Dr Peterson moved to Orange with wife Deb several years ago and worked at the Orange Aboriginal Medical Service before taking a key role in the emergency department at Orange hospital.

However, while riding his mountain bike to work early last year he was hit by a car.

Now with quadriplegia but back at work he is determined to get on with his life.

He returned to work at OAMS but is now doing several different roles including clinical work, lecturing at Charles Sturt University and monitoring new doctors.

"I do four jobs and probably about eight hours a week on each of them," he said.

They include work on drug and alcohol detox admissions at Bloomfield hospital.

"Ice and alcohol are our two biggest drugs, but it can be anything," he said.

Another role is with GP Synergy monitoring new doctors preparing to become general practitioners.

"We have to be quite happy they are going to be good and safe and professional, it's the last chance to do so before they can go anywhere they want and essentially practice without a lot of supervision. It's a chance to pick up ones who are not really the right people to be GPs," he said.

Dr Peterson has also become the Orange branch chair of the Nationals after a long involvement in politics that started from university.

"I worked at federal parliament house. I was a parliamentary attendant, its a neutral role, it's not a political role, they're the people in green jackets that open the doors and hand out water in question time," he said.

"I had five years of being able to see the different political parties right up close.

"I was there for the end of John Howard's couple of years and Kevin Rudd and the start of Julia Gillard.

"I came out of that with a pretty firm belief that while no political parties were perfect the Liberal/Nationals were the best of a bad lot. I've always been involved since then with political parties."

He said he had continued to be involved with the Orange Mountain Bike Club and in local war gaming.

Dr Peterson and wife Deb have two sons, Luke and Tim.

"Orange is my home, I chose to live in Orange. We investigated other places like Bathurst and Dubbo and Wagga but ultimately decided on Orange," he said.