Matt has had a lifelong passion for ‘all creatures great and small’. After graduating from the University of Melbourne in 1994 he had a stint in dairy practice in Gippsland and then headed off to work in James Herriot-style mixed practices in the north of Scotland and elsewhere in the UK.

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Versatile, resourceful and loving surgery, coming back to Melbourne Matt started working at Monash Vet, a small animal practice doing cutting edge work with reproductive technologies. He then moved over to Springvale Animal Hospital, now part of the Greencross network, where avian veterinarians Drs David Madill and Doug Black had done excellent pioneering work on the veterinary care of birds. Taking over their avian caseload, Matt earned his Membership in the Australian and New Zealand College of Veterinary Scientists (ANZCVS) in Bird Medicine and Surgery in 2007 and went on to serve as Veterinary Director at Springvale for 17 years. He took over Dr Madill’s responsibilities teaching the Cage and Aviary Bird Medicine course to veterinary students at the University of Melbourne and began teaching nurses at Melbourne Polytechnic.

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In 2017 Matt started working with avian specialist Dr Pat Macwhirter, who had sold her long standing avian/small animal clinic in Burwood. While continuing his duties at Veterinary Director at Springvale, he commenced a training program through the ANZCVS working internationally and under Dr Pat’s supervision to achieve official specialist recognition in Bird Medicine and Surgery. He completed residency in avian medicine and surgery in 2020. In 2019, Dr Colin Walker sold Melbourne Bird Veterinary Clinic to Matt and Pat.

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Matt has presented and written a number of journal articles, seminars and webinars on Avian Medicine and surgery, as well as teaching and writing courses in Avian Medicine from basic nursing to post graduate level. He is a keen cyclist, has a partner, Kai and two energetic young sons, Nathan and Seth.