Meet the team
Dr. Chris Barton
Co-Founder, President, Board Member, Veterinarian, Darter
Dr Barton was raised in central New South Wales on a sheep and cattle property.
Chris first obtained an Agricultural Science degree in and worked in New Guinea for two years as a research officer, initially being involved in disseminating information to the farmers and then later on was in charge of the pig breeding and research centre for New Guinea. During his stay in New Guinea he realized that his interests were with animal medicine so he moved to Queensland and gained a Veterinary Science degree with Honours.
Dr Barton also developed one of the first Commercial Veterinary software packages for Australian and New Zealand Veterinary Hospitals and the Queensland University Vet School.
He is the founding partner in the Eltham Central Veterinary Hospital and Montmorency Veterinary Clinic. After starting as a single vet practice, the practice has developed into a multi vet practice with four partners.
For the first 10 years he practiced as a mixed animal veterinarian and for the remaining 40 years, he has dedicated his services to small companion animals. His special interests are imaging and orthopedic surgery.
His Hospital has been awarded with the ASAVA accredited hospital of excellence, of which there are only 14 in Victoria.
The Eltham Central Veterinary Hospital was bestowed with an award for excellent Hospital design by the American Animal Hospitals Association in 2002. They are the first Veterinary Hospital outside the United States of America to win this prestigious award.
His lifelong ambition was to contribute to animal welfare, he has achieved this by co-founding Vets For Compassion.
He was a trainer in VFC’s Train the Trainer Project I China 2010-2020).
He is a Board member and active Darter, Rescuer and Veterinarian for the large number of animals of varying species displaced or injured in inner and outer Melbourne.
In 2009 during the Black Saturday fires, he was a member of the AVA task force and was on the ground doing search and darting in Kinglake, Humevale Wallan, Kilmore Marysville and Taggerty.
In 2020 together with his wife Dr Elaine Ong he was the first responder to the Mallacoota Fires and the Koala rescue in Portland.
He was active on the ground in the fires in Framingham (2007), Scotsburn (2016) Ballarat (2024) Grampians (2025).
About Us
Vets For Compassion is a volunteer organisation. We are thankful for the help and support of each of our volunteers.
Volunteer with VFC
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Meet the team
Meet our team of compassionate founders, veterinary staff, nurses, rescuers all dedicating their time and skills to animal welfare.
