When AQIS NT vet Joe Schmidt graduated from Murdoch University, WA, in 1995, he became Australia's first male, Indigenous veterinary science graduate—an Indigenous woman, Annie Svensen graduated the same year.

Possibly realising that growing up in the tough, Territory town of Tennant Creek wasn't going to be easy for a boy who cheerfully describes himself as 'a Liquorice Allsort'—paying wry homage to his mixed ancestry that includes Chinese, Irish, Scottish, German and Aboriginal—Joe's father sent him, aged 13, to a boarding college in South Australia to be educated.

'My father had no idea,' says Joe, 'of the culture of deprivation and violence at that school. It wasn't till I became head boarding house prefect in years 11 and 12, and deputy head prefect of the school, that I was able to exert a modifying influence. I used my personal reputation as "a tough customer" to convince others and the culture of bullying stopped after my first two weeks in the job.

Still a crusader for fairness and the underdog, Joe is often seen around town with his wife Sam (also a vet) at demonstrations in support of women's issues. Joe's imposing 1.88 metre (6 foot 2 inch), 105 kilogram figure, height extended by one or another of his daughters riding on his shoulders, stands literally head and shoulders above the crowd of mums and prams.

Joe's a real family man, and his third daughter was born in April this year. 'I grew up with one sister (now a qualified health worker living in Mt Isa) but a large extended family,' he says. 'Mum was a member of the stolen generation and grew up on a Mission on Croker Island and Dad was a first generation German immigrant. They work on their four-square kilometre farm at Tennant Creek where we grew up, with their horses, cattle and chickens—it's a bit like [the television show] The Good Life.'

Educational firsts must run in Joe's family because he tells us his mother was the first Indigenous woman in Australia to become a triple certificated hospital sister.

After graduation, Joe worked in private practice for nine years, for seven of which he was Chief Veterinarian at Fannie Bay Racecourse, where he 'met many colourful figures and my wife, Sam'.

Joe extended his knowledge of horse treatment by doing a one-year surgical internship in Scone, NSW, home to some of Australia's most expensive thoroughbreds. When he returned to Darwin he helped Sam with her remote-area dog program work until four weeks before their first daughter was born. Remote Indigenous communities tend to house large numbers of dogs, often malnourished and carrying parasites that can be transmitted to humans. The dog program visited these remote communities, ran an education campaign and, with owners' permission, gave the dogs a health check and spayed them to limit reproduction.
 
Since 2006, Joe has combined his veterinary training, love of the Territory and crusading spirit to help protect Australia from exotic animal diseases. As Northern Australia Quarantine Strategy (NAQS) veterinary officer, Joe surveys feral animals in remote areas and trains local Indigenous people to obtain blood and tissue samples on behalf of AQIS. 

Joe says highlights of his time with AQIS include securing a memorandum of understanding with Bradshaw and Yampi Sound military training bases that enables AQIS to survey them for exotic pests and diseases. He was also involved in the setting-up of the first Indigenous-run sentinel cattle herd in the Territory (sentinel herds are regularly tested for antibodies that might indicate the presence of exotic diseases). Forming closer relationships with all pastoralists in the NT NAQS zone and training Indigenous ranger groups are other achievements, he says.