Meet our receptionist Kelly, who loves her tropical fish! As well as an array of guppies, Kelly has a rescue dog, Lucy the kelpie cross and four rescue cats. Kelly is familiar with dogs who have a bit of attitude, having grown up with a Maltese Cross name Kuzko, who had more than her share of sass.
Matilda joined the team as a kennel hand in early 2019 and has since commenced her studies towards her Cert IV in Veterinary Nursing. She loved being in the environment of the surgery which just deepened her love for animals. For as long as she can remember she had always wanted to be surrounded by animals wherever possible, so it was a dream come true when her family moved to a small property where she now has an array of animals. She enjoys spending her spare time with her dachshund Pipsqueak, kelpie Bindi, two miniature horses, llama, two cockatoos and bearded dragon as well as many ducks, chooks and geese. She also enjoys her volunteer work with WildCare NSW to hand raise orphaned joey kangaroos and then releasing them back into the wild. This is the same reason why she loves working at HVS, seeing the difference that is made to our clients and their pets.
April was the child that – despite being told ‘no’ on every previous occasion – still insisted on asking her Mum for a dog on her birthday and Christmas each and every year. She volunteered to look after all of her neighbours pets any time would go away and when a local doggy day care centre opened up, she began volunteering there too. Once she turned 18 her mum finally caved, and so along came Alfie the Pug x Jack Russell Terrier who has been by April’s side ever since.
April’s career at Hall Vet Surgery started in 2014 when she joined the team as a casual receptionist, keen to grow her knowledge and play an important role in helping clients care for their animals. In 2016 April began managing the clinic Facebook page and within 3 years was running 4 social media platforms, two blogs and all of the in house marketing needs of two clinics. During this time April was also promoted to Head Receptionist, passionate about leading her team to deliver exceptional customer care at all times. April’s proudest achievement to date was being named a runner up for the Lincoln Institute Best Team Leader in Australia award in 2019, but the thing that brings her the most joy is helping our clients and their pets everyday.
Keely originally started working for us out the front on the reception desk flanking her Mum (Debbie) who was our Head Receptionist at the time. Her love of animals saw her slowly spending more and more time out the back with the Nurses.
Keely has always had an interest in animals and at a young age dreamed of being a marine biologist. Keely has since swum with sharks and looks forward to Shark Week each year.
Outside of work you can find Keely with her family at their cabin at Barlings Beach, along with her love for sharks comes her love for the beach and the ocean, she would spend all day in the water if she could.
Rusty the Cocker Spaniel adores Keely and the rest of her family.
Hayley’s parents knew that they had an animal lover on their hands very quickly, constantly having to stop a young and fearless Hayley from running up and hugging every dog she would see! At the age of 11 Hayley and her family moved onto a property where they could have cows, sheep and chickens which was nothing short of a dream come true for Hayley. She loves getting stuck in and being hands on when it comes to animal care on the farm. Sassy rescue cats Jeffery and Tilly are happy to take a back seat but rescue pups Maggie and Pippa love to try and help round up the sheep, even though they aren’t very good at it. Hayley has a wealth of experience in customer care after many years of working in the hospitality industry. Combining her love of animals with her love for helping people, Hayley finds herself joining the Hall Vet Surgery Customer Care team. Hayley is enjoying meeting new pets and owners every day.
Pauline is a graphic designer turned dog trainer and aren’t we ever so grateful for the change of industry.
Pauline brings an abundance of knowledge to the team; she has worked with the RSPCA for the past 10 years training the most challenging pets of them all, with compassion, unwavering patience and dedication.
Pauline gained her Certificate IV in Veterinary Nursing in 2015 to add to her impressive list of qualifications, and what a caring, genuine and empathetic nurse she has become.
Pauline runs our Puppy and Adolescent training classes and also offers one-on-one training classes for the dogs that need individualised training.
Ella is our enthusiastic and energetic head nurse who is always ready to get stuck in and does so with a smile! Ella has a love for anything PUG! Her Pug x Jack Russell, Morgan has her own wardrobe filled entirely with pink attire. Also at home is the rescue dog Ted, a Poodle x that Ella’s parents just couldn’t say no to and Ella’s own crazy collection of distilled creatures.Between her roles as Head Nurse at Hall Vet and Emergency Nurse, Ella also somehow manages to find the time to represent Australia in Women’s Baseball, compete in dancing competitions and be an avid traveller, all this while building her own home.Ella makes everything she does look easy and fun. With her happy disposition and incredible skill and knowledge she is just the kind of person to be a great head nurse.
