New vets in town

Lucy Irish from Sydney is only two days into her second week, and Elzeth has already been here for a few weeks working one day a week.

While studying at Charles Sturt University in Wagga Wagga, Ms Irish spent her time travelling across the coun- try participating in placements and learning from many other regional vets. She says she is thrilled to finally be putting her many years of study into practice and loves being part of the Gilgandra Veterinary Clinic team.

“I love the clinic because we are exposed to so many different animals, different places, and we have the oppor- tunity to be able to do so many different things,” explained Ms Irish.

“I’ve been getting the training wheels on, so I learn a bit of the way, but also I’ve been able to learn new things from Nadine along the way. There's lots of opportunity, which I'm really excited about.”

Owner of Gilgandra Veterinary Clinic Dr Nadine Allan, expressed to The Gilgandra Weekly earlier this month that the biggest challenge has been receiving responses to adverts for job vacancies.

While some positions have now been filled with these two new veterinarians, Dr Allan said the clinic has been dealing with shortages since 2020 - a story reciprocated across the country. For Ms Irish, her experience has been similar throughout her time in regional Australia.

“Everyone's desperate for people, having done most of my placements in and around regional NSW, everyone's crying out for help,” she said.

“When I was a student, it gave me the opportunity to be able to choose where you wanted to go.

“And it's nice to have the feeling that you knew that there was going to be a job at the end of it, rather than, what am I going to do? But it's a bit scary to think about how desperate the industry is, so I'm curious to know where everyone goes.”

Shortage aside, Ms Irish is excited to be joining the Gilgandra community. Convinced by a local who she went to university with to move to Gilgandra, she hopes to inspire more people to do the same.

“I’m really hoping that I get the chance while I'm here, to find some more students and tell them to come out, come here, we have fun out here, we're not that scary!”

Ms Irish says she’s looking forward to meeting clients, and welcomes anyone to stop and say hello. She also has expe- rience working with horses, even win- ning her universities ‘horse award’, and ensures that your four-legged friends are in good hands.