Leonard (Len) George Notaras
AM 2003. LL.BA (Hons), BMed, MHA, DipComm (Newcastle), AFCHSE, MA (Military History);
Son of George and Mary-Theresa Notaras, born May 29, 1951, Educated at Marist Brothers, Newcastle. Married to Robyn Cahill.
Executive Director, National Critical Care and Trauma Response Centre 2009-current.
General Manager Royal Darwin Hospital 2007-2009; Northern Territory Principal Medical Consultant, Royal Darwin Hospital; Director of Medical Services, Darwin Private Hospital, since 2001; Senior Lecturer, N.T. Clinical School. Newcastle, NSW.
Career: former Deputy Secretary, Service Provision Territory Health Services, General Manager Royal Darwin Hospital 1996-99, Executive Officer Orthopaedic Review, John Hunter Hospital, 1994, Clinical Superintendent 1990-1994, Deputy medical superintendent Royal Newcastle Hospital 1990. Medical registrar, 1988-1989, Manager Enterprise (Retail) 1974-82, Police and Military Service 1968-74; Vice-President, NT AMA , President. NT Br. ACHSE, President Country Liberal Party 2001-2003, Member . NT Road Traffic Council since 1999, Australian Council of Healthcare Standards, Member. Australian Healthcare Assoc, Chair NT Pharmacy Board, NT Radiographers Board, NT Quality and Best Practices Standing Committee, Member. Australian Council for Safety and Quality in Healthcare (ACSQHC), Deputy Chairman, NT Medical Board since 1997, Senior Cr NT British Australian Medical Association, Honorary Member Northern Command Officers Mess; Member NT Cancer Council, Government House Fund; recipient AMA Award for Outstanding Contribution to Bali response, Australian of the Year finalist 2004, Sarah Wheeler History. Award Newcastle 1979;
Publications: The Bali Response: 36 Redefining Hours,
The 1885 Washington Conference on Samoan Affairs.
Recreational activity: shooting, military history, wine collection, military memorabilia. Clubs: Lord Taverners, (NT), Darwin Sailing, Darwin Turf, President, Beefsteak and Burgundy (Darwin).
Entry from Who's Who, Australia
Len Notaras was Royal Darwin Hospital medical superintendent, in 2002, at the time of the Bali bombing. Victims and casulties were airlifted to Darwin, and placed under his medical supervision
Source: The Age
Date: 14 Oct 2002 13 AUSTRALIANS DEAD, 110 INJURED, 220 UNACCOUNTED FOR
At least 13 Australians are dead, 110 injured and 220 remain unaccounted for this morning after suspected terrorist bombs destroyed two crowded nightspots in Bali's Kuta Beach tourist strip at the weekend.
Byline: Malcolm Brown, Darwin, Josh Gordon, Canberra with agencies
"We understand that 13 Australians have died, although those figures are fluid,'' a spokesman for Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said.
One of the first of 15 injured Australians evacuated by the RAAF from Bali died on the flight to Darwin today. By 8am today almost all the injured Australians had been flown from the island back to Australia.
World leaders united in condemning the attacks that have left at least 187 people dead and more than 300 injured, many with horrific burns caused by the blast and resulting inferno.
US ambassador to Indonesia Ralph Boyce said while no one had claimed responsibility for the bombing, early indications pointed to the al Qaeda terror network. He told CNN television: "There have been problems in Indonesia of late involving signs that al Qaeda may have been involved in activities here.''
He said that bombings in Indonesia over the past few weeks indicated the group's presence there.
US President George Bush called the bombings "a cowardly act designed to create terror and chaos'' and offered condolences to the families of the victims.
"The world must confront this global menace, terrorism . . . And, we must call this despicable act by its rightful name, murder.''
Australia's national security committee, including Prime Minister John Howard, Defence Minister Robert Hill and Attorney-General Daryl Williams, will meet later today.
Mr Howard this morning urged Indonesia to become more involved in the international quest to stamp out terrorism following the Bali bombings.