Talia joined our team in early 2020, leaving her career of 6 years as a beauty therapist. She is very passionate about great customer service and believes looking after people and animals in their time of need to be her calling.
She is a proud mum of two ginger cats, Cisco and Gunther. Cisco was a rescue from RSPCA and Gunther was brought into our Amaroo clinic as a stray and was instantly accepted into Talia’s family. She also has a “soul sister”, Maggie (Margaret when she’s in trouble), a staffy who is obsessed with pats and has the most gorgeous smile!
In her spare time Talia can be found cooking, painting, building, playing board/video games, going for walks, doing puzzles, watching tv and of course cuddling her pets!
Maddy started at Hall Vet as a receptionist and took to it effortlessly. She has also assisted running puppy classes and is in charge of social activities for Hall Vet staff.
Home life for Maddy has always revolved around animals. Currently she has Chester a ShihTzu x which was her 9th birthday present, Chester’s best bud and rescue dog Benny the maltese/ShihTzu x, Marley the very photogenic ragdoll cat and Marley’s shadow, Doug the mystery cat. Doug was a 1 of the 6 kittens in the litter hand raised here at Hall Vet in early 2016.
Maddy spent 6 weeks exploring Europe in 2015 then welcomed 2016 by spending a week in Bali, and is already planning her next adventure.
Sarah has a Bachelor degree of Equine Science and is currently studying a Certificate IV of Veterinary Nursing with the help of all staff at Hall Vet Surgery.
Sarah has come to us from working in equine and bovine reproduction. Sarah is passionate about dog training and lives on a large farm north of Albury with her partner, their six dogs, two horses and cat. Sarah commutes to Canberra each week, as she wants to start her small animal nursing career in a clinic as passionate about dog behaviour and training as she is! She brings with her each week her rescue dog Freddie Mercury with whom she does obedience training and hopes to turn him into a Delta dog so he can bring joy and love to many others. Fred sometimes helps out in the clinic too with Behaviour Specialist Nurse Pauline for her one on one consults or adolescent classes.
Sara is our quiet achiever who is unflappable in the stress of surgery, she just gets things done – and done properly.
Sara’s first pet was a black cat called Demon who actually belonged to her babysitter but after deciding he liked Sara a whole lot more, Demon changed addresses.
The next pet looking for a home was Big Bob. Bob was a stray cat brought into Hall Vets un-microchipped with no identification. A health check revealed Bob had FIV so could not be adopted. With very little persuasion Bob went home to live with Sara, her partner Aaron and her son Murphy.
2016 saw another four legged fury friend join the family, Earl the Pug x Chihuahua who makes up for his lack of size with his huge personality.
Sara is studying Pet Nutrition and runs our ‘Belly Busters’ weight control program for pets.
Janet is our practice manager who makes things happen with an absolute minimum of fuss.
Janet is originally from Fife in Scotland and immigrated to Australia back in 1987. She has 3 beautiful grown up girls, 2 gorgeous grandchildren, a ragdoll cat named Dexter and a grand-doggie Odi the adorable Border Collie.
Like many vet nurses, being around animals is what Janet had always wanted to do, so when a trainee vet nurse position came up she jumped at the opportunity. Although Janet had three young children and was working two jobs while studying her vet nursing certificate, she rose to the occasion and became head nurse, and went on to work another 11 years at that practice.
It’s this ability to multitask that makes Janet the perfect practice manager.
Lizzie is studying Veterinary Nursing through Open Colleges with the help of the staff at HVS. She is very passionate about all animals! Other then studying, in her spare time you will find her on the farm doing sheep work, riding horses, at rodeos and taking her two Labradors Daisy and Dora for runs through the reserves near her home. Lizzie is excited to further her career in animal studies.
Alex’s interest in animals has always been apparent and from a young age she was always bringing home animals to add to the family home in the middle of suburbia. These additions included and were not limited to chickens, rabbits, snails and locusts (Mum and Dad were thrilled as you can imagine!) as it was always more successful to seek forgiveness than ask permission. Since moving to Canberra to study five years ago, she has loved being able to not have to worry too much about how many animals she can keep!
This mindset continued on through Uni where she found a three-day old kitten in the bushes while living in student accommodation. Alex hand raised Cleo the kitten all whilst juggling the demands of completing a degree and she still sees Cleo as her proudest accomplishment of her life to date. Equipped with a Bachelor of Communications in Public Relations degree, high standard of customer service, well-developed communication and problem solving skills and love for social media, Alexandra will be assisting April with all things customer care, marketing and communications.
