537 Crown St, Surry Hills
02 9133 1300 • vetsoncrown.com.au
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The new vet clinic and hospital at 537 Crown Street
is “striving to be different, but in a good way.”
Lachlan Colquhoun called by for a visit.
Dr Nima Rahmani is a very youthful looking 39 years of age, but he says he aged around ten years from the stress of his veterinary exams.
This was no ordinary situation. Dr Rahmani emigrated from Iran around 12 years ago after passing practising as a vet in his home country since 2003, but to resume his career in Australia he had to pass rigorous exams set by the Australasian Veterinary Boards Council.
Not only were the exams, both theory and practical, onerous and difficult but they were expensive, and to pay for them Dr Rahmani took a job in catering at Sydney Airport, only four days after arriving from Iran.
And to add another layer of stress into the equation, his visa status and right to stay in Australia was dependent on passing the exams.
“I was told only 11 percent of candidates pass the exams at their first attempt, so I was very nervous,” Dr Rahmani says.
As it happened, he was the only one of his cohort who did pass the exams and his dream of becoming a vet in Australia was realised.
Then it was off to regional Australia, to Corowa and to Albury, where he not only worked with cats, dogs and household pets but also with farm animals.
He also learned something which perhaps not many other Australians can recall: that Australian Federation in 1901 was proclaimed at Corowa on the Murray River.
“I feel very privileged to have spent that time there,” says Dr Rahmani. “Those moments after working all day on a farm, having a cup of coffee with the farmer on his porch and watching the amazing Australian sunset were wonderful.”
Moving then to Sydney, Dr Rahmani pursued what he believes is his specialty as a “small animal” vet, and spent six years at a practice in Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs.
He wasn’t the owner but fully ran the practice, including the business side.
It was an experience which created the ambition to operate his own veterinary practice, so when he and best friend Omid Sadeghpour saw the premises at 537 Crown Street up for lease, they did their homework and decided to take the plunge.
Rahmani and Sadeghpour had met in the library at Sydney University around ten years ago and became firm friends. Although not a vet, Sadeghpour is a scientist with a PhD in Public Health and is a director at Vets on Crown.
“We always loved coming to this area and we thought that in terms of vets, it was underserviced and that we could do something good here,” says Sadeghpour.
For his part, Dr Rahmani has a real passion for doing something different and extraordinary at Vets on Crown.
“I do into this thinking that there are some bars in this industry, and that animals and owners deserve better,” he says.
Vets on Crown comprises not just the clinic and hospital, but boarding facilities and grooming, where Surry Hills pets can be pampered with the latest “microbubble” skin treatment technology for straight out Japan.
“I love animals of course but when you are a vet you understand that not only are you helping the animals, you are helping people too,” says Dr Rahmani.
“We really are going for something a bit more than the average vet would offer.”
