OUTBACK PEOPLE
Homecoming vet
Raised on a Blackwater cattle station, Myffawny Lawrie spent years studying in Brisbane before coming the full circle and returning to central Queensland as a bush vet.
Story and photos Paula Heelan
Veterinarian Myffawny Lawrie has been up since 5am. If she’s working on a property she starts early to avoid the heat – making it more comfortable for both her patients and herself. Today she’s pregnancy testing cattle at Ulcanbah Station, an hour’s drive north of Moranbah in central Queensland. Gloved up and ready to begin, she concentrates on the job at hand. Detecting calves from as early as six weeks old is a difficult task, but one that gets easier with experience. Determined to be good at what she does, Myffawny takes on all the preg-testing work she can. Through constant testing, she has developed the essential and specialised skills for the job.
Based in Moranbah, a mining town surrounded by vast cattle and crop stations,
Myffawny’s work with the Moranbah Veterinary Clinic involves an extensive
mix, from small companion animals through to stock animals. When not consulting
or operating in the surgery, she travels long distances over dirt roads to
test bulls, preg-test or to check sick or injured livestock. She also consults
regularly at the clinic’s branch practice in Dysart, 100 kilometres from
Moranbah. Her familiarity with the bush has helped her settle into the job.
Raised on the cattle property “Tulach Ard”, near Blackwater, Myffawny attended boarding school in Brisbane, and later studied at the University of Queensland. “While
I enjoyed studying and certain aspects of living in Brisbane, I found
it hard being away from home,” she says. “As well as missing my parents,
I desperately
missed my horse and my pets.” 
Full story OUTBACK Issue 36 Aug/Sept 2004
