Animals & Us
Dr Rick Fenny
A vet who nearly failed out of school built a life across remote Australia by choosing the hardest path repeatedly, guided by animals who showed him what mattered.
You don't have to be in crisis to call.
Dr Rick Fenny grew up barefoot in Albany, Western Australia, running wild with his dog and mates until dark, fishing and canoeing in a childhood he describes as radically different from how children live today. He never set out to be a vet. At seventeen, when applying for government cadetships in agriculture, marine science, and veterinary medicine, a chief vet at his interview simply told him to choose vet science. The world would be his oyster. So he did. At nineteen, alone in Brisbane surrounded by older, more experienced students who had spent three years at agricultural college before vet school, Rick failed his second year. He was devastated. Years later, he realised it was one of the most fortunate things that happened to him. The failure forced him to work his way through university, selling horse manure from a ute in Brisbane, paying his own way, and coming back with maturity and confidence.
When his government bonding ended, Rick set up vet practices across remote Western Australia. He worked from a hospital mortuary in Port Hedland because there were no other vets for a thousand miles. He raised cattle and horses on stations, wrote four books about his red dogs and the life he built, and built an aquarium and pastoral stations across the Pilbara. Throughout it all, he chose the hardest roads. He says this is in his DNA, inherited from ancestors who boarded conflict ships to Australia, risking everything. Today, Rick's greatest joy is watching his sons run the businesses he built. He spends his time between his practices, stations, and writing, still chasing the stories that matter to him and the people who lived through them.
⚠️ Content advisory: this episode discusses grief & loss, which some listeners may find distressing.
If you need support, you're not alone. Help is available: • Lifeline (24/7 crisis support): 13 11 14 · lifeline.org.au • GriefLine: 1300 845 745 · griefline.org.au
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