In fact Rebecca Weir has been on the ground to respond to bombings in Bali, a typhoon in the Philippines, cyclone in Vanuatu and measles epidemic in Samoa.

Now as Northeast Health's executive director clinical services she has spent the last five weeks preparing for the impact of a catastrophic outbreak of coronavirus in her corner of Victoria.

"There's a way of thinking and way of preparing that unless you've got some experience and some training in it does not necessarily come naturally," Ms Weir said.

The critical care nurse got her first taste of mass tragedy when she was sent to Bali as part of a team to treat victims of the terrorist bombings in 2002 which killed 202 people, including 88 Australians.

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That atrocity led to the National Critical Care and Trauma Response Centre, based in Darwin, where Ms Weir worked for 10 years.

It in turn links Australian medical assistance teams, known as AUSMATs, which Ms Weir continues to join on secondment.

"There's never been any real plan (to do disaster work) but the Territory and working in Darwin gave me the opportunity I would not have got elsewhere in Australia," Ms Weir said.

Subsequently, the trauma specialist was in the Philippines for the aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan in 2013 and Vanuatu to treat victims of Cyclone Pam in 2015.

In November, Ms Weir flew to Samoa to help combat a huge measles bout.

"There was a country seeing many of their infant children dying from measles....it was terribly sad," the mum to children, 13 and 11, said.

"That country will hurt for a very long time.

"Losing children at any point of time is always hard and devastating, losing a child to a disease that's potentially preventable would be really hard."

Given such a resume, it is no surprise Ms Weir has been integral to COVID-19 planning in Wangaratta.

Unlike sharp disasters, coronavirus has been a looming menace since emerging in China in December.

That has allowed Wangaratta hospital to shift oncology from its main building and to co-ordinate with sister hospitals at Beechworth, Benalla, Bright, Mansfield, Myrtleford and Yarrawonga.

"Time is great but time also causes frustration and anxiety because you're doing a whole lot of things potentially for naught, but I can't express enough the importance of putting a structure in place - the Australian incident management system, used in bushfires and floods," Ms Weir said.

"Sometimes you have to make decisions and it may or may not happen."