Work in Tatura

Finally, after months of meeting every nationality but Australians, I'm surrounded by them. Tatura is a small town. Populaton 3533 it's even smaller than Hebden Bridge. It's totally flat- dairy and fruit country. At first it seems a bit weird to be so far from everywhere in this little town but quickly it becomes home.

Apart from the difficulty in finding my brain after 3 months of no work there are a few obstacles. Different drugs or where the same ones exist different trade names, worse still different diseases- mostly due to this being Australia but also partly due it being rural Australia with dogs on farms and few cats actually being brought to the Vets.

"Cats generally get desexed, maybe have their first innoculations and then we tend not to see them until they get bitten by a snake" Jill tells me. Ah, snake bites... I find out the protocol for treatment, not cheap with vials of antivenom at $500, luckily there's no paralysis ticks and also no heart worm to speak of although prophylaxis is on offer. My first full week involves treating snake bite, tetanus which I've never seen before and suspected organophosphate poisoning after orchards were sprayed. Later I encounter rat bait poisoning- a real problem since there's a mouse plague and try to rebuild many dogs run over - not on busy main roads- but by their owner's on their property! Hmm, so when owner's are not poisoning their dogs, they're running them over!

The staff are really nice and their slightly alien terms and ubiquitous greeting of "How're you going?" soon become commonplace. Meanwhile I make them laugh with my English terms and politeness.

It's odd to work in a mixed practice and although I'm only treating the "smallies" my colleagues bring the smell of farms in, outside there's a crush for cow operations and on several days I'm left juggling cases after colleagues who were helping me work through the op list are called out to eternal calvings.

Almost every morning I awake to the sun shining, or as autumn progresses to it rising. Nights are starting to get a little chilly now but during the day it's still hitting a pleasant mid-twenties. If I walk to work I see the Rainbow Lorikeets and Galahs, beautiful yet common place garden birds. Their songs feel uniquely Australian.

Work lend me a 4 wheel drive. A big white beast of a car which is a gem to drive. It's 20 minutes up the road to Shepparton, the nearest big town and with the perpetual long straight roads I discover the beauty of cruise control- mainly to stop me speeding!