Tarun Weeramanthri

Tarun Weeramanthri is a specialist physician, dual certified in internal medicine and public health, who is an adjunct professor at the University of Western Australia (UWA). He has worked at national, regional and international level, moving between administration, policy and frontline work, and is the only person to have been appointed Chief Health Officer in three Australian jurisdictions. Firstly in the Northern Territory from 2004 to 2007, then Western Australia from 2008 to 2018, and most recently Victoria from January to April 2025. Since 2022, he has represented the West Pacific on the Governing Council of the World Federation of Public Health Associations.

Career Weeramanthri has a Ph.D. in social medicine from the University of Sydney.

Weeramanthri was Chief Health Officer of the Northern Territory between 2004 and 2007, succeeding Shirley Hendy, and succeeded by Barbara Paterson.

Weeramanthri worked with the World Health Organization in Sierra Leone in 2015 as Emergency Medical Teams coordinator for the Ebola response, and in Iraq in 2017 as the trauma coordinator around the conflict in Mosul. He has also worked in disaster and emergency response for the Australian government in both India (2008, 2021) and Papua New Guinea (2018).

Weeramanthri is an adjunct professor for the UWA School of Population and Global Health, chair of Rare Voices Australia, deputy chair of the Pathwest board He was also a special advisor to the Western Australian government for its COVID-19 response during 2020.

In October 2020, Weeramanthri was appointed president of the Public Health Association of Australia.

In 2025, Weeramanthri was appointed by the Victorian government as Chief Health Officer for a four-month term while the Victorian Department of Health conducted recruitment for a permanent Chief Health Officer. Western Australia Minister for Health's award for Outstanding Commitment to a Healthier Western Australia (2018) Member of the Order of Australia for service to public health administration (2022)