Kenmore Hills’ Dr Rolf Gomes, a cardiologist who founded Heart of Australia, has been named one of Queensland’s nominees for the 2026 Australian of the Year Awards. Dr Gomes established mobile specialist clinics to improve access to diagnostic and cardiology services for people living in rural and remote communities.
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Bringing heart care to outback Australia
Dr Gomes launched the first Heart of Australia mobile clinic, known as a Heart Truck, in 2014. The initial clinic was an 18-wheel semi-trailer that he personally helped design to operate in long-distance outback conditions. Each Heart Truck is purpose-built and self-sufficient, with private consulting rooms, diagnostic equipment, tech support space and a reception area.
Heart of Australia describes all Heart Trucks as wheelchair accessible and fully air-conditioned. The program’s trucks regularly visit regional towns to deliver specialist cardiology clinics and early diagnostic testing that would otherwise require long travel to city hospitals. Heart of Australia reports that its clinics have treated more than 20,000 patients since the first truck began operating.
The model has evolved over time to include additional diagnostic capabilities. Heart of Australia is expanding nationally, with several new trucks being added to the fleet as part of a roll-out that will increase capacity to deliver services across multiple states. The organisation says the fleet will grow to 11 trucks by 2027 and that some of the new units will include mobile radiology equipment to support the National Lung Cancer Screening Program.
For Dr Gomes, designing clinics that can be transported to communities has been a practical response to unequal access to specialist care. Heart of Australia works in regional and First Nations communities with the stated aim of reducing geographic barriers to early diagnosis and specialist treatment.
Queensland’s 2026 Australian of the Year nominees
Dr Rolf Gomes is one of 18 Queensland nominees for the 2026 Australian of the Year Awards. The state list recognises people from a broad range of fields, including education, health, research and community service. Other nominees named in the Queensland list include Nicole Dyson, an educator from Teneriffe; Mark and Gayle Forbes, advocates for eating disorder recovery on the Sunshine Coast; and Distinguished Professor Ben Mathews from New Farm.
The Queensland recipients will be announced at a ceremony in Brisbane on 12 November 2025, which will be available to watch online via the Australian of the Year website. State winners will join recipients from other states and territories as finalists for the national awards announcement on 25 January 2026 in Canberra.
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For the Kenmore Hills community, Dr Gomes’s nomination recognises years of practical work to bring specialist health services to people who are geographically distant from metropolitan hospitals. Heart of Australia continues to expand its fleet and programs, with the stated aim of providing more early-detection services to rural and remote communities.
Published 5-November-2025
