Dr Stephen Morris of Parkes receives OAM on King's Birthday long weekend

That's why he's encouraging the younger generation to become rural generalists.

His three and a half decades of service to medicine - which continues now in a teaching capacity - has earned him a place on the King's Birthday 2023 Honours List.

He's among the 1191 outstanding and inspirational Australians who have been recognised this long weekend and 621 who will be awarded an Order of Australia Medal (OAM).

He's also the second Parkes resident to receive an OAM this weekend.

Dr Morris retired as a general practitioner and rural proceduralist at Ochre Health Medical Centre, formerly Clarinda Street Surgery, and as a visiting medical officer at the Parkes Hospital at the end of 2021.

But he hasn't completely left the field that he has so much passion for with the 73-year-old now teaching junior doctors from Charles Sturt University at the Country Universities Centre at the Parkes Library complex.

"I've always wanted to teach but didn't get the time to before," Dr Morris said.

"[The student doctors], they're excited and keen, which is really encouraging to see."

He can speak first-hand as someone who moved from the city to country, with general surgery and obstetrics training in the UK over three years in between, and he never looked back.

It was the diversity of the practice that was one of the big drawcards. Dr Morris had skills in surgery and in obstetrics, and Parkes had a good medical community when he arrived here in 1985. He was 36.

He had incredible support through fellow doctors at the time in Dr John Waddell, Doctors Ian and Annette Clement, and others, as well immersing himself, he said, in a great community that was very supportive, very friendly and very loyal.

While times and the life of a local GP have certainly changed - "you'd be lucky to get home for dinner some nights," Dr Morris said - Parkes as a growth centre with great infrastructure that has everything to offer the next generation of doctors, hasn't.

Dr Morris said he never would have thought he'd go 36 years in medicine and by the time he reached his 70s he figured the reasonable thing to do was to retire.

He also never thought an OAM "would happen" but he's humbled by the recognition.

"But there are lots of other people out there who do the same thing I do," Dr Morris said.

"I accept it on their behalf.

"There's a great body of doctors who all do great work, they should all be recognised."

Dr Morris has been a Fellow of the College of Surgeons Edinburgh since 1985 and a Fellow of the Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine since 1998. He was also a member of the NSW Rural Doctors Network from 2010-2021.

During his time as a GP, he's received the Peter Graham Cohuna Award from the Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine in 2014, the Bill Hunter Award for services to the rural community in 2018 and the Rural Medical Service Award from the Rural Doctors Network in 2021.

He also completed a Masters in Medicine (Skin Cancer) from the University of Queensland around 2012.

Dr Morris said he's enjoyed bringing a skin cancer service to Parkes - something which came in the last 20 years of his career - and obstetrics the most, if he was to choose.

"I did lots of ED and general surgery when I first started, then later it was lots of obstetrics and the skin cancer care came later in the career," he said.

"It was nice to do (skin cancer care) and nice to be able to offer the service.

"I saw how frustrating it was for patients when they had to go to Orange or somewhere else for it and I knew I could do it here."

Dr Morris with wife Rosemary have three children and six grandchildren.