Meg grew up on a farm in a small country town called Harden, about 1.5 hours from Canberra. Not being an animal lover simply wasn’t a choice, as she spent her whole childhood being raised around them. The love she developed for her cows, sheep, horses, dogs and everything in between led her straight into the Veterinary Technology degree at CSU In Wagga, and ultimately into a career in the veterinary industry. As part of her studies, Meg completed a placement at Hall Vet Surgery in 2018. She enjoyed it as much as we enjoyed having her so she immediately began working with us during her uni holidays, and hasn’t left ever since! In Meg’s spare time she likes to accumulate horses (Cleo, Archiee, Scotty, Billy, Willis and Henry) with her sidekicks Tigga (Cattle Dog x), Beans & Maisy (Kelpies) and Billy Ray (DSH), spending as much time with them on the farm as possible. Meg is thankful to be a part of the Hall family & for the amazing opportunity to work in what she sees to be one of the best clinics around.
Andrew is our Office Manager and our ‘Go-To’ guy for anything technological! If there is a problem, Andrew can fix it.
Andrew and Helen married in 1985 and three years later he quit work at the ANU Computer Services Centre to take care of their then 1 year old son, Glen. Once Glen and Joseph were both at school, Andrew inherited all of Helen’s paperwork and he has stayed in that role ever since. Nowadays he spends a lot of his time developing our webpages and maintaining our computer network as well as managing the office and fixing whatever it is that needs fixing.
Andrew shares his passion for bushwalking and Hatha Yoga with Helen. Andrew also loves playing music, including classical piano, ukulele, blues, Macedonian accordion, Indian tabla and singing in Georgian.
Joining the team in 2020 as a junior kennel hand, Kim found her feet quickly. She has enjoyed learning the ins and outs of the hospital environment and has loved meeting all of your fur babies along the way. Kim plans on studying vet nursing in the future, and when she does her lazy Labrador x Blue Heeler ‘Delta’ will be the perfect practice patient!
Jess joined Hall Vet Surgery in 2018 as a junior Kennel Hand, an integral role in ensuring the surgery runs smoothly, especially on busy days. Even as a young girl Jess had dreamed of working with animals and now having had a taste of working in a veterinary Practice, this confirmed her passion even further. Jess impressed us all with her pro-activity and her can-do attitude and was soon offered a position as a Trainee Veterinary Nurse. Jess began studying her Certificate IV in Veterinary Nursing in 2019 and has loved every second so far! The early starts aren’t so bad as Jess has her own personal alarm clock in the form of a cat called Lulu. Lulu sits on her every morning and taps her with her paws until she’s awake to let her know its brekky time. Jess also has a love bird called Nugget who was named before the family knew if she was a female or male bird. Jess in enjoying spending time in our Hospital Nurse role learning lots from her teammates about taking care of hospitalised patients and is also very excited to learn more about surgical procedures and emergency and critical care nursing in the future.
Sarah completed her human nursing qualification over 12 years ago and within one week of graduating, was offered a position as a veterinary nurse by her own veterinarian! Animals had always been a passion of Sarah’s so when this opportunity came up, she knew she had to take the leap. 12 years and another nursing qualification later, Sarah is still so thankful that she made the decision to move from human to veterinary nursing where she truly feels content. This transition was also responsible for introducing her to the love of her life, her fur baby Winslow! Winslow is a Maltese x Shih Tzu who was only 12 weeks old when he was dropped off to the vet as a stray after being found on a university campus nearby. Sarah was smitten with him instantly and after no one came forward to collect him in the weeks after, she made the decision to formally adopt him and the pair have been inseparable since!
Sarah finds great satisfaction in providing compassionate care to our anxious patients and is passionate about going above and beyond to gain their trust and make them feel as comfortable as possible. Sarah has a special interest in animal behaviour and training which is what led her to Hall Vet Surgery, she is looking forward to learning as much as she can from Dr Helen and Nurse Pauline in this field.
Our support staff love meeting your pets and hearing their special stories. Our nurses have a Certificate IV in Veterinary Nursing as a minimum qualification with many of our staff having Diplomas in Vet Nursing or other specialisations such as Nutrition, Emergency and Critical Care, Animal Behaviour and Veterinary Technology qualifications.
