TFF strives to provide opportunities for regionally based Midwives, Nurses and Special Care Nursery staff to undertake further training programs/courses and exchanges with metropolitan, tertiary hospitals to further develop their skills. These skills will then be brought back where they will be utilised in the regional hospital, thereby improving regional maternity services which will be greatly beneficial to the community.

In addition to the professional development of staff and provision of equipment, the TFF objectives are:

• To reduce the instances of mothers being transferred to larger hospitals if they are having a high-risk birth.
• To reduce the instances of newborn babies being transferred to larger hospitals if they are having complications post-delivery.
• To allow babies to discharge earlier from metropolitan hospitals due to a higher level of care being provided in the regional hospital. This will allow the baby to return to its community, closer to family and thereby reduce some of the stresses experienced by families during this time.

Torie Finnane was a much-loved midwife who tragically passed away in December 2020 at the age of 34 just three days after giving birth to her third child Maisie in Orange, NSW. It’s important to note that Torie passed away from a sudden case of bacterial meningitis which was unrelated to the birth of Maisie.  Maisie being also unwell was subsequently transferred to Sydney where she spent two weeks in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at the Royal Hospital for Women, Randwick, before returning home to her father, Liam, and older siblings, Ollie and Elke, in Orange.

Torie was raised on a sheep grazing property in the Snowy Monaro region of NSW with her older siblings, Caddie and Geoff.  Torie's loving and caring nature began here as she helped her parents, Bill and Sue O'Hare, with the many aspects of country life.

After school, Torie went on to study Nursing at Charles Sturt University (Bathurst) and then specialised in Midwifery at the University of Technology, Sydney. Torie worked at Prince of Wales Private Hospital, Randwick and Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Camperdown before returning to her country roots and working with the Orange Health Service.

Torie was renowned among her colleagues for her ability to impart her outstanding practical knowledge and experience, brought about by her years as a midwife in some of the State’s busiest maternity units, to her junior colleagues to aid their professional development.  Throughout her many years as a Midwife, Torie welcomed numerous babies into the world, always leaving a lasting impact on new parents with her genuine and empathetic nature.

With the generous support of Brown House families and the excellent leadership of our Brown House leaders – Max Bloomfield (House Prefect), Elle Armstrong, Lilla Attenborough and Will Pearce (House Captains) – we are excited to give our community the chance to win some amazing prizes while supporting the TFF.