise with proven leadership, management, and research experience. She is recognised for her adaptability, clinical judgement, team leadership, and commitment to high-quality patient-centred care across metropolitan and rural health services.

Paddy is a rural generalist trainee based in Bright, Victoria, who has interests in pre-hospital, wilderness and expedition medicine. He is a registrar with the Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine. He has worked in very remote part of Northern Australia in clinics and with the Royal Flying Doctor Service, as well as overseas work at high altitude in Nepal and in the Gobi Desert in Mongolia. He loves skiing; he is a part of the Mt Hotham Ski Patrol, is a keen ski tourer, and works with Mountain Safety Collective to help develop avalanche forecasts. Outside of medicine he enjoys rock climbing, paragliding, mountaineering, and bananagrams.

Edi is a Tasmanian based Rural and Remote Generalist who is no stranger to the snow. With 12 winters at Perisher Ski resort’s medical clinic, multiple Antarctic and Himalayan trips under his belt, he has extensive experience in providing healthcare tailored to remote mountain environments. His clinical career has also included aero-medical retrieval with RFDS in Western and Central Australia, as well as GP and hospital locums all across remote Australia.

Not content with just practising medicine, he has built a number of innovative educational programs as founding director of the Health Care in Remote and Extreme Environments program at the University of Tasmania from 2014 to 2023. He developed an innovative suite of intensive courses in Expedition Medicine, Maritime Medicine and Extreme Sports Medicine.

When not working, Edi can be found climbing, hiking, skiing, kayaking, sailing and banging his drums.

Rural Generalist

Senior Lecturer & Course Coordinator, Healthcare in Remote and Extreme Environments, University of Tasmania

Guide, Climbing the Seven Summits

Dr Brenton Systermans is an expedition doctor and guide who loves nothing more than getting his clients up and down a mountain safely and with all their digits intact! He has completed 5 seasons at the Perisher Medical Centre.

As a doctor, Brent has worked at the Himalayan Rescue Association’s famous high-altitude clinic, Everest ER (5340m), and the Pheriche Aid Post (4140m). He has had stints with the Australian Army and the Australian Antarctic Division as an ExMO (expedition medical officer) and currently works with Australia’s high-performance winter athletes at the Olympic Winter Institute of Australia. He’s also involved in training the next generation of expedition medics as the Course Coordinator for the Healthcare in Remote and Extreme Environments program at the University of Tasmania.

In Brent's downtime, he loves nothing more than getting out into the backcountry and enjoying all that the Main Range has to offer.

Areas of interest

• Snowsports & Mountain biking trauma
• Expedition Medicine incl. High Altitude & Extreme Cold
• Sexual Health
• Paediatrics

Kate Welleman is a highly experienced Critical Care Registered Nurse with four decades of clinical practice across emergency, private general practice, rural, remote, and isolated health settings, as well as senior leadership roles across Australia. Her career spans frontline clinical care, Nurse Unit Management and Director of Nursing roles, system improvement, governance, and innovation in complex, resource-constrained environments.

Kate has extensive experience in emergency nursing and primary care across rural, regional, and very remote locations, including Victoria’s Alpine regions, the Torres Strait Islands, Western Australia, and Norfolk Island. She holds a postgraduate diploma in Critical Care from the University of Melbourne, is a RIPRN-credentialled Remote Area Nurse, and is currently completing a Certificate IV in Training and Assessment.

A graduate of the Australasian Digital Health Agency Women in Digital Health Leadership Program, Kate is passionate about clinician-led digital health adoption, governance, and interoperability. She currently serves as a Non-Executive Director of CRANAplus, contributing to national workforce sustainability, digital strategy, and safe models of care.

Rachel Marsden is a highly experienced Registered Nurse with a Master of Nurse Practitioner, bringing more than 30 years of specialised expertise in alpine medicine and rural emergency care. Over the course of her career, she has become widely respected for her clinical leadership, advanced practice skills, and deep commitment to improving health outcomes in remote and high risk environments.

Rachel’s work has spanned frontline emergency response, advanced clinical assessment and treatment, and the development of robust systems to support safe, high quality care in geographically isolated regions. Her background in alpine medicine has equipped her with unique expertise in managing time critical emergencies and complex presentations in resource limited settings.

She now forms part of the management team at Australian Rural Medical Services, a leading provider of rural and remote emergency care across alpine regions. In this role, Rachel contributes to strategic planning, workforce development, clinical governance, and service innovation—ensuring that rural and remote communities receive timely, expert, and appropriate healthcare.

Matt is a highly experienced Registered Nurse with nearly 20 years in clinical practice, including over a decade specialising in alpine and emergency medicine. His career has been defined by leadership in high-acuity, resource-variable environments where adaptability, sound clinical judgement, and team coordination are critical.

He holds a postgraduate qualification in Emergency Nursing and has specialised experience in Paediatric Emergency, where he obtained practice at Sydney Children’s Hospital. His background spans adult and paediatric emergency care, pre-hospital response, and operational leadership.

In the off-season, Matt works nationally as a Locum Nurse Manager with Bupa under the Australian Defence Force, supporting healthcare delivery across diverse clinical settings. He currently serves as a Clinical Operations Manager, overseeing service delivery, clinical governance, and team performance within a dynamic alpine medical service.

Dr Andrew Rutherford has over 35 years of clinical practice including Rural and Remote General Practice, Obstetrics, Anaesthesia, Emergency medicine and Helicopter retrieval in a variety of health settings in Australia, Antarctica, Torres Strait and the Pacific. He is a graduate of Monash University.

Andy is a committed educator in rural medicine, contributing to the training and supervision of junior doctors, medical students, and multidisciplinary clinicians, particularly in emergency, procedural, and remote area practice.

He has been and is dedicated to improving access to high-quality medical care for patients living and working in remote and isolated regions.

He has helped provide medical care to the Hotham winter community for over 25 years and is passionate about the alpine environment.

He also loves being outdoors - sailing cycling and bush walking. In winter he tries to free his mind by freeing the heel on Telemark skis and XC skating.

He loves mucking around on an acoustic guitar but acknowledges he’ll never be a rock star...