Search and Rescue Medicine
SAR Training Australia draws on extensive expertise in Search and Rescue (SAR) Medicine, delivering exceptional capability across projects of any scale.
Our team of SAR Medicine and Timeframe for Survival specialists are global leaders in achieving outcomes that save lives. Led by the renowned Dr Paul Luckin AM, we are ready to provide high-end Search and Rescue solutions tailored to your organisation’s needs.
Dr. Paul Luckin AM
Paul is an anaesthetist, based in Brisbane. He trained as an Ambulance Paramedic and in Ambulance Rescue in Hobart, before doing his medical undergraduate training at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, and the Baragwannath Hospital in Soweto.
He trained in Anaesthesia at the University of Natal and King Edward VIII Hospital in Durban and was a cardiac anaesthetist in South Africa, New Zealand and Tasmania.
Paul spent eight years in the Mountain Rescue Team of the Natal Section of the Mountain Club of South Africa, working in the Drakensberg Mountains. He was a Consultant and Lecturer to Accident and Emergency Medical Services Natal; Director and Lecturer on courses in Accident and Disaster Medicine for Doctors, and alternate Director of Red Cross Air Mercy Flights.
Once back in Tasmania Paul was Director of the Tasmanian Ambulance Service Advanced Airway Management Training Programme. He was President, Royal Life Saving Society Tasmania, and Convenor, State Task Force for Prevention of Drowning in the Under 5’s.
Paul teaches the medical aspects of Search and Rescue at State Police level and is on the directing staff of the National Police Search and Rescue Managers Course. He is a medical advisor to the Australian Maritime Safety Authority, and Police Search and Rescue teams around the nation, providing time-frames for survival during Search and Rescue operations.
In 2005 Paul received the National Search and Rescue Award for contributions to Search and Rescue in the Australasian Region.
He is a State Councillor, former Director of Medical Services and Chairman of Training Branch, St John Ambulance Queensland. Paul has been invested as a Commander of the Order of St John (CStJ), and is a Fellow of the Royal Life Saving Society Australia.
As a Captain in the Royal Australian Naval Reserve, Paul has served in Bougainville, East Timor, in the Resuscitation and Retrieval Team for the victims of the first Bali bombing, the Solomon Islands, Timor Leste, in the first foreign medical team into Banda Aceh following the 2004 tsunami., and in Afghanistan.
In 2015 he was made a Member of the Order of Australia, AM, for significant service to the community through emergency medicine, and as an authority on survivability in search and rescue operations.
Formal Qualifications
- MB.BCh (Rand)
- DA (SA)
- M.MED.ANAESTHESIA (Natal)
- FFA (SA)
- FANZCA
Awards
- Order of Australia
- Australian National Search & Rescue Award
Northeast Indian Ocean & Bay of Bengal - Search and Rescue Training Project 2025–2026
Delivered key Timeframe for Survival training to a range of Government and Military officials during the On-Scene Coordinator Courses and SAR Mission Coordinator Courses in Bangladesh, Maldives and Sri-Lanka (June 2025 – March 2026)
