Sue and her husband Noel are packing their lives into suitcases and moving to Gladstone to be closer to family. 

Mrs Avery said it was a big decision to make and she would surely miss it, but her time has come.

The dedicated caregiver began her nursing career at Mount Isa hospital 40 years ago. 

“I had a few years off to have kids then spent 25 years at the Laura Johnson Home. After I left there I came back to the hospital where I have been for the past 13 years,” Mrs Avery said. 

She says life at the hospital has changed a lot in the past four decades. 

“It was a lot more strict back in those days,” Ms Avery said.

“If you called in sick, they made you come into the emergency department to get checked by a doctor, if you were not sick enough you had to go back to work.”

And people seemed to have a lot more stamina in the 1970s. 

Mrs Avery said in her youth, nurses would finish a night shift and hit the Mount Isa social scene straight away –  before backing it up with an early shift at the hospital the next day. 

“I was lucky that my parents were in Mount Isa so I could live with them, but others stayed at the nurses’ quarters and the matron lived there too – she kept a very watchful eye on the young nurses,” Mrs Avery said. 

“The girls had a curfew but they wanted to party with us so we would sneak them out of the quaters through the fire escape,” she laughed. 

Mrs Avery said despite the challenges, she has loved her career. 

“Nursing is a hard job, we deal with sick babies and people dying all the time, But the satisfaction you get when you see patients getting better and walking out of hospital makes it all worth it,” she said. 

“I will miss Mount Isa a lot. I grew up here, was married here and had my kids here.”