By Genevieve Jacobs AM, ABC Radio Canberra, 2016

As an openly gay man living in Canberra during the beginnings of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, Dr Rowland founded the Interchange General Practice above the Civic bus interchange in the early 1980s.

One of his co-workers Dr Denise Kraus said the practice gave Canberra's 'fringe-dwellers' a safe and supportive space.

Dr Rowland's ethos of equality and non-judgemental treatment became incredibly important to HIV-positive Canberrans in the 1980s.

Dr Tuck Meng Soo, who started working with Dr Rowland at the practice only months before his death, said Dr Rowland realised early on that HIV/AIDS was not an issue confined to the gay community.