Rural and Remote Disability Research Community of Practice: RADAR

• Claire Quilliam

  Dr

  claire.quilliam@unimelb.edu.au
  03 5823 4576

Project Details

The Australian Rural Health Education Network Rural and Remote Disability Community of Practice (CoP) has over 31 members representing each state and territory. The CoP includes emerging researchers, clinician researchers and senior researchers, and has a reference group to guide research activity.

The CoP is co-led by Dr Claire Quilliam (UoM) and A/Prof Luke Wakely (UoN). Research activity has focused on supporting the development of a national voice and research capacity building to inform policymaking impacting the lives of rural and remote people with disability.

Researchers

Dr Claire Quilliam, University of Melbourne

Associate Professor Luke Wakely, University of Newcastle

Funding

The CoP is supported by the Australian Rural Health Education Network and has attracted capacity building funding from the University of Melbourne Department of Rural Health, The University of Newcastle and The University of Sydney.

Research Publications

Quilliam, C., Wakely, L., & Bailie, J. (2026). Re-imagining policymaking with rural people with disability in Australia. In A Research Agenda for Lived Experience and Disability Policy. Edward Elgar Publishing. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781035332403.00009

Wakely, L., Quilliam, C., Bagley, K., Stubbs, C., Bailie, J., Spong, J., McHugh, C., Ellis, N., Fallon, T., Doney, R., French, L., Clarke, J., & McKinstry, C. (2025). Strengthening National Rural Disability Research Capacity Through a Community of Practice. Australian Journal of Rural Health, 33(6). https://doi.org/10.1111/ajr.70131

Quilliam, C., Wakely, L., French, L., Ellis, N., McNeil, R., Fallon, T., Kersten, M., Bagley, K., Spong, J., Doney, R., Stubbs, C., Devitt, A., & McKinstry, C. (2025). Placing Rural in the National Disability Insurance Scheme Review. Australian Journal of Social Issues, 60(4). https://doi.org/10.1002/ajs4.70024

Quilliam, C., McNeil, R., Wakely, L., & Dew, A. (2025). Social inequalities in eligibility rates and use of the Australian National Disability Insurance Scheme, 2016–22: an administrative data analysis. Medical Journal of Australia, 222(10). https://doi.org/10.5694/mja2.52654

Recent Presentations

Quilliam C & Wakely L (May 2026). Claiming our Place: Strategic development of rural and remote disability research capacity and policy rural proofing. Curtin University Faculty of Health Services Innovation and Scholarship of Learning and Teaching (ISoLT) seminar, Online (invited oral).

Quilliam C, Luke Wakely,  Jo Spong, Natalie Ellis, Louise French, Tony Fallon, Casey Stubbs, Robyn McNeil, Michelle Kersten,r Kerryn Bagley, Alison Devitt, Carol McKinstry ​ (Oct 2025). And beyond the cities? How the NDIS Review overlooked rural and remote. 10th Rural and Remote Health Scientific Symposium, Alice Springs (oral).

Quilliam C, Wakely L, Spong J, Ellis N (June 2025). The NDIS Review: the potential impact of metrocentric disability policy on rural implementation. 7th International Public Policy Conference. Chiang Mai (oral).