After a decade as the Gunnedah ambulance station manager, Scott Clarke is on the move.
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Mr Clarke is going over the range to Armidale where he is already a familiar face after a recent two-week stint.
The intensive care paramedic and his wife started discussing a change earlier in the year and tossed up between Armidale and Tasmania.
They decided on Armidale because they "quite like the town" and "a change is as good as a holiday".
"We've got itchy feet after 10 years and it's time to go somewhere different," he said.
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Mr Clarke grew up around Newcastle and Sydney, and his first gig as a paramedic was at Castle Hill. He then worked in Parramatta and Penrith for a number of years before he and his wife shifted to Springwood in the Blue Mountains to "get away from the traffic".
When the hustle and bustle made it to the mountains, they decided to pack up and move to the country.
They arrived in Gunnedah in October 2009, which was "a big move for us" with two young children.
Mr Clarke said it was difficult to be without family support but his eldest is now finished school and off to live in the United Kingdom.
"I don't know where the time has gone," he said.
Mr Clarke said a lot had changed in his 22 years as a paramedic - there is now more "accountability" and "more staff and a better roster", which is "very good for patient care".
"It's more autonomous. Decision-making is very different out here compared to metropolitan areas," he said.
I don't know where the time has gone.
- Scott Clarke, Gunnedah ambulance station manager
Mr Clarke said patients in country towns were "genuine" and interactions were "more enjoyable".
"You're among people you already know," he said.
"There have been some elderly people we've been to who will stick with me forever."
Mr Clarke recalled a 97-year-old man who was experiencing chest pain but "insisted" on carrying the paramedic's bag to the ambulance.
"This guy persisted and I thought to myself, 'You know what? This guy's 97. He's not acutely unwell and he wants to carry my bag and that's going to make him feel good', so I let him carry the bag," Mr Clarke said.
"He had to do it. He just felt compelled ... and it was so nice."
Another memory features the late Heath King who was experiencing shortness of breath at GS Kidd Memorial School one day, so staff called for an ambulance.
"[Heath] kind of rolled his eyes and he goes, "Oh, Scott, I'm fine, I'm okay" as soon as I walked in, and we had a good bit of banter. It was just one of those jobs that I'll remember," Mr Clarke said.
"That sort of interaction means a lot, that friendly connection you make with people.
"There are not many degrees of separation between patients or family."
In recent weeks, Mr Clarke has been doing a handover with his replacement, Derek Baker, who lives a mere stone's throw away in Tamworth.
He said he will miss his team the most.
"It's been the best ambulance station I've worked at, the most enjoyable," he said.
"I'll be very sad to leave them but I prefer to leave when I know I'm going to miss them rather than leave somewhere because you can't wait to get out."
