Giesecke, Robin (nee Harbutt)

Patricia Robin Giesecke

Robin graduated BVSc from the University of Sydney in 1961 with the AVA Undergraduate Prize in Pathology.  She worked in mixed practice on the Central Coast of New South Wales before moving to the Veterinary Research Institute in Melbourne in 1963 in the first intake of students to study for postgraduate degrees through the University of Melbourne and the Institute.  Robin was investigating anaemias of sheep and cats, particularly those caused by Bartonella spp.  An Australian Wool Board Travelling scholarship enabled her to do further studies in diagnostic pathology at the Central Veterinary Laboratory, Weybridge, England and at regional laboratories from 1967-1968.

Robin was awarded her Master of Veterinary Science in August 1969, the first postgraduate degree awarded to a woman veterinary graduate from an Australian veterinary faculty and the first awarded by the re-opened Faculty of Veterinary Science at the University of Melbourne.

Robin worked in veterinary practices in Auckland, New Zealand and Orange, NSW from 1970-72, establishing private veterinary laboratories in both locations.  She moved to Adelaide as Veterinary Pathologist in the Veterinary Division of the Institute of Medical and Veterinary Science, later known as the Central Veterinary Laboratory, becoming Senior Specialist Veterinary Pathologist in 1981.  The Veterinary Division was taken over by the South Australian Department of Agriculture in 1982.

Among her many contributions, Robin initiated training in laboratory techniques for veterinary nurses through TAFE training programs (1975); was a member of the organizing group that established a Veterinary Pathologists Award to benchmark the employment of veterinary pathologists (1981); was the founding convenor of the Zoonosis Group of South Australia (1980); lectured on zoonoses in the Wool Corporation Shearer Training Schools (1981-1988); initiated and became Editor of client newsletters at the Central Veterinary Laboratory;  was Training and Project Development Officer, Division of Animal Services, South Australian Department of Agriculture (1986-1993); and was an active member of the South Australian Division, Australian Veterinary Association, Australian Veterinarians in Public Health,  and Australian Society for Veterinary Pathology.

Since retirement in 1993, Robin has pursued her interest in veterinary history, particularly of the lives, careers and milestones of women in the Australian veterinary workforce, and veterinary organizations in South Australia.  She also has a keen interest in geology and palaeontology, being a life member of the Field Geology Club of South Australia and Editor of the Field Guide to the Geology of Hallett Cove.