GARNETTHALL: ANOFFICERAND AVETERINARIAN

When I first emailed Garnett Hall requesting an interview with him for The Veterinarian,Ithought I was rather busy. In addition to all my usual day to day commitments, Iwas moving into a newly built house, installing a pool and overseeing landscaping, sorting out various end of year school commitments for my children and – joy of joys – attempting to cajole various technicians into establishing our NBN connection in something vaguely resembling a timely fashion. Naturally, all of these things had to be accomplished before Christmas, and it felt like a bit of a juggle.

Around that same time, however, I began receiving aseries of emails responding to interview questions Ihad sent to Hall, and I soon discovered that he has taken busy to a whole new level, one which juggle does not even begin to cover. And, now I’m sitting happily in my new home and finally have a reliable internet service, my most recent challenge has been working out how to write a profile on someone who warned me, quite jauntily, right from the start of our correspondence: “I’ve certainly jammed a lot into my career so far, but I feel like there’s a lot more to accomplish!”

For most of his adult life, Garnett Hall has had not one, but two careers, plus a dizzying array of side hustles. He is a veterinarian by profession and an Army Reserve Infantry Officer by training, but is also a television presenter, a founder of Biotech company VetChip, a Board Member of the Royal Agricultural Society of Western Australia, an ambassador for Greyhounds as Pets, and President of the Western Australian Division of the Australian Veterinary Association. Quite obviously, it’s a lot: many threads woven into a complex picture that makes up the life of Garnett Hall. But tease out the strands, and three main threads emerge. The first is a love of animals and a passion for their welfare. The second is a belief in the importance of service to others. And the third, underpinning all these, is family.

Hall was born in Brisbane and grew up in Paddington, where his parents owned the Kookaburra Café. With characteristic modesty, he described the venue as being “fairly wellknown in Brisbane”, failing to mention that the restaurant had been frequented by everyone from sporting stars such as Wally Lewis and Tony Grieg, to global luminaries such as Taylor Swift, Katherine Hepburn, and Nirvana. (Superstars Beyoncé and Jay Z apparently opted to order delivery.) For Hall, however, the Kookaburra Café was simply the family business where he spent many of his school years working alongside his siblings.

Hall attended Brisbane Boys College from Year 5 to Year 7 before receiving a full academic scholarship to attend Brisbane Grammar School from Years 8 to 12, graduating in 2000. He tossed up studying medicine or veterinary science at the University of Queensland, and ultimately chose to become a vet upon realising he would probably need to complete an undergraduate degree prior to studying medicine. That said, by this stage his love of animals was already well established, having been fostered by his family, who had increasingly intertwined. Upon graduating from university, he spent two years working in Dayboro as a mixed-practice vet. “Dayboro was abeautiful little dairying community just outside of Brisbane, where early morning starts to pregnancy test cattle in the dairy sheds were typical,” Hall said. “We also worked with a few small beef studs, and would undertake larger multi-day trips to extensive beef properties further afield.”

In 2008, Hall was a recipient of an Australian Cattle Vets Rural Practice Scholarship, which are presented to recently graduated veterinarians working in rural areas to enable them to further their careers in bovine practice.

Aleave of absence from Hall’s veterinary work in Dayboro was required, however, when his efforts RMC Duntroon led to him receiving a Foreign Academies Exchange Program Award. The award entitled Hall to travel to Singapore with four Regular Army Officers to observe and train with the Singapore Armed Forced Training Institute and Officer Cadet School. Upon his return, his first posting was as an Infantry Platoon Commander with the 9th Royal Queensland Regiment, successful course which graduated approximately 40 infantry soldiers, who very highly sought after by both ARA battalions.”

Later in 2009, Hall opted to resign from his civilian veterinary role when he was offered the chance to deploy to East Timor with the 8/9th Royal Australian Regiment on Operation Astute. “This would be my first overseas deployment and was a twelve-month full-time contract, so I made the decision to leave Dayboro,” he said. “Going to East Timor was an incredible experience that allowed me to immerse myself in a culture that was very different from the life I knew back in Australia.” Aside from his Operational duties, Hall was able to use his veterinary skills working with the Task Force’s RAAF Military Working Dog detachment, whose dogs were encumbered by several tropical conditions in need of veterinary attention. “I was also able to provide many pets. “Our family restaurant earned its name from my Dad’s love of native birds,” he said. “I grew up surrounded by dogs, birds, guinea pigs, rats, turtles and frogs, and I thought it was great. The first pet I knew was a poodle called Gulliver. He was a brilliant dog and I used to spend hours playing with him and teaching him tricks.”

