Scientific Officer at NSW Health Pathology’s Forensic & Analytical Science Service (FASS) Illicit Drug Analysis Unit Keerthi Gamlath is retiring after 32 years, receiving a big send-off from his team.

Staff from the Illic­it Drug Analy­sis Unit (IDAU) gath­ered this week to farewell their long-stand­ing col­league and friend, Keerthi Gam­lath, who has reflect­ed on his three decades of work in foren­sic chemistry.

“I nev­er want­ed to be a chemist,” Keerthi admits.

“At high school in Sri Lan­ka, my pri­ma­ry aim was to be an elec­tric or civ­il engi­neer, but there was a quo­ta sys­tem to select stu­dents from each dis­trict for each course at the uni­ver­si­ty, and I was one mark short.

“So, I was instead select­ed to enrol in the sci­ence fac­ul­ty and that’s how I end­ed up as a chemist.”

Keerthi migrat­ed to Aus­tralia from Sri Lan­ka in 1992. Hav­ing pre­vi­ous­ly worked as an Assis­tant Gov­ern­ment Ana­lyst in Sri Lan­ka in the foren­sic field, he man­aged to get work expe­ri­ence at the Foren­sic Tox­i­col­o­gy lab­o­ra­to­ry at what was then the Divi­sion of Ana­lyt­i­cal Lab­o­ra­to­ries (DAL), now known as FASS.

He worked in var­i­ous roles before even­tu­al­ly being offered a posi­tion as a Hos­pi­tal Sci­en­tist in the drugs laboratory.

“I’m so grate­ful for the oppor­tu­ni­ties I got from the late Allan Hod­da (the for­mer Deputy Direc­tor of Tox­i­col­o­gy) over the years. He’d see me walk­ing to the bus or train and offer me a lift. He was a great men­tor and friend.”

Proudest achievement at work

Keerthi says his work on test­ing a dan­ger­ous children’s toy which led to the poi­son­ing and hos­pi­tal­i­sa­tion of chil­dren remains a high­light of his career.

“Back in 2007, we were about to go home for the day when we had a call from the police and informed they were bring­ing a very urgent case of poi­son­ing from a pop­u­lar children’s toy known as Bindeez Beads,” Keerthi said.

“The gov­ern­ment want­ed the results ASAP and our lab man­ag­er Sue Laird asked for vol­un­teers to do the case.

“I vol­un­teered to stay overnight and exam­ine the case con­sist­ing of a large num­ber of dif­fer­ent toys. After work­ing many hours overnight, we man­aged to issue the cer­tifi­cate on the fol­low­ing day.”

The NSW Gov­ern­ment placed a ban on the sale of the dan­ger­ous toy in Novem­ber 2007.

Lab­o­ra­to­ry man­ag­er at the IDAU Una Cul­li­nan says Keerthi has been a high­ly val­ued mem­ber of the team and became an expert in test­ing drugs, both in the rou­tine sec­tion and clan­des­tine sec­tion of the unit.

“We loved hear­ing his sto­ries of his adven­ture camp­ing trips around Aus­tralia. He even drove a camper­van across the Nullar­bor!” she said.

“Keerthi is also very focused on what he can do to help oth­ers out­side of his work. He has always reached out and helped his Sri Lankan com­mu­ni­ty when in need.”

Keerthi plans to spend time vis­it­ing fam­i­ly in Sri Lan­ka when he stops work. When he’s back in Aus­tralia he’s plan­ning on tak­ing some camp­ing trips with fam­i­ly and friends when the weath­er warms up.

“I’d like to thank all my col­leagues, past and present in the IDAU, in FASS and in DAL for their coop­er­a­tion and assis­tance through­out my 32 years of employment.”

You will be missed by your FASS fam­i­ly Keerthi – enjoy the next adventure!

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