Lorraine Corbett

Lorraine Corbett has spent a working life starting businesses, building teams and caring for some of Queensland’s most distinctive properties. For more than three decades she was the business partner of her late husband, Professor John Lawrence Corbett (1940–2023), the Rhodes Scholar and neurologist who pioneered sleep medicine in Australia. Her own contribution spans healthcare administration, heritage restoration and conservation.

Healthcare and Business

Lorraine met John Corbett in 1985 and they married in 1989. After some years in Sydney and the United States, they settled on the Gold Coast in 1994. Together they established Corbett Neurology and Neurophysiology Services (CNS) in Southport, and in 1995 opened the first sleep disorders clinic on the Gold Coast. Lorraine managed the practice, including the administration of a round-the-clock on-call service to local private hospitals.

In 2000 the couple co-founded Snore Australia from their home. As Administration Manager, Lorraine recruited and trained staff, found and fitted out clinics, designed the marketing and advertising, and stayed actively employed in the two businesses of Corbett Neurology and Snore Australia.  Snore Australia grew into Australia’s largest provider of Level 1 sleep studies, with clinics in more than 25 locations. The business was acquired by Air Liquide in 2010. Lorraine later ran the Corbett Neurophysiology Group, with three neurophysiology centres employing three neurologists alongside scientists, reception, bookings and support staff.

Read about Professor John Corbett →

Surrey House, Southport

In 1994 John and Lorraine bought Surrey House on Nerang Street, Southport, built in the mid-1880s and believed to be the oldest surviving residence in Southport. Over the following years they restored it with great care, keeping it in daily use as both their home and, on the ground floor, Professor Corbett’s practice for nearly thirty years. The gardens won several Gold Coast City Council garden awards. In 2025 Surrey House, together with the adjoining Doreen House, was sold to a family who fell in love with its heritage character and intend to keep the homestead intact.

Read the full history of Surrey House →

Corbett Chambers, Brisbane

In 2009 the Corbetts purchased Telecommunications House at 283 Elizabeth Street, Brisbane, a Queensland Heritage Register building designed by the architect Claude Chambers and completed in 1907 for the Commercial Travellers Association of Queensland. Lorraine oversaw its refurbishment and the restoration of its heritage features, and the building was renamed Corbett Chambers, joining the family name with that of its architect. The same pairing gave its new restaurant tenant its name, Corbett & Claude.

Our goal was always to respect, enhance and maintain the heritage features and appeal of this magnificent building.

After more than a decade of ownership, the Corbetts sold Corbett Chambers in 2022 to the Silverstone Group, confident that it would continue to flourish under owners who shared their regard for heritage buildings.

Eaglemont Estate, Springbrook

In 2000 the Corbetts acquired Eaglemont, a former dairy farm of 156 acres (63 hectares) adjoining the World Heritage-listed Gondwana Rainforests of Springbrook National Park. Over more than twenty years they transformed it into a botanical retreat of walking trails, orchards, gardens, native reforestation and water features, with a commercial nursery, tree plantings and a main residence and cottages. Professor Corbett called it “an oasis of peace”.

Following John’s death in 2023, Lorraine negotiated the sale of Eaglemont Estate to the City of Gold Coast, which plans to develop it as a nature-based ecotourism destination, including an education centre telling the story of the land from its Indigenous heritage through its farming past and the Corbett years.