The lecture will take place at the Sir Ian Potter Auditorium at the University of Melbourne, Parkville, registration from 5:15pm for 6:30pm lecture.

A/Prof Turner will talk about the challenge of delivering best practice eye care to someone who lives 2,000km away from the nearest major hospital.

“What if you had to wait 10 months to see a visiting specialist about your eyes, only to be told that yes, you need surgery, but there’s no time to do it this visit, you’ll have to wait another year?” he says.

“Getting the job done – what is it like in the Outback towns when it comes to the high-tech and rapidly advancing field of ophthalmology? And how do we meet the needs of the Indigenous Australians in the city and bush?”

A recent research paper from CERA, published in the September issue of the Medical Journal of Australia, revealed that cataract surgery coverage rates are more than 30 per cent lower for the Indigenous than the non-Indigenous community.

A/Prof Turner established Lions Outback Vision in 2010, and together with a small but passionate team of eye health professionals, he is utilising innovative technology such as telemedicine to deliver eye health care to thousands of people who would otherwise have fallen through the cracks.

The Crock lecture is open to the public and honours the memory and contribution of Professor Gerard Crock AO (1929-2007), ophthalmologist and inaugural Ringland Anderson Professor of Ophthalmology.

A video of “Eye care in the Wild West” will be available online in the weeks after the lecture.