"It does require a willingness on the part of the Indonesian authorities to have people sit with them and work with them in dealing with this problem,'' he told Sydney radio.
"I also speak on behalf of a country who's not only a neighbour but whose sons and daughters have died in this outrage. It's therefore very important that we work together and that all of us in this region understand the urgency of this issue.''
Mr Howard said ASIO and Australian Federal Police members were in Bali to help with the investigation.
Indonesia President Megawati Sukarnoputri wept at the smoking ruins of the Sari Club, before stopping briefly at the 770-bed Sanglah General Hospital, where she donned a surgical mask and visited burn victims.
Mrs Megawati, who went to Bali after an emergency cabinet meeting, said the explosions were a warning that terrorism was a threat to national security but she offered no clues on who authorities believed might be to blame.
Condolences poured in from around the globe, with French President Jacques Chirac denouncing the explosions as "blind terrorism'', while Britain described them as an "appalling terrorist act''.
The US has sent a FBI team and Britain a team of forensic and counter-terrorism specialists to Kuta to help with the investigation.
Republican US senator Richard Shelby said after a briefing from the FBI and CIA yesterday that there was "a definite terrorist link'' to the Bali bombings. "I believe that this is the beginning of a lot more (that) we're going to see,'' Senator Shelby, senior Republican on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, said.
The first of five C-130 aircraft left Denpasar last night only half full of casualties because some of the victims were too ill to delay take-off until more arrived, a defence spokesman said.
"I can tell you the first 15 victims of the tragedy have arrived and sadly one of those died in transit,'' Royal Darwin Hospital medical superintendent Len Notaras said after the first victims arrived in Darwin.
The first Hercules touched down at at Darwin airport at 2.15am where nine ambulances and an ambulance bus were ready to take them to the Royal Darwin Hospital.
The 11 men and three women were all Australians, coming from states including Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia. Most were young, all were burn victims. Other injuries included fractured limbs, shrapnel wounds and injuries from being impaled by wood and glass. As many as four were in critical conditions.
A second Hercules is expected in Darwin later this morning with 22 on board. Up to 100 victims are expected to arrive at the hospital in about 12 hours, Dr Notaras said.
Future medical evacuations were expected to also include American, Canadian and New Zealand patients.
"The sheer magnitude of what has actually occurred is going to take some considerable time to sink in for a lot of people including ourselves at the hospital,'' Dr Notaras said. ``It has been our own, in a sense, 11th of September; it's a tragedy.''
Scores of Australian tourists arrived back in Perth early today aboard the first of three special flights, from their nightmare Bali holidays. They were met by teams of Australian Federal Police and West Australian police officers who were interviewing all Bali passengers.
The injured were then taken by 12 ambulances to Perth's major hospitals.
The Federal Police's WA general manager, Steve Jackson, indicated passengers would be asked for their holiday photos and videos as investigators helped their Indonesian counterparts with inquiries into the blasts.
Mr Howard said Australia would take a measured response. "It is not an occasion for hot-headed responses, but certainly not an occasion to imagine that if you roll yourself up into a little ball all these horrible things will go away,'' he told Channel Nine. — with agencies
MASSACRE IN BALI
• AUSTRALIA Thirteen confirmed dead, 110 injured, including 60 critical, 220 unaccounted
• BRITAIN Five or six feared dead, at least 40 injured
• HONG KONG Nine missing feared dead
• INDONESIA Nine dead
• SINGAPORE Three reported dead
• GERMANY One dead, eight injured, five badly. Two reportedly missing
• SWITZERLAND One dead, two seriously injured, three slightly injured
• FRANCE One reported dead
• NETHERLANDS One reported dead
• ECUADOR One reported dead
• BELGIUM Six slightly injured
• ITALY Six slightly injured
• JAPAN Seven injured
• USA None reported dead, injured or missing
The wounded also include Swedes, Ecuadorans, South Koreans and South Africans.
SOURCE: REUTERS, AFP
