Qtopia founder David Polson was one of the first people diagnosed with AIDS in Australia. He died today

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23 November 1954–10 February 2025

When he celebrated his 70th birthday last year, David Polson was one of just 28 blokes still standing from the original 400 Aussie blokes diagnosed with HIV/AIDS back in 1984. Back then, it was a dead-set certainty that it was a death sentence. Even worse, due to the general ignorance, widespread fear, lack of trust, and unfair treatment, he was told to keep it a secret from everyone. For a decade, only two of his cousins and two mates knew.

His initial reaction was that, despite the foreboding prognosis, he would survive. He conceptualised his own strategy.

“I took up a pretty healthy lifestyle and started exercising regularly, eating a balanced diet, taking heaps of vitamin supplements, practising positive visualisation and meditation. I just kept a right positive outlook and surrounded myself with good mates, jokes and laughter. Fair dinkum, it was probably a bit silly, but that was all I'd tried, no other treatments.”

Secondly, after seeing a poster at his doctor's surgery calling for gay blokes to come forward for research, he decided he had an obligation. "Because no one knows about what this is. I said to my GP, 'I'll do whatever it takes to help medical science find a treatment or a cure. Whatever I can do, I will do it'."

David Polson was born on November 23, 1954, in Christchurch, New Zealand, as the only kid of a head teacher. A happy childhood ("full of love and family") came to an end when David's dad was sent to the provinces and he was sent off to boardin' school, where the country blokes made his life a living hell – he was bashed and abused as "Poofter Polson".

He later revealed being molested by a priest. He never told his parents, but his sympathetic dad let him stay in the city. As soon as he left school, he grabbed the opportunity of a scholarship from Sydney's Ensemble Theatre.

A year saw a musical cabaret played out at a Neutral Bay theatre, followed some years later by a stint in London doing temporary work, including sending medical staff to Saudi Arabia.

He headed back to Sydney in 1981 and landed a job as a bartender at the swanky new Regent Hotel, which was a five-star affair. By the time his diagnosis came about, he'd become the man in charge of the Don Burrows Supper Club.

In response to that poster, David came under the care of Professor David Cooper at St Vincent's in Sydney, whose research, with Professor Ron Penny, would eventually lead to the first description of the seroconversion illness which accompanies initial HIV infection in many people.

Professor Cooper's National Centre for HIV Epidemiology and Clinical Research (since 2011, the Kirby Institute) headed the way on most major trials that eventually led to the adoption of effective combo treatments currently available to people living with HIV around the world. Over the next 30 years, David Polson participated in over 28 drug trials with Dr Cooper, who became a good mate.

The trials left him with queasiness, failing kidneys, hearing loss, balance issues and kidney disease, yet he took on a public role to back up his fellow mates going through the same hardships and to put paid to the misconceptions and fear that surrounded them.

Walking through St Vincent's Ward 17 South for AIDS patients – four beds to a room – during its early days when the disease was gripping the community, he came across 90 per cent of the patients as friends. HIV infection levels would reach a peak of 2,400 cases in 1987 before plummeting to a low of 719 cases in 1999. Approximately 8,000 Aussies would lose their lives. David would attend a funeral every month.

He called it quits on his job and a social life. By 2011, he was taking about 48 tablets a day. "I keep swallowing those tablets and I don't mind because it's better than the alternative." About 2020, his condition was confirmed as undetectable, which also meant it was untransmittable.

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Embracing Michael Kirby's view that the museum should also acknowledge "queer people who'd been oppressed, persecuted and discriminated against over the years", the museum took on a broader role focusing on three key principles: remembering, celebrating, and educating.

The first – a stark and deeply moving AIDS memorial, which features a recreation of St Vincent's Ward 17 South with many of the authentic items from the original, as well as the dedication of the Catholic Sisters of Charity "who cared without discrimination". Their guiding principle was "we are here to look after these people, to love, support and care for them."

A memorial garden of love has been created in honour of David, in what was once the police station's garden.

David's passionate, eloquent and unrelenting advocacy led to him being made a Member of the Order of Australia on Australia Day 2023 for his significant contribution to the health of the community through his work in HIV education and advocacy.

He is survived by his sister Ruth Henning, two nephews, William and Edward, his loving terrier, Rosie, and a galaxy of mates who knew him by the nick name Polly.

Right to the death, he stuck to his creed, which was H.O.P.E. – having a good sense of humour, staying positive, persevering and full of energy.

Mark McGinness

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