JOHN TARRANT 'WHY I DISAPPEARED'

The A Country Practice heartthrob is out of hiding!

- Kietley Isrin

He played rural vet Matt Tyler on A Country Practice between 1988 and 1992. But when Woman's Day caught up with John Tarrant, he was a long way from Wandin Valley.

“I'm in Karratha," the 60-year-old told us as he was preparing to start night shift in the Pilbara region of Western Australia.

John spent the previous seven years at NSW Ambulance, and recently relocated to Australia's northwest coast to become a fly-in fly-out paramedic.

“It’s a lot different to being an on the road paramedic,” he explains. “It’s a lot quieter but the two-weeks-on two-weeks-off really suits me and there are big financial gains, too.”

So, just how did Wandin Valley's handsome veterinarian who married popular nurse Lucy Gardiner, aka Georgie Parker, go from saving animals to saving lives in real life?

“When I left ACP, I wasn't really able to sustain an acting career so I started doing other things,” he admits.

From working at a zoo to camera work on Home And Away, John says they were “all meant to be survival jobs until my next gig but that never really came along”.

It wasn’t until he reached his mid 40s that John realised it was time to start a new chapter.

“That's when I decided to do my nursing degree and become a registered nurse,” he says.

MEMORY LANE

John admits he never wanted to give up acting. “I thought that after four-and-a-half years on a show like