Message from the Dean
Monday 2 March 2009 marks the 100th anniversary since the opening of the Veterinary School at the University of Melbourne. ⇒ View the centenary celebration video
The Veterinary School – and associated Veterinary Research Institute – was established in Parkville by an Act of Parliament of Victoria (number 2174) on March 2, 1909. The School transferred from the private Melbourne Veterinary School, which was run by WT Kendall in Brunswick Road, Fitzroy, to the Parkville veterinary precinct at the University of Melbourne. The first veterinarians to graduate from the University of Melbourne did so in 1909.
The success of the School can be judged by the contribution that our staff and graduates have made all over the world, enhancing animal health and welfare, improving food safety and quality, and caring for animals that provide companionship to humans. Our team of professionals have also contributed to animal and human health through prevention and control of avian and equine influenza, prevention and treatment of parasite diseases, and advances in veterinary public health and biosecurity, food production and safety, and climate change.
To ensure that the University of Melbourne continues to provide leadership in Veterinary Science, and responds to the changing needs of society and the veterinary profession, we will introduce a new professional entry graduate degree, as part of the Melbourne Model, from 2011. Our new graduate degree, the Doctor of Veterinary Medicine, will provide a cohort of veterinarians superbly equipped to contribute to the solution of some of the major health and welfare problems facing animals and humans in the twenty-first century.
We have achieved a lot in the last century; this is testament to the passion and dedication of the School’s teachers, researchers and graduates. We could not have achieved so much without the support of the veterinary profession, animal industries, animal welfare organisations, the wider community, and benefactors, who have all contributed to the School’s legacy in their own way.
One hundred years ago, our founders made a leap of faith in setting up Australia’s first university veterinary school in Parkville, Melbourne. Over the next few pages, please take a look at just a few examples of what generations of staff and students have accomplished to realise the ambitions of those founding visionaries.
The Melbourne School of Veterinary Science has an outstanding history. Our challenge is to ensure that the next 100 years are at least as successful. I am confident that with the support of our graduates, the University and our supporters we can inspire and enable the next generation of great minds so that we will achieve this success.
Professor Ken Hinchcliff, Dean, Melbourne School of Veterinary Science