Estimated reading time: 7 minutes
From northern cattle stations to national policy tables, Dr Tracy Sullivan has spent a career ensuring the veterinary voice is heard where decisions are made shaping Australia’s food supply. By John Burfitt
For a vet whose credentials are as long as her arm, it comes as a surprise when Dr Tracy Sullivan admits—in the face of all she has achieved—she has one enduring professional regret. What she learned from that regret was to never let another transformative career experience pass her by. “You must grab the opportunities when they come up because you don’t know what’s behind that door, and the one behind it,” she says. “Ever since, it’s always been about saying yes—don’t waste time thinking about it. Just go for it.”
The experience that led to that philosophy was her decision not to move to the UK early in her career to assist in combating the 2001 foot-and-mouth disease outbreak. This was not long after she graduated from Murdoch University with a Bachelor of Veterinary Science and a Bachelor of Veterinary Medicine and Surgery in 1997.
“Many of my uni cohort and colleagues went to the UK to work on foot-and-mouth but I stayed in Australia and have regretted that my entire career,” Perth-born Dr Sullivan says. “It still feels like a missed opportunity, and the reason I stayed behind was I was so content in my comfort zone.
“The result was my colleagues returned to Australia with a broader outlook as vets dealing with disease and invaluable experience in food production. I was so impressed with the ideas and insights they were able to offer, and yet I missed out on all of it.”
That’s not going to happen a second time. Her career resume is testament to her philosophy of just saying yes. She is today recognised as one of Australia’s leading cattle veterinarians—she was president of Australian Cattle Veterinarians (ACV) until 2023, having spent a decade on the ACV executive. She was also a member of Cattle Australia’s Policy Advisory Council, where she remains a contributing member of working groups.
Paddock to policy
Over the past decade, Dr Sullivan has been recognised with a Churchill Fellowship for her work in the development of sustainable Indigenous beef production, as well as senior roles with Animal Health Australia, the National Food Council, the National Farmers’ Federation and the Australian Veterinary Association.
At the core of her work is the belief that sustainable Indigenous beef production can advance Australia’s agricultural goals while delivering important cultural, social and environmental benefits.
Indigenous-owned enterprises account for substantial cattle and land holdings across northern Australia, but Broome-based Dr Sullivan believes their potential remains unrealised and is determined to work with the owners to explore and develop better methods for production, profitability and the wellbeing of animals.
She says that better animal health and productivity could strengthen food security, create local careers, reduce reliance on outside workers and help the beef industry meet efficiency and emissions targets.
“The potential to improve productivity on these cattle properties is huge, as is the potential to meet food production goals,” she says. “At the same time, it’s addressing community concerns about food security and providing job opportunities for Indigenous people across the whole meat sector.”
A wider lens
Her work in this field helped earn Dr Sullivan the 2024 Churchill Fellowship, studying sustainable Indigenous beef production in New Zealand, Canada and the United States, and the best ways such methods can be applied in Australia.
You must grab the opportunities when they come up because you don’t know what’s behind that door, and the one behind it. Ever since, it’s always been about saying yes—don’t waste time thinking about it. Just go for it.
Dr Tracy Sullivan, cattle veterinarian and member, National Food Council
“The Churchill Fellowship was a truly amazing experience,” she says. “My intention was to see what other countries were doing and there was some amazing stuff that really opened my eyes to other ways for us to be approaching all of this. There are many better opportunities to be able to advance Indigenous-branded beef in a range of ways.”
In the executive summary of her report, she wrote: “The key message is that Indigenous beef enterprises differ significantly to their non-Indigenous counterparts on their objectives, challenges and opportunities.”
Her findings present a comprehensive model in which Indigenous identity and commercial success with beef production can effectively reinforce one another.
Presenting her fellowship recommendations to Julie Collins, the Federal Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, coincided with the creation of the National Food Council, established to advise on the development of the ‘Feeding Australia’ food security strategy. In 2025, Dr Sullivan was appointed one of its 11 members, to provide a veterinary and Indigenous agriculture perspective on those challenges.
“Everything I’ve done has led to another thing with me,” she says. “I could see the huge potential for the capacity of the Indigenous northern beef industry in helping to address food security. There are so many aspects to food security, and animal health is just one small component of it.”
A seat at the table
Her tenure as a board director of the National Farmers’ Federation (NFF) concludes in October. The NFF is the peak advocacy group representing farmers and the agricultural sector in lobbying governments and other groups on issues such as trade, workplace relations and natural resource management.
Dr Sullivan was appointed due to her supply-chain and policy knowledge, producer experience and her understanding of the ways agricultural industries and governments need to work together.
She believes a veterinary voice belongs at policy tables wherever decisions affect food production, biosecurity, animal health, climate resilience and sustainability.
“There’s so much insight and input needed in the agricultural production animal space, and vets are integral to it. Policy can have a big impact on animal health and animal production, so it’s about keeping those doors open and conversations going to help the people making and applying policy get it right.
“The veterinary voice is so critical, and it’s important we play a part. And importantly, be heard.”
Learning to listen
After graduating, Dr Sullivan worked at practices across Perth before moving to a vet hospital in Darwin. A move to rural Queensland in 2002 transformed her direction when she purchased and managed a cattle property for almost 20 years. She says that experience completely changed her outlook as a vet.
Policy can have a big impact on animal health and animal production, so it’s about keeping those doors open and conversations going to help the people making and applying policy get it right. The veterinary voice is so critical, and it’s important we play a part. And importantly, be heard.
Dr Tracy Sullivan, cattle veterinarian and member, National Food Council
“Production animal work is for a purpose—for feeding people—and it is a business,” she says. “The potential to make a difference is huge—to improve productivity and animal welfare—and it was so rewarding on so many levels.”
In 2010, she also completed a PhD in how nutrition during pregnancy affects heifers and their offspring.
After relocating to Broome in 2017, Dr Sullivan worked in government regulation from 2019 to 2022, covering live animal export from the Broome port and meat export from Kimberley Meat Company. In 2024 she also completed a graduate certificate in Aboriginal Studies.
Dr Sullivan admits she knew more study was needed into how Indigenous communities functioned from early experiences of delivering health and production programs to local cattle producers.
“I just went in there and delivered a program how I saw fit, instead of really thinking, ‘What would work better on Indigenous cattle stations?’” she says. “I thought I had the answers, but you really don’t know enough about the culture and where the pressure points are and so it needed more understanding and other approaches to establish a better system.”
Dr Sullivan’s approach these days begins with listening rather than arriving with predetermined answers. “It’s about building trust and relationships, and that takes time. I’m always learning.”
While her leadership roles on various boards and councils are what she says she “does out of passion and commitment to the profession”, Dr Sullivan calls her work with her company, Australian Veterinary Semen Morphology (AVetSM), her “bread and butter”. She established the organisation in 2012 to provide affordable semen analysis to support fertility and herd productivity.
Even with such a full schedule, she does manage to get into the cattle yards to work on the veterinary tools a few days each month, but laughs as she explains the physical demands always put her to the test.
“I do love it, but when you’re chasing the cattle around the yard, that’s when I find how unfit I am—oh my goodness! But cattle are very special.”
