Fred Hollows

Fred Hollows (1929 to 1993) was a New Zealand born ophthalmologist who built his career in Australia and became known for restoring eyesight to people in Indigenous Australian communities and in developing countries. Born in Dunedin, he studied medicine at Otago Medical School, trained in ophthalmology at Moorfields Eye Hospital in London, and moved to Sydney in 1965, where he chaired the ophthalmology division at the University of New South Wales. In the 1970s he treated trachoma among Aboriginal communities, helped set up the Aboriginal Medical Service in Redfern, and organised the National Trachoma and Eye Health Program, which examined about 62,000 people. Later visits to Nepal, Eritrea and Vietnam led to training local technicians in eye surgery and to low cost intraocular lens laboratories. The Fred Hollows Foundation continues this work.