Dr Catherine Zillberg has completed a six-month regional rotation at the Coffs Harbour Anatomical Pathology laboratory, where she was blown away by the sheer volume and complexity of cases, along with the stunning surf beaches and rainforests.

“I’ve always been inter­est­ed in can­cer and can­cer research. Before start­ing in pathol­o­gy, I was involved in research on head and neck can­cers, ker­atinocyte can­cers, and melanoma, which sparked my pas­sion for under­stand­ing dis­ease at a deep­er lev­el,” Cather­ine said.

“I’ve always enjoyed the sci­ence side of med­i­cine, par­tic­u­lar­ly the mol­e­c­u­lar aspects.

“My PhD super­vi­sor is also a pathol­o­gist, and their men­tor­ship helped me see how pathol­o­gy can be both incred­i­bly broad and high­ly spe­cialised at the same time, which is what drew me to the field.”

Cather­ine stud­ied med­i­cine at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Syd­ney, made great friends and enjoyed the vari­ety that med­i­cine offered.

“Dur­ing med­ical school, I had the chance to do a GP place­ment in Kia­ma, an emer­gency place­ment in Byron Bay, and a research place­ment at the Peter Mac­Cal­lum Can­cer Cen­tre in Mel­bourne, where I worked in a breast can­cer research lab.”

After grad­u­at­ing, Cather­ine com­plet­ed her intern­ship and res­i­den­cy at Gos­ford and Wyong Hos­pi­tals on the Cen­tral Coast and lat­er worked as a locum doc­tor for a cou­ple of years in region­al NSW and out­er Sydney.

“I worked in the Emer­gency Depart­ment as a med­ical reg­is­trar, which gave me broad clin­i­cal expe­ri­ence. See­ing the impact of accu­rate diag­noses and how much clin­i­cians rely on pathol­o­gy rein­forced my inter­est in spe­cial­is­ing in this field, where I could com­bine my love of sci­ence while con­tribut­ing to patient care,” Cather­ine said.

Why Anatomical Pathology matters

Here at NSW Health Pathol­o­gy our Anatom­i­cal Pathol­o­gy (AP) ser­vices play a vital role in diag­nos­ing dis­ease, espe­cial­ly cancer.

As demand con­tin­ues to grow, we face chal­lenges in recruit­ing and retain­ing skilled staff in this high­ly spe­cialised field.

We are tack­ling these chal­lenges on mul­ti­ple fronts, includ­ing strength­en­ing our work­force pipeline by sup­port­ing the next gen­er­a­tion of APs like Cather­ine, to ensure they are pro­vid­ed with high qual­i­ty train­ing and support.

In 2025, Cather­ine com­plet­ed a six-month place­ment at Coffs Har­bour at the begin­ning of her sec­ond year of pathol­o­gy training.

“I real­ly enjoyed my time in Coffs Har­bour. The pathol­o­gists and lab­o­ra­to­ry staff were so wel­com­ing and sup­port­ive, and the sci­en­tists were excep­tion­al­ly skilled in cut-up, which gave me more time to focus on study and reporting.

“I was exposed to a wide range of cas­es, in fact I was sur­prised at the sheer vol­ume and range of cas­es at Coffs Har­bour, every­thing from biop­sies to large sur­gi­cal spec­i­mens, as well as com­mu­ni­ty pathol­o­gy cas­es. The pathol­o­gists also went out of their way to pro­vide me with both inter­est­ing and rou­tine slides, along with reg­u­lar tutorials.

“Being in a small­er region also meant I got to know every­one on a more per­son­al lev­el com­pared with my expe­ri­ence in larg­er centres.”

Cather­ine said one of the most reward­ing aspects of pathol­o­gy is the con­stant learning.

“Even with­in a short time, I’ve seen how much my skills have grown.

“Six months ago, I often felt unsure of what I was look­ing at under the micro­scope, but now I can recog­nise pat­terns, under­stand what I’m see­ing, and approach cas­es with greater confidence.

“The same goes for pre­sent­ing at mul­ti­dis­ci­pli­nary team meet­ings and per­form­ing macro­scop­ic cut-up. That sense of progress is incred­i­bly motivating.

“I also love the team­work. Pathol­o­gy brings togeth­er pathol­o­gists, sci­en­tists, reg­is­trars, and clin­i­cians. Every­one con­tributes their exper­tise to ensure patients receive the best pos­si­ble care.

“Being part of that col­lab­o­ra­tive envi­ron­ment, and meet­ing so many inspir­ing col­leagues along the way, has been one of the real high­lights of my training.”

Enjoying the benefits of regional training

Cather­ine said in her spare time she loves being out­doors, surf­ing, hik­ing, run­ning, or skiing.

“Dur­ing my time in Coffs Har­bour, I was able to do all these things. The surf beach­es are stun­ning. I espe­cial­ly loved Dig­gers Beach, Wool­go­ol­ga Beach, and Sawtell Beach.

“My part­ner spent the six months there with me, and each week­end we would explore new towns and restau­rants togeth­er, which made the expe­ri­ence even more special.”

“My part­ner spent the six months there with me, and each week­end we would explore new towns and restau­rants togeth­er, which made the expe­ri­ence even more special.”

‘No day is the same’

For Cather­ine, the vari­ety of tasks asso­ci­at­ed with Anatom­i­cal Pathol­o­gy is what keeps her work interesting.

”A typ­i­cal day starts with arriv­ing at the lab, say­ing hel­lo to every­one, and check­ing over the cas­es I dic­tat­ed the day before,” she explains.

“Dur­ing my time in Coffs Har­bour, my col­league and I fol­lowed a loose study plan. Each week we’d focus on a dif­fer­ent sys­tem or dis­ease area. The pathol­o­gists would often leave us inter­est­ing slides to review, and we’d then dis­cuss them, sit at the dou­ble-head­ed micro­scope with a pathol­o­gist, and present cas­es to each other.

“Cut-up was usu­al­ly every sec­ond day, but even then, we still had plen­ty of time to review cas­es and study spe­cif­ic top­ics in detail.

She describes her train­ing as a struc­tured but sup­port­ive envi­ron­ment, where learn­ing was built into the flow of the day.

Cather­ine is now back work­ing in the AP lab­o­ra­to­ry at Prince of Wales Hos­pi­tal in Syd­ney, where she is also enjoy­ing the expe­ri­ence of being in a larg­er lab­o­ra­to­ry environment.

“Each cen­tre has been spe­cial and unique in its own way.

“Ulti­mate­ly, it’s a real priv­i­lege to be solv­ing the puz­zle of a person’s dis­ease, and be part of a patient’s journey.”

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