Having decided upon his first career path, Hall applied himself to his veterinaryscience degree. “I had a brilliant time at the University of Queensland, back in the day when the vet school was still primarily at the St Lucia campus,” he said. “I had a great bunch of close friends, and we would often go camping on Stradbroke Island or Fraser Island over the holidays.” While still an undergraduate, Hall also embarked upon his second career: he joined the Army Reserve as an InfantryOfficer,somehow managing to fit his army training around university commitments. This decision was influenced by his father,who was a Vietnam veteran conscripted into National Service. “Dad had always spoken highly of his time with the Army and encouraged me to join for the opportunity to learn, travel and serve our country,” Hall explained. “I graduated from the part-time version of Royal Military College Duntroon in February 2006 at the lowly rank of 2nd Lieutenant,” Hall said. “I also finished the veterinary course that year, and felt ready to go and tackle the world!”

From this point, Hall’stwo seemingly disparate careers first overlapped and subsequently became aReserve unit based in South-East Queensland. “Here I was able to consolidate my leadership skills and platoon tactics, culminating with my platoon travelling to New Zealand and winning the 2008 Exercise Tasman Reserve platoon trophy,” he said. “I thoroughly enjoyed my time with the 9th Royal Queensland Regiment, which I somehow balanced with mycivilian career,though there werealot of late nights driving back to Dayboro from Enogerra Barracks in Brisbane.”

By this stage, Hall’s performance in military circles was attracting attention from further up the ranks. In early 2009, he was asked by the Commanding Officer of the 8/9th Royal Australian Regiment (RAR), thenLieutenant Colonel Simon Stuart–who is now the Chief of Army – to run a full-time Infantry Initial Employment Course at Enoggera Barracks for three months. “The course was designed to bolster the ranks of the recently reformed 8/9th RAR and the 6th RAR, both of which were due to deploy to Afghanistan,” Hall explained.

“This was ultimately a very veterinaryassistance as part of the Australian Contingent to the Pacific Partnership, a US-led humanitarian assistance mission providing medical, dental, optical and veterinary care to several South-East Asian nations, including East Timor.”

Hall returned to civilian life following his posting to East Timor and moved to Cairns. He got married to Sally, herself a medical doctor and a veterinarian, and they had a couple of children in quick succession, followed by a third child several years later.While in Cairns, Hall worked in veterinary practice and also as a Veterinary Policy Officer for the Australian Government Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry.

Simultaneously, he was posted to the 51st Far North Queensland Regiment (51 FNQR) as a Platoon Commander, which saw him participate in many training and Operational activities, including service with Operation Yasi Assist providing relief following the Severe Tropical Cyclone Yasi in 2011, and border protection duties with the ongoing Operation Resolute. “Operation Resolute is a whole-of-government effortprimarily involving the Australian Army and Royal Australian Navy to locate foreign fishing vessels and illegal drug smuggling operations in or near the Australian mainland,”

Hall explained. “When I was involved, this unique operation required patrols to survey isolated, inhospitable and remote parts of the Queensland coastline looking for large-scale drug crops. Information gathered was fed back to state law enforcement agencies, and officers from the Queensland Police Drug Squad and Special Emergency Response Team were on board Navy Landing Craft to provide intelligence and operational support.” For his efforts with the 51 FNQR, Hall was recognised in 2011 as Officer of the Year.

Also in 2011, Hall was awarded the Australian Defence Force Prince of Wales Award for his work with military dogs in East Timor. Receiving this award entitled him to travel to the UK, where he attended the British Equine Veterinary Association Congress in September 2011. “This is an annual even held in the United Kingdom showcasing the latest science and veterinary techniques,” Hall said. “I also visited the Royal Army Veterinary Corps in Leicestershire, which provides, trains and cares for service animals across the British Army, including several Military Working Dogs support units.”

While in the UK, Hall was also able to participate in training and ceremonial activities with other British Units, including the King’s Troop of Royal Horse Artillery, the Household Cavalry and Queen’s Life Guard, the 101 Military Working Dog Squadron and the Defence Animal Centre.

Combining his military and civilian roles was now becoming customary for Hall, who was again able to put his skills to use on home turf in 2012 when he deployed to Western Australia’s Dampier Peninsula on the Army Aboriginal Community Assistance Program. “Alongside full-time soldiers from the Royal Australian Engineers, I set up and ran a temporary veterinary hospital in the Aboriginal communities of Lombadina and Djarindjin, providing much-needed veterinary services to the local animals.”

