Kevin John Cullen, AM (22 November 1922 – 9 February 1994) was an Australian medical doctor, researcher, and winemaker, active in Western Australia's South West. He is best known for his role in founding the

Busselton Health Study __NOTOC__ The Busselton Health Study is a long-term , on-going health cohort study of residents of the Western Australian city of Busselton. Over 20,000 Busselton residents have participated in surveys concerning such health topics as cardiovascul ...

and

Cullen Wines Cullen Wines is an Australian winery based in Wilyabrup, within the Margaret River wine region of Western Australia. History Trial vines were planted on one acre of land by Diana and Kevin Cullen on a Wilyabrup property in 1966 after havin ...

Biography

Cullen was born on 22 November 1922 in the Western Australian town of Bunbury as the younger son of Alfred, an English-born surgeon, and his locally born wife Elvie (née Clarke). He was schooled locally for two years before boarding in Perth at Hale School from 1929 to 1939. He then attended the

University of Western Australia The University of Western Australia (UWA) is a public research university in the Australian state of Western Australia. The university's main campus is in Perth, the state capital, with a secondary campus in Albany, Western Australia, Albany an ...

for a year, studying science, before moving to the University of Melbourne Faculty of Medicine, where he graduated with a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University of ...

and a

Bachelor of Medicine Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery ( la, Medicinae Baccalaureus, Baccalaureus Chirurgiae; abbreviated most commonly MBBS), is the primary medical degree awarded by medical schools in countries that follow the tradition of the United King ...

in 1946. This was the standard course progression for medical students in Western Australia before the establishment of the

University of Western Australia School of Medicine The University of Western Australia Medical School is the medical school of The University of Western Australia, located in Perth, Australia. Established in 1957, it is the oldest medical school in Western Australia, with over 6000 alumni. Well-kn ...

. Also in 1946, he married Diana Cullen (née Adams), a physiotherapist, in Hobart while Cullen was a resident medical officer at

Royal Hobart Hospital The Royal Hobart Hospital is a public hospital in the Hobart CBD, Tasmania, Australia. The hospital also functions as a teaching hospital in co-operation with the University of Tasmania. The hospital's research facilities are known as the Roya ...

; the couple had three sons and three daughters. In 1948, Cullen moved to the Western Australian town of

Busselton Busselton is a city in the South West region of the state of Western Australia approximately south-west of Perth. Busselton has a long history as a popular holiday destination for Western Australians; however, the closure of the Busselton ...

, where he set up a

general practice General practice is the name given in various nations, such as the United Kingdom, India, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa to the services provided by general practitioners. In some nations, such as the US, similar services may be describe ...

the next year. He subsequently studied at the

University of Edinburgh Medical School The University of Edinburgh Medical School (also known as Edinburgh Medical School) is the medical school of the University of Edinburgh in Scotland and the United Kingdom and part of the College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine. It was esta ...

and became a member of the

Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh The Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh (RCPE) is a medical royal college in Scotland. It is one of three organisations that sets the specialty training standards for physicians in the United Kingdom. It was established by Royal charter ...

in 1958. He returned to Western Australia and, while continuing his full-time practice, in 1962 became the first person to receive an

M.D. Doctor of Medicine (abbreviated M.D., from the Latin ''Medicinae Doctor'') is a medical degree, the meaning of which varies between different jurisdictions. In the United States, and some other countries, the M.D. denotes a professional degree. T ...

degree from the recently established University of Western Australia School of Medicine for his thesis ''A Survey of Behaviour Disorders and Related Factors in the Children of 1000 Western Australian Families''. In 1963 he moved with his family to the US, where he continued work on longitudinal studies of child development on a research fellowship at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

. He then returned to Busselton, where he established an institute of medical and population studies. In 1966 he and a team of Perth-based practitioners and researchers founded the

, a long-term survey of the health of Busselton's population, whose data has been used in over 400 research publications. In 1966, the Cullens with friends and colleagues established a trial acre of vines, inspired by the work of John Gladstones, who had written papers about the potential of the area as a wine region. In 1971, Kevin and Diana founded

, originally known as Wilyabrup Wines, in a property they had bought in 1948 in Wilyabrup in what became the Margaret River wine region. While Diana became more involved with managing the vineyard, Kevin continued his general practice and research work. He helped make the winery's first

cabernet sauvignon Cabernet Sauvignon () is one of the world's most widely recognized red wine grape varieties. It is grown in nearly every major wine producing country among a diverse spectrum of climates from Australia and British Columbia, Canada to Lebanon' ...

in 1974 and regularly travelled to

Bordeaux Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefectur ...

to buy more examples of the variety. In 1986 he founded the Cullen Wines International

Chardonnay Chardonnay (, , ) is a green-skinned grape variety used in the production of white wine. The variety originated in the Burgundy wine region of eastern French wine, France, but is now grown wherever wine is produced, from English wine, Englan ...

Tasting, to assist in comparison between the varieties in Margaret River and other regions. He died in Busselton on 9 February 1994, aged 71, after an eighteen-month bout of

motor neurone disease Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as motor neuron disease (MND) or Lou Gehrig's disease, is a neurodegenerative disease that results in the progressive loss of motor neurons that control voluntary muscles. ALS is the most comm ...

Recognition

Cullen became a fellow of the College of Physicians of Edinburgh in 1972 and a

fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians, abbreviated as the post-nominal initials FRACP, is a recognition of the completion of the prescribed postgraduate specialist training programme in internal adult or internal paediatric medicin ...

in 1982. In 1993, he received the

Australian Medical Association The Australian Medical Association (AMA) is an Australian public company by guarantee formed as a professional association for Australian doctors and medical students. The association is not run by the Australian Government and does not regul ...

's inaugural award for individual achievement, was named the Western Australian Citizen of the Year in the "professionals" division, and had the Busselton community health centre named in his honour by Premier of Western Australia

Richard Court Richard Fairfax Court (born 27 September 1947) is a former Australian politician and diplomat. He served as Premier of Western Australia from 1993 to 2001 and as Australian Ambassador to Japan from 2017 to 2020. A member of the Liberal Party, ...

. In the

1994 Australia Day Honours The 1994 Australia Day Honours are appointments to various orders and honours to recognise and reward good works by Australian citizens. The list was announced on 26 January 1994 by the Governor General of Australia, Bill Hayden. The Australia Da ...

, he was named a Member of the

Order of Australia The Order of Australia is an honour that recognises Australian citizens and other persons for outstanding achievement and service. It was established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, on the advice of the Australian Gove ...

"In recognition of service to medicine, particularly in the Busselton region and to the wine industry". In 2006 Cullen Wines renamed its Cullen Chardonnay the Kevin John Chardonnay, and has since released the Kevin John Legacy Series.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cullen, Kevin 1922 births 1994 deaths Australian general practitioners Australian public health doctors Australian winemakers People from Bunbury, Western Australia People from Busselton Australian expatriates in the United Kingdom People educated at Hale School University of Western Australia alumni Melbourne Medical School alumni University of Edinburgh Medical School alumni University of California, Berkeley alumni Fellows of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh Fellows of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians Members of the Order of Australia Neurological disease deaths in Western Australia Deaths from motor neuron disease