Welcome to Reedy Creek Veterinary Surgery

Dr Justin Ward qualified as a vet in South Africa, he left African shores in 2000 to register with the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons in the UK. The following 5 years were spent working throughout the UK and travelling around the world.

A decision to move to Australia in 2005, where half of his wife’s family are from, quickly resulted in the realisation, that this is the country he wanted to call home!

Prior to founding the Reedy Creek Veterinary Surgery Justin worked in practices in Sydney and the Gold Coast, as well as starting a practice in Coomera.

The inspiration for Reedy Creek Veterinary Surgery came from Justin’s vision to offer high quality veterinary care, from new well-equipped premises, with a solid dose of good old-fashioned customer service! From this Reedy Creek Veterinary Surgery was born and the clinic opened its doors in May 2012. Since that time it has evolved tremendously, in size and staff, to be the clinic and wonderful team you know today.

With ongoing corporatisation of the industry, Justin is focused on building a highly skilled, compassionate team, whilst maintaining a focus on the wellbeing of the pet, and building life-long relationships with customers. Justin is a true general practitioner and enjoys all aspects of being a veterinarian. His interest in soft tissue and orthopaedic surgery sees him in surgery most days. He is particularly passionate about canine cruciate ligament disease.

Justin’s spare time is spent somewhere on a beach in his 4×4 with his wife, Lisa, by his side and kids, Isla and Daniel, exploring the coastline! Whether it has skin, scales, feathers or fur Justin truly loves all animals! He shares his home with chickens – Zucchini, Freddy, Chuck, Shelly, Lamington, Marbles and Feather! Two cats; Sushi the Himalayan and Kevin the Ragdoll, a forever-young puppy Poppy and Junior the python.

“I love coming to work every day, we have such a dedicated team and work in such a great environment, with the reward of seeing our patients get well, and thrive.”

Dr Mat Lawton qualified in 2006 from the University of Queensland in Brisbane. This is also where he met his partner, Stef (another one of our vets), in 2003.

He started his career with a short stint in Ipswich working mainly with small animals but also undertaking some dairy cow work. Following this he and Stef moved to the beautiful Gold Coast. After three years in small animal practice on the northern Gold Coast Mat and Stef left for the UK where they worked and travelled for the best part of three years.

On arrival back to the golden shores of Australia Matthew worked as a locum doing “fill-in work” all around south-east Queensland for three years.

In 2014 Mat got back into contact with long term friend Justin and Mat and Stef have since settled in for the long term at the Gold Coast. Justin and Mat have enjoyed renewing the old touch football partnership from years before, although now they do most of their running around in the clinic as they work together to manage Reedy Creek Vet Surgery.

Mat enjoys all aspect of general medicine and surgery and having worked in, and with, so many vet practices often brings a different angle to day to day challenges. When not at work Mat enjoys tennis, touch football, hiking, camping, fly fishing and has recently taken up surfing.

“I have really enjoyed putting down roots and being able to build relationships with pets and owners alike”.

Sonja graduated from the University of Pretoria, South Africa, in 1995.

After graduating she moved to England where she worked as a small animal vet in and around London for the next 12 years. It was during this time that she met her husband, Terence, and together they immigrated to the sunny shores of this beautiful part of the world.

Sonja and Terence made Reedy Creek their home 4 years ago where they live with their son, Logan and rescued three-legged cat Buffy.

Sonja has been looking after the pets of the Gold Coast and their parents since 2006 and looks forward to doing this for many years to come. Her special interests include Oncology and Diagnostic Ultrasound.

After school she followed her passion for horses into a trainee position at a large equine veterinary hospital in Canberra. She loved working in this environment and used the opportunity to gain her nursing qualification. Spending three and a half years working at the equine hospital Jasmin established herself as one of the senior nurses.

The sunshine of the Gold Coast captured Jasmin’s heart and she moved to the Gold Coast in 2014. We were lucky to have her join our team in 2014 as one of our senior veterinary nurses. Jasmin has an aptitude for puppy care and training – this is why she makes an exceptional Puppy School instructor. Her love of puppies transcends into the clinic with her special interest in neonatal and intensive care.

She spends her spare time on her other passions; health and fitness, and her pets Brax the German Shepherd and Peanut her domestic short hair cat.

“We speak for the animals that can’t speak for themselves”

As an avid traveller, she completed her studies and travelled through South Africa, New Zealand and finally made her way to Australia. To fund her travels she used her expertise to work with horses along the way, settling in Magnetic Island in northern Queensland before moving to the Gold Coast.

After many enjoyable years travelling and working with horses, she decided she needed more of a challenge. Combining her love of biology and animals, veterinary nursing was an obvious choice.

Naomi currently lives with her gorgeous Staffordshire Bull Terrier Teddy, who is her very first dog and best friend. She has a special place in her heart for the Staffy breed.

“I love that everyday at the clinic brings new challenges and have a special interest in pathology, radiography, and puppy cuddles of course!”

Danielle has been nursing since 2006 and has worked in two small animal practices on the Gold Coast, one at which she met Dr Justin and Dr Stef ten years ago!

She joined the Reedy Creek team in 2017.

Danielle thoroughly enjoys the diverse challenges the veterinary industry presents and couldn’t imagine doing anything else.

She has two dogs, Georgie, a three year old German short haired pointer and Maddie, a thirteen year old silky cross Maltese.

Monique joined our team in February 2017 as our trainee veterinary nurse.

Monique is currently in the process of completing her Certificate IV in Veterinary Nursing and has a strong passion for animals of all sizes but has a soft spot for the more unique pocket pets and wildlife.

When she is not studying she can be found caring for up to 150 guinea pigs! As the manager/founder of Cavy Angel’s Guinea Pig Rescue Inc, which is a registered charity, dedicated to rescuing neglected, ill or unwanted guinea pigs and finding them a new forever home.

Her other passions include going to the gym, going on beach walks with her Jack Russel “Eddie” and experimenting with vegan cooking.

Lisa is Justin’s other half and has been working in practices for over ten years. She is kept busy with all the behind-the-scenes administration that needs to get done, including managing Justin’s busy schedule and making sure he looks after himself. She also seems to spend a lot of her time saying ‘NO’ to more pets Justin wants to bring home.

Spending time with Justin and their children on their acreage property is her favourite past-time. Junior their python is her choice pet, he wraps himself around her wrist for cuddles.