Rob Skeen took over late last year after an extensive search for the most qualified and experienced CEO and already has big plans ahead for the service that currently has facilities in Batemans Bay, Narooma and Bega.

The corporation’s footprint actually extends all the way from Ulladulla down to the Victorian border and west to Cooma and past the ACT.

Mr Skeen said serving the Eden Aboriginal population was an immediate need and the next priority would be to open an outreach service at the location before spreading west and north.

“We aim to be a one-stop shop for our people both on the clinical and non-clinical side of health,” Mr Skeen said. “We need to lift the profile of the service and we need to talk about the successes that have been happening since the dark days.”

Katungul board member Wally Stewart said he was excited about the new direction for the medical service and one challenge was to overcome any biases and prejudices in the community after a rough few years, including the organisation going into administration.

But there was a new focus on the board, which was taking advice from external experts including former Eurobodalla mayor Lindsay Brown and the former CEO of the Australian Maritime Safety Authority, Graham Peachey, who also lives in Narooma.

“It’s all about breaking down and shattering the barriers,” Mr Stewart said. “People still have ideas about what we were in the past and they don’t know a lot has changed.”

Mr Stewart said Katungul was the largest employer of Aboriginal people on the Far South Coast with around 80 per cent of its 52 workers being indigenous, and he said it was great to have an “honorary Koori” and indigenous person as the CEO, referring to the fact he was a Murri but had moved to Koori country on the South Coast. 

“Our logo is Koori health in Koori hands and that is what it's all about,” he said.

A Murri man originally from Queensland, Mr Skeen was headhunted by the board and comes from a background of working in Aboriginal health for Queensland Health, as well as the Northern Territory and NSW.

He also worked for the Queensland Aboriginal and Islander Health Council, where he was involved in sector reform and Aboriginal health service regionalisation.

The Katungul service has just been audited by Office of the Registrar of Indigenous Corporations and passed with flying colours, Mr Skeen said.

Each Katungul health centre has a GP, registered nurse and Aboriginal health practitioners, qualified with the Australian Health Practitioners Regulation Agency (AHPRA).

The mobile dental clinic will begin operating in February and the service was also about to start a series of health campaigns starting with a Healthy Heart Week.

Katungul will also begin hosting a series of community consultations throughout the year to give the community the opportunity to be involved in the planning and evaluation of their health services, Mr Skeen said.