GIPPSLAND veterinarian and consultant, Alison Gunn, has become the first female to have been awarded the prestigious Jakob Malmo 2024 Bovine practitioner by Australian Cattle Veterinarians (ACV).
The national award was recently renamed in memory of the legendary Maffra cattle vet, Jakob Malmo, who died a year ago, and is bestowed on someone who has contributed to the profession, industry and community.
“It’s really amazing, it’s such a big deal,” Ms Gunn said.
When she was notified of her award, Ms Gunn said she felt “overwhelmed, totally”.
The award means a lot to Ms Gunn as she undertook her Master of Veterinary Studies, Dairy Cattle Medicine and Production, with Dr Malmo as her supervisor and mentor.
“There are so many other vets out there who are doing interesting and innovative things,” Ms Gunn said.
“I didn’t actually know about it but apparently I was nominated by younger females.”
She said she was thrilled and honoured to be the first female to be awarded.
However, a quick glance over Ms Gunn’s CV shows being the first female to do something is not a new thing for her.
Ms Gunn was the first female president of the Australian Cattle Vets in 2002/03, the first female president of the cattle chapter of the Australian and New Zealand College of Veterinary Scientists in 2012/13, and the first female with a qualification to test milking machines through the Australian Milking Machine Testers Association in 1995.
Ms Gunn grew up working on a sheep farm in the United Kingdom and managed intensive lambing for seven years during high school and university.
She graduated from the University of Bristol in England in 1988.
“When I graduated there weren’t many females, we had 13 out of 39 which was unusual for then,” she said.
“Now the graduates are 90 per cent female.
“Large animal practice wasn’t a female domain, some of the practices I worked at early on wouldn’t even take me out in the car.”
After starting out in a dairy practice, Ms Gunn came out to Australia two years after graduation, working at a practice at Barraba, NSW, where she did a lot of work with large beef cattle studs.
Her work now encompasses clinical farm and production animal veterinary consultancy with an emphasis on disease prevention, nutrition and improving farm productivity.
She also coordinates four Better Beef Network discussion groups in Gippsland, as well as managing the Meat and Livestock Australia Producer Demonstration Site project, ‘Perennial Pastures in a Variable Climate’ for the Gippsland Agricultural Group, and the Toms Creek Landcare African Lovegrass project.
Before starting her own business, Herd Solutions in 2015, Ms Gunn was most recently employed as a Senior Lecturer in Ruminant Health at the University of Sydney.
Herd Solutions now provides veterinary services to the Bairnsdale and Stratford areas.
In May 2023, Alison employed fellow large animal vet, Chelsea Hair, with the aid of a MLA Livestock consulting internship, who graduated five years ago and is in Ms Gunn’s words a “really competent cattle vet”.
Chelsea also worked with Dr Malmo, taking leave from university during her third year of veterinary science to work for a year on his large-scale dairy farm at Tinamba.
Ms Gunn married a pilot, Frank Waller, at Lakes Entrance in 2000, and they now they have two children aged 17 and 19.
They farm at Walpa where they trade and breed beef cattle.
