History of the Ballarat Veterinary Practice

Dr Charles Pope established what was later to become the Ballarat Veterinary Practice in 1945.  After returning from the Second World War in 1944, he initially worked for the Department of Agriculture, blood testing cattle during a pleuropneumonia outbreak.  The region he was responsible for extended to the South Australian border, the Murray River in the north and the ocean in the South.  He left the department in 1945 and established a veterinary clinic from his home on Wendouree Parade.  He then moved to a house on the current Sturt Street site and soon built a small veterinary clinic there.

From 1953 until the mid 1970s, the clinic was known as Pope and Fulton (named after Dr Pope and Dr Len Fulton).  The clinic was only one of two in Ballarat, and serviced all animals large and small.  In early 1970, Dr Kim McKellar joined the practice at which time it became known as the Ballarat Veterinary Practice, followed by Dr Peter Everist becoming a partner later that same year.  Dr Bruce Sidebottom joined in 1975.  BVP played an integral role with Brucellosis eradication through strain 19 vaccine use in the 1970s.

The current Sturt Street reception and consulting room building was built in 1978, around the time that Dr Charles Pope retired.  In the early 1980s, as the clinic grew, the Howitt Street clinic was opened at a location two doors down from the current site and the Miners Rest facility was established.  Whilst large and small animal work continued from the Sturt Street premises, the Howitt Street facility was only for small animals and it was moved to the current site in 1987.  In 1991 the surgery and kennels section of Sturt Street was built (during which time all small animal surgeries were performed at Howitt Street for 6 months).  In the 1980s, the Miners Rest facility was a large under cover area, with a large animal operating theatre with 3 loose boxes.  Horses were anesthetised outside and brought inside on the overhead crane with Dr Fulton, McKellar and Sidebottom operating.   

Dr Len Fulton passed away in 1989, after which time Dr Ian Fulton and Dr Richard Lawrence became partners of the clinic in the early 1990s.  Miners Rest continued to grow and be developed and was fully staffed around 2000 with large animal consultations and bookings no longer being run from Sturt Street.  After Drs McKellar, Everist and Sidebottom retired during the years of 2002- 2009, Dr Brian Anderson became a partner in 2003, Dr Stewart Greedy in 2006 and Dr Andrew Cust in 2010.  The current partners are Drs Lawrence, Fulton, Greedy, Anderson and Cust.   

There are currently three BVP facilities.  Sturt Street and Howitt Street are small animal clinics and Miners Rest Equine facility services mostly horses as well as large animals.  There are currently 18 vets at BVP, including 2 specialists, 4 interns and 12 associates with different interests and roles.  There are 35 support staff between the 3 facilities.  Over the years, BVP has employed over 80 vets.

BVP is the largest veterinary clinic in the Ballarat area and surrounds.  The clinic sees a busy primary caseload, but also receives referrals from other clinics in the areas of Equine medicine and surgery, bone scan work-ups, radioactive iodine treatments for cats, Baer ear testing of dogs and orthopaedic surgery for small animals amongst other services.