The Austin Hospital at Heidelberg was established in the 1880’s as a type of hospice and place of care for those with chronic illness. The institution underwent modernising changes in the years after WWII and became a busy district general hospital with a paediatric service and a large unit for chest disease, the latter a legacy of the chronic disease days. There was a further sudden jolt into the future when the Austin was made a teaching hospital of the University of Melbourne in 1968 and a new clinical school developed with an influx of academic staff and new staff specialists. Dr Francis O’Rourke was medical superintendent and skillfully guided much of the change process. He had succeeded Dr Walter Moon in the post when the latter had become chairman of the Austin Consultative Clinic for Cancer Care. This was to be recognised as the first of the modem oncology units in general hospitals in which a multidisciplinary team approach was adopted and pain relief and palliative care were practiced.

Walter Moon was a towering figure with a large mustache and twinkling eyes. Adaptation to this new environment at the Austin was not always easy but he possessed a disarming frankness and singleness of purpose, which cleared the way and ensured that his dedication to the integrated care of people with cancer held sway. He extended his practice to the drug dependent, and introduced methadone as a sparing agent long before the establishment of modern day drug and alcohol clinics. He continued his caring approach to people with chronic cancer, their relatives, and drug dependent individuals until his death long after he had ceased full time medical practice. He was a pioneer of palliative care which arose out of his insistence that his patients should spend as much time as possible out of hospital. Regrettably he lacked the backup resources to fully implement this approach and devoted much of his own time to home visits.

He was born in Melbourne, son of Philip Moon, a hotelkeeper and Ruby Moon (née Bowes). Educated at St Patrick’s College, Ballarat, and the University of Melbourne, he graduated in 1945 having married his first wife, Maureen, as an undergraduate. They set up practice in Kerang, in rural Victoria, and for ten years he provided a wonderful general service to his community. Sadly, Maureen died of cancer in 1952, leaving him with five children. This happening caused him to develop the abiding interest in cancer care that he was able to exercise after his appointment as medical superintendent at the Austin in 1956. He was a popular and dedicated teacher. His skills as a clinician resulted in further appointments at the Royal Melbourne Hospital in 1972 and later at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Clinic. He was admitted to MRACP in 1976 and made a Fellow in 1978.

Walter Moon died in January 1999 with nine surviving children from two marriages, and a legacy of dedication to compassionate care of the sick.