A brief history of
Hall Veterinary Surgery
Hall Veterinary Surgery
In 1982, Helen Phillips and her scatter-brained Irish Setter moved down to Hall village from Brisbane to help a friend be vet locum for Jan Spate, who had moved temporarily to Talbingo. When Jan came back in 1984 with a new addition to her family, toddler Jesse, she was happy for Helen to continue practising out of the studio of a rented house at the opposite end of the street, where coincidentally in 1985, Helen married Andrew Purdam.
When the owners of that place returned, our wandering Helen again had to move house, on a stinking hot February day in 1987. This time it was to a place that was hers, not at either end of Hoskins St, but right in the middle, on Victoria St. The house’s ceiling needed patching, the whole place needed repainting and new floor coverings, and it leaked when it rained, but it was home.
With no studio to practice from, Helen resorted to using the back part of the new (well, 80 year old) house. 1987 also saw the birth of first son Glen. In 1988, Glen had grown to a more demanding age, and the practice had grown out of the laundry, so a dedicated Andrew stayed home to raise Glen, and a dedicated surgery building was built on the block, to raise the business.
Fairly soon the one nurse/receptionist became two, then assistant vets were added on and pretty soon the surgery building also needed extending. Helen enlisted the help of an associate, Beth Campbell, who was as hard-working as Helen, and the practice exploded, and even continued to grow when Helen took a year sabbatical in 1992. Some few years of growth later, the extension also needed extension, so the bullet was bitten and the decision made to replace the building with a larger purpose-built facility, rather than risk creating a rabbit’s warren.
Draft plans were started in 1994, but it wasn't until mid-1995 that construction was begun. Firstly, some demountable units were placed at the back of the block to house the vet business whilst the building business was going on. We’ll never forget the 4WD articulated “Franna” crane wading through the mud with half a temporary vet surgery suspended from its arm. Once we were safely installed in the demountables, the “old” building was removed. Fortunately, much of it was recycled and recovered, but it was with a pang that “Mach 1” was dismantled.
The construction of the new building was delayed somewhat by further rain, and as our foundation ditches continued to resemble a road map of Venice, engineers were called in to provide advice on how to deal with the fact that we were in fact building on what appeared to be a spring. Having established that lots of deep concrete piers were going to help prevent us floating away, work resumed and the building sprang from the spring quite rapidly. Our only subsequent delay was to wait for the concrete floor to cure enough to put the vinyl flooring down.
In February 1996, the new building was invaded by a veterinary practice crew eager to vacate the temporary buildings. The surgery has continued to grow, with the work now shared by a team of four veterinarians, seven trained nurses, and support staff. By now, Helen's Andrew - having become more free as the toddlers had grown into littlies - swapped diapers for papers and joined the gang as Office Manager, handling more and more bookwork.
Lesa Potten (Briggs) joined us in 2005, and in July 2007, she and Helen formed a partnership as Hall Veterinary Surgery Pty Ltd, so that Helen could share some of the workload of being Principal to such an active and buoyant practice. Their shared values in care for the pet, care for the client, continued Professional Development for all staff, and general all round good galness has made it an easy transition to this new phase in the business.
Hall Veterinary Surgery would like to thank all our past and present staff, clients and their pets and livestock for being part of this journey.
Copyright ©2005-2009 Hall Veterinary Surgery Pty Ltd. ACN 124 609 963.
Disclaimer: The information on this website is of a general nature only and in no way should replace a visit to the vet with your animal.
If your animal is unwell, please phone us for an appointment.
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