Strangely enough, despite having lived on the East Coast all his life, Hall soon found himself permanently based in Western Australia. Although he and Sally had planned to live in Far North Queensland for only a year, they ended up staying for five, and had a loose plan to establish a veterinary hospital on the Sunshine Coast hinterland with Hall’s brother, Max. Hall was more than a little surprised when his brother suggested they set up a practice in Perth instead, but decided to give it a go and headed west in 2015. By mid-2016, they had opened West Coast Veterinary Hospital in Forrestdale, Western Australia. “The practice services quite a large area, hence the name,” Hall explained. “It is a unique hospital in that it is a specialist equine surgery with advance imagery, including MRI and nuclear scintigraphy, but we also treat many small animals, farm animals, and even a few zoo animals.” The hospital itself is also large, and includes stables, theatre and recovery stalls, a reproduction barn and specific areas allowing for standing surgery and lameness assessments.

“Working with family is great,” Hall said. “My brother Max and I have always been close, and running a business together is quite easy because we know each other so well.” Since its inception, West Coast Veterinary Hospital has become even more of a family affair, with Hall’s wife Sally also working there and his parents living on site. “My parents help out with the retirement-appropriate gardening and miscellaneous tasks, which they seem to really enjoy,” he said. “I also have a twin sister who doesn’t work in the business but is still a big part of our lives over here. She loves looking after the kids!” Despite being a vast distance – both geographically and professionally – from where Hall started out helping out at the Kookaburra Café, it is evident that family remains vitally important to him. “Working in the family business instilled in me the ethos that everymember of the family should pitch in to help the business and help each other,” he said. “We’ve carried the core of this message over to our clinics where we strive to create a ‘team’ mindset and focus on shared goals.”

As West Coast VeterinaryHospital became more established, that team has now grown to include ten vets and around fifty support staff. On the back of their success in Forrestdale, Hall and his brother opened a small animal clinic, Fremantle Animal Hospital, in 2020. “Fremantle Animal Hospital is much smaller than West Coast Veterinary Hospital, but it has already become partof the Fremantle community,” Hall said. One of the ways the practice has engaged the local area has been by starting a ‘Pet Friendly Freo’ campaign, which has produced an online database of cafes, restaurants and businesses in Fremantle that allow pets. The campaign not only provides animal lovers with a directory of pet friendly businesses, but also affords pet friendly businesses with the opportunity to gain exposure in their local community. Additionally, Hall has also been actively seeking change to strata and rental laws in WesternAustralia to prevent discrimination against pet owners and create more inclusive communities in areas beyond Fremantle.

Throughout this period, Hall continued his involvement with the Army Reserve, transferring to the 13th Brigade when he relocated to Perth. In 2017, in between opening West Coast and Fremantle Animal Hospitals, he was offered an ongoing role as a part-time veterinary officer in the Australian Army, caring for the Australian Defence Force’s military working dogs.

“The role also involves the delivery oftraining to our soldiers in tactical canine casualty care,” Hall said. “It is a very niche field dealing with essential frontline care for dogs injured by bullet wounds, explosions, stabbings and other injuries peculiar to military service.” Having initially based the comprehensive first aid and trauma care training package on a course he ran for owners of pet dogs, Hall was then asked to develop another training course for drug detection dogs as well.

Hall also maintained his involvement with the Army Aboriginal Community Assistance Program, delivering veterinary services to the remote indigenous community of Jigalong in the Pilbara region in 2019, and then in 2020 deployed on Operation Bushfire Assist. “We provided much-needed veterinary assistance to the injured animals on Kangaroo Island, South Australia,” he said. “These efforts, as part of the veterinary team, were recognised with the rare and prestigious Gold level ADF Group Commendation.”

In 2020, Hall was elected President of the Western Australian Division of the Australian Veterinary Association. “The AVA plays an important role in the lives of vets and animals across the country,” he said. “Like any profession, vets face a number of issues that are best resolved collectively. Wehave some pretty severe workforce shortages at the moment which make our working conditions difficult, and this has caused several parts of WA to lose access to regular veterinary services. This then leads to potential animal welfare and biosecurity problems.” Hall believes the advocacy role of the AVA is vital to the future of the veterinary profession, and suggests changing the currently predominant workforce model may provide solutions to workforce shortages. “We need to work together to support regional practices through mechanisms such as student debt forgiveness, sponsored internships, access to continuing education and workforce relief,” he said.

One of initiatives Hall has been working on with the AVA is a proposal that has the potential to help veterinarians with their mental health and to provide much needed relief to vets working in remote communities. The proposed scheme would send “Relief Vets” to spend afew weeks in a remote practice, thereby allowing the usual vet to have a break without leaving the community devoid of veterinary services. “This has huge potential benefits for the reliever,the rural vets and the community,” Hall said. “I highly recommend volunteering or generally ‘giving back’: it helps us to maintain perspective and connections with our community.

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