Ballarat Training Weekend 2023

The Ballarat Training Weekend was held from 12-13 August 2023, with 16 Victorian and Tasmanian Trainees in attendance. This event occurs every two years and was held at the Ballarat Goods Shed this year.

USANZ would like to thank the following local faculty for joining us in Ballarat and sharing their expertise: Modher Al-Shawi, Lachlan Dodds, Rob Forsyth, Richard McMullin, Briony Norris, and Lydia Johns Putra. Additionally, we were fortunate to have Ian Harris, an orthopaedic surgeon and author, join us as the invited speaker. We also want to acknowledge the hard work of USANZ Senior Training Administrator Jenny Hislop who organised such a successful event.

The first day of the program featured a session on Erectile Dysfunction and Evidence in Medicine, followed by dinner at a local wine bar with musical entertainment by the multitalented Richard McMullin.

On the second day of the program, we held roundtable discussions on clinical cases followed by the World Famous Urology Quiz presented by Richard McMullin.

The quiz has been a highlight of the training weekend for many years. This year, the theme was a 'UroChef' challenge with four teams: Lydia’s Lunchbox, Forsyth Fast Food, Dodds Degustation and Briony’s Borborygmi. Each team was given utensils and ingredients to build a sushi, depending on how many questions they got right. The competition was intense and questions were focused mainly on urology, with a few mind teasers included. The winners were Forsyth Fast Food and Briony’s Borborygmi, but urology was the real winner of the day!

We hope all Trainees had a fun and educational weekend, and we look forward to doing it again next time.

Pictured left to right: Matt Farag, Dan Costello, Shannon McGrath, Samantha Koschel, Sophie Tissot, Ellen O’Connor, Elliott Anderson, Ken Chow, Arveen Kalapara, Claire Pascoe, Jiasian Teh, Andrew Silagy, John El-Khoury, Simeon Ngweso, Niranjan Sathianathen