An Australian medical graduate, Ernest trained in adult, child, cross-cultural psychiatry, and public health in the USA before doctoral research in the Kimberley in the 1980s (Aboriginal Health and History: Power and Prejudice in Remote Australia; CUP, 1993). His career since has been in Far North Queensland as a clinician and Foundation Professor of mental health/public health with the University of Queensland. His passion for the region continues since retirement in 2017 through the Schools Up North (SUN) project. Ernest has authored several hundred publications, and convenes the Creating Futures conferences addressing health and socio-environmental issues across Pacific Island Nations. Two non-academic books have recently been published – Vicarious Dreaming: With Jack Idriess on Madman’s Island, and, Reef Madness: Digging up the Dirt on an Australian Myth.