Karratha vets: the next generation

Karratha Vet hospital has welcomed its next generation of young veterinarians, with two new full time staff starting up this year to work alongside legendary Red Dog vet Rick Fenny.

For graduate Tim Montgomery, starting his career in the Pilbara might have been a ‘baptism of fire’ but it has offered him a diversity of valuable learning experiences.

“Since I arrived almost seven months ago, I have hit the ground running and learned on the go,” he said.

“Anywhere you’re isolated, you can’t refer your emergency cases…you get to see a big slice of everything up here and become a bit of a one stop shop.

“It’s been awesome having a huge diversity of things to do, it has really accelerated the education of my first veterinary experience.”

Mixed practitioner Wil Powell joined Tim at the Karratha Vet Hospital last week, after four years working in the South West with cows, sheep, horses and domestic pets.

“My first week has been lots of fun, it’s a really friendly town and has grown a lot since I was last here,” he said.

“At the moment I am here to back up the clinic with small animal work but I also have really good experience with horses which has been lacking up here in the past in the young vets.

“In the future I hope to look with Rick at developing stronger relationships with the stations, doing more race work and servicing the local camp drafts.”

Mr Montgomery said pair of young vets were looking to make the Pilbara home for the near future.

“I love the beautiful countryside we get to see every week when we travel around to surrounding towns with the mobile vet clinic,” he said.

“There’s an excess of small animal vets in the city but somewhere like Pannawonica, we’re the only vets so you do feel like you’re providing a valuable service to the community.

“It has been really interesting with Rick, he has seen so much of how the Pilbara has changed since he started up here 40 years ago and he has lots of exciting ideas for the future.”