"I don't like to be in the limelight. I never have. That's not what I do medicine for. That's not what I do my work for. It's not for accolades, it's not for thanks," Dr Ross said.

"I'd like to think that if I'm remembered for anything, I hope it's for [having] a positive impact in people's lives."

Throughout her career, the GP's focus has been solely on the thing that made her want to be a doctor in the first place: To "try and make things work for people in their lives" so they are the better for it.

The GP at Prince St Medical was just 17 years old when she decided she wanted to be a doctor, "because [she] wanted to work with people in a productive way".

For Dr Ross, the place she felt she could best do that was in rural and regional medicine as a GP. First in various small towns in Victoria before arriving in Orange in 1992 - a place she was attracted to because of its strong culture and music scene. Then in 1993 Dr Ross joined the team at Prince St Medical where she has remained for the past 28 years. In that time she has seen not only Orange grow and evolve into a bustling regional hub but also witnessed the city's medical community flourish.

"I've really enjoyed being in Orange. I think it's a great city and I've watched the medical-side of it evolve; from [having] a small number of practitioners and specialists to a much bigger community of doctors which has been really good to see," the local GP said.

As a senior lecturer at Sydney University the local doctor championed regional medicine, encouraging graduates to begin careers away from city hospitals and practices. For young doctors, regional and rural medicine offered much more variety, while also allowing them to be more hands on because there was far more opportunity to work closely with senior doctors.

"I've really enjoyed rural, general practice. [In regional medicine] you get to see a wide variety of patients and... develop close networks [which] has been a really important thing for me," she said.

After dedicating the past 45 years of her life to medicine and to her patients, Dr Ross admitted there would be some challenges in letting this aspect that had defined so much of her life and identity go. But she was looking forward to having more time to pursue her other interests- namely, music and theatre. In addition to her goal of becoming fluent in French.

"[I'm going to miss] the daily contact with such a variety of people," the veteran doctor said.

"The stories they have makes your work interesting and worthwhile... Some people have been coming to me at this practice for a long time and I have [developed] a quite close, professional, association with them."