- Animal Register8
- Clinic Case Log8
- Boarding and Grooming Bookings8
- WHS Incident and Hazard Register8
Compassionate care for every animal, every day
Riverbend Animal Care is a regional animal welfare and veterinary organisation serving northern Victoria.
CAQA Riverbend Animal Care, veterinary, animal care and shelter services
Riverbend Animal Care is a regional animal welfare and veterinary organisation serving northern Victoria. It runs a companion animal shelter and adoption centre, a general practice veterinary clinic with a surgical suite, a boarding kennel and cattery, a grooming salon and a behaviour and training service. Under contract to a local council it also delivers animal management services, including the collection and impounding of stray and unregistered animals. Its customers range from private pet owners and rescue groups to farms, retirement villages and a greyhound rehoming program. Every year the organisation cares for around 2,400 animals through the shelter and sees more than 9,000 clinic consultations.
The organisation operates from three sites. The Bendigo region site holds head office, the shelter, adoption centre and animal management depot. The Shepparton clinic runs consultations six days a week with an on-call roster for after-hours emergencies. The Echuca region centre houses the boarding kennels, cattery and grooming salon. Work is organised into six departments: Veterinary Clinic, Shelter and Adoptions, Boarding and Grooming, Animal Management Services, Behaviour and Training, and Business Support. Animal attendants work a seven-day rotating roster with early feeding and cleaning shifts, while clinic and reception staff work standard days with a shared weekend roster.
Welfare first
Every decision starts with the physical and behavioural welfare of the animal in front of us.
Respect
We treat owners, adopters, volunteers and colleagues with courtesy, especially on the hardest days.
Competence
We work within our training, ask for help early and keep our skills current.
Accountability
We record what we do, report what goes wrong and fix what we can.
Services and operations
To give every animal in our care a safe, healthy and respectful experience, and to help the people who love them make good decisions.
Veterinary consultations and surgery
General practice consultations, vaccinations, dentistry, desexing and soft tissue surgery, with diagnostic imaging and in-house pathology at the Shepparton clinic.
Shelter and adoption
Intake, health checks, behavioural assessment and rehoming of surrendered and stray dogs, cats and small animals through the Bendigo region adoption centre.
Boarding kennels and cattery
Short and long stay boarding with daily enrichment, medication administration and individual feeding plans, including care for senior and special needs animals.
Grooming salon
Hygiene grooms, breed style clips, de-shedding and coat and skin condition treatments for dogs and cats, with a health check on every visit.
Behaviour and training
Behavioural assessments, one-on-one consultations, group puppy and adolescent classes and enrichment programs for shelter animals awaiting adoption.
Animal management services
Contracted stray collection, impounding, reclaim processing, community education and support for council animal registration and nuisance complaints.
Six departments, one workplace
Each department has a purpose, a lead, responsibilities, performance measures and the systems it works in. Students are placed in a department by their scenario.
Veterinary Clinic
Delivers general practice veterinary care to private clients and to shelter animals, including consultations, surgery, imaging, pa...
Visit departmentShelter and Adoptions
Receives, houses, assesses and rehomes surrendered and stray companion animals in line with the shelter code of practice, and coor...
Visit departmentBoarding and Grooming
Runs the boarding kennels, cattery and grooming salon at the Echuca region centre, managing bookings, check-in health checks, feed...
Visit departmentAnimal Management Services
Delivers the contracted animal management service for Wirralong Shire Council, including stray collection, impounding, reclaim pro...
Visit departmentBehaviour and Training
Assesses the behaviour of shelter animals, designs enrichment and behaviour modification plans, advises adopters and private clien...
Visit departmentBusiness Support
Provides finance, people, WHS, volunteer coordination, facilities, IT and document control for all three sites, and runs the month...
Visit departmentWorking systems with real records
Every system is live in your browser: create, update, search, move cards on a board and export what you did. Reset returns the seed data at any time.
Animal Register
The master record of every animal in Riverbend's care, from intake to outcome, including identification, health, behaviour flags and housing.
8 recordsClinic Case Log
The daily consultation, admission and surgery log for the Shepparton clinic, used by reception, nurses and veterinarians.
8 recordsBoarding and Grooming Bookings
Bookings, check-in and check-out records for the kennels, cattery and grooming salon, including vaccination and medication details.
8 recordsWHS Incident and Hazard Register
The register of injuries, bites, near misses, hazards, escapes and property damage across all sites, with investigation and corrective action tracking.
8 recordsImpound and Compliance Log
The animal management log for stray collections, impounds, reclaims and compliance actions under the Wirralong Shire Council contract.
8 recordsInbox
8 work requests from managers and colleagues, each linked to a scenario or a document.
Open inboxEight workplace scenarios
Sign in as a role, read the brief, work through the tasks using the documents and systems, then print an evidence summary for your assessor.
Admit a stray dog to the shelter
You are an Animal Attendant in the Shelter and Adoptions team.
Open scenario Intermediate 3 to 4 hoursRun the enhanced cleaning routine during a parvovirus outbreak
You are the Kennel Supervisor in the Shelter and Adoptions team.
Open scenario Entry 2 to 3 hoursRun clinic reception on a surgery morning
You are the Client Services Officer covering reception at the Shepparton clinic.
Open scenario Advanced 4 to 5 hoursNurse three surgical patients from admission to discharge
You are a Veterinary Nurse at the Shepparton clinic.
Open scenario Intermediate 3 to 4 hoursPrepare the boarding centre for the school holiday peak
You are the Senior Animal Attendant at the Echuca region boarding centre.
Open scenario Intermediate 2 to 3 hoursProcess a reclaim and manage the statutory hold list
You are an Animal Management Officer in the Animal Management Services team.
Open scenario Advanced 3 to 4 hoursAssess three dogs for adoption readiness
You are a Behaviour Trainer in the Behaviour and Training team.
Open scenario Advanced 4 to 5 hoursInvestigate a dog bite incident and close out corrective actions
You are the WHS Coordinator in the Business Support team.
Open scenarioNotice board All notices
- Safety Parvovirus outbreak controls in admission and observation blocks
9 September 2026 - Safety Sharps disposal toolbox talk, Shepparton clinic
10 September 2026 - Event Adoption open day, Saturday 3 October
8 September 2026
Coming up Calendar
- 15/09Sharps disposal toolbox talk
7:45 am, Treatment room, Shepparton clinic - 16/09Puppy preschool, week two
6:00 pm, Training room, Echuca region centre - 18/09Duke bite investigation report due
9:00 am, Head office, Bendigo region - 24/09Monthly welfare and safety review
2:00 pm, Head office meeting room
Mapped to the Animal Care and Management Training Package
Every scenario lists the current units of competency and qualifications it supports, with assessor notes and a printable evidence summary. Use it with your own assessment tools or ask CAQA for a matched kit.