Carmel Hattch

Paediatric nurse

2007 NT Local Hero

Carmel has devoted her life to improving the health of babies, children, women, and families in remote and urban communities in the Northern Territory, Western Australia, and South Australia. Based in Alice Springs, she gives tirelessly, both personally and in her professional nursing role, and is widely respected across the Territory and interstate for her knowledge, skills, and dedication. Her coordinating non-acute paediatric care in Central Australia has been remarkable enough, but perhaps her greatest contribution has been her extraordinary ability to communicate, particularly with young Indigenous mothers, and her encyclopaedic knowledge of her vast local community. Carmel’s interest in Indigenous children doesn’t stop when she goes home. She has fostered a boy with a complex medical history who was unable to be cared for by his family in the bush and she often provides emergency foster care for kids who need a home, food, and love in times of crisis.