Shepparton produces many extraordinary, hard-working and talented individuals. And one intergenerational family from Shepparton has made its mark in Melbourne.
Hold tight - we’re checking permissions before loading more content
Two brothers who grew up in Shepparton, Dr Shea Wilcox and Dr Kyle Wilcox, have built a medical clinic in Melbourne’s north-east from the ground up.
Inner North Medical Clinic opened in November 2019.
“They got the building, drew up the plans, and on they go,” their mother, Chris Wilcox, said.
“And that is an amazing achievement. It’s an amazing clinic, we call it the most amazing clinic in the whole wide world.”
After graduating from Notre Dame College in Shepparton, the brothers went on to study medicine together in Melbourne and at rural medical schools. They've worked in Shepparton and even spent time in Wangaratta as junior doctors.
They’ve also plied their trade in other countries. Shea went overseas and volunteered in East Timor for six weeks in 2007 as a junior doctor in a community clinic called Bairo Pite during an intense period of civil war where he faced some of the most difficult conditions imaginable.
Kyle followed his brother’s example, doing a paediatric volunteer round in Cuba in 2008-09, bringing much-needed medical care to children in need.
The brothers are also climate activists, and Shea was on a Greenpeace boat in 2016 while it was monitoring offshore drilling.
They have since settled down and started their clinic together with the aim of serving the community.
Inner North Medical Clinic is truly a family business. It seems as if Kyle and Shae’s entire immediate family works there.
Kyle and Shea’s sister Cassie Wilcox has developed her speech pathology business within the clinic, and her husband Ken White is a prosthetist. The siblings’ younger brother Zac Wilcox, who has almost finished his podiatry degree, also works at the clinic full-time.
Chris’s sister, Marita Grant, is assistant practice manager and a nurse; and Chris’s sister-in-law Trudy Hoare is reception manager. Shea’s partner Monica Ramirez manages the clinic’s social media and website.
Including the brothers, there are 14 doctors working at the clinic in East Brunswick, an occupational therapist, four psychologists on staff and four nurses.
Even the siblings’ parents work at the clinic. Their mum Chris is the practice manager, and their father John Wilcox is the business manager.
“So we have John and myself, four children, my sister and my sister-in-law working here,” Chris said.
“And one of our sons-in-law (Ken White) makes prosthetics.”
Chris and John were burned out of their Woodend home during the Ash Wednesday bushfires. During the conflagration they managed to save three neighbouring houses from ember attack in the process, but their home and business were both badly damaged.
They moved to Cobram to start again 31 years ago. They then made the decision to move to Shepparton 26 years ago so their children could attend Notre Dame College and move their business closer to Melbourne.
Chris and John are the former owners of Sabac on High in Shepparton, which was famous around town for its Christmas window displays, and supplied and decorated events all over the Goulburn Valley region from high school debutante balls to mayoral balls.
Kyle and Shea are the grandchildren of Dorothy Hoare, a Shepparton resident of nearly 80 years, who is incredibly proud of her family.
The Wilcox siblings come from a legacy of outstanding Shepparton stalwarts. They are the great-grandchildren of Harry Charles Ryan, a Shepparton resident who was recognised by the Queen with the Imperial Service Medal for going above and beyond in service to the community.
Their grandmother beams with pride when speaking of her grandchildren carrying on their great-grandfather’s extraordinary legacy.
Now, that legacy continues in Melbourne.
As well as building Inner North Medical Clinic from scratch, the Wilcox brothers have built another clinic that is solely dedicated to vaccinations.
They are working with the government to deliver 10,000 vaccines to the community in the next couple of weeks. Inner North Medical has even asked the government for extra vaccines to administer to the public.
Members of parliament visit the clinic regularly, and Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has become a familiar face.
The business also offers pop-up vaccination clinics, bringing its service to those in need — just as the brothers did earlier in their careers when they worked in East Timor and Cuba.
“We work with the Department of Health and we do pop-up clinics,” Chris said.
“We take a doctor and the vaccines and reception staff and we try to vaccinate people who were not able to get to a clinic somewhere.”