Burleigh Heads Physiotherapy Centre was started by Jacqui Box at Shop 1/27 Park Avenue in beautiful Burleigh Heads. Peter Ridley was the next owner in 1985 (when Dan & I were in Grade 9!) and sold to Neale White in 1993. Fatefully, when Neale fractured his thumb in a car accident, Dan started at the practice as a locum, and when Neale decided to sell, we became the proud owners in October 2001.

At the time, Dan and I were 9 years out of university and 2 years married. When the banks wouldn’t lend to us (we had no property to borrow against), my parents gave us a business loan. For the first 4 months, Dan and I did everything. We were the clinicians, admin staff, cleaners, launderers, business owners, and bookkeepers. It was so stressful, but it was ours. We worked 12-14 hour days, 6 days a week towards our common goal, but small business is hard, and we were burning out.

In 2002, Dan’s Mum and Dad joined the team as our cleaners and launderers – massive shout out to Anna and Thornton (we sadly lost Thornton in June 2024). They continued to do this for us until 2014. Today, Anna still attends the practice, but now as a Strength & Balance class participant 🙂

Anne, the next new employee, was our first admin team member and a godsend. Experienced and dedicated, she helped us put better systems in place. Al and Deana then joined the admin team, and Neale came back to work part-time. Throughout, we worked hard to repay my parents as quickly as possible, and managed this within a year! Despite the relief we felt with this enormous achievement, and with the weight of debt off our backs, this was one of the most stressful years of my life.

Those first years were rough, with a very steep learning curve; our motivation to continue was building something that

1. Would give patients a better treatment journey, supporting them completely from pain to full function, and
2. Could give us flexibility when we had kids. We wanted to control our hours so we could walk them to school, do the readers and help in tuckshop, and coach the Oztag team (go Miami Oztag!) 

Other jobs at the time didn’t offer either.

Freya was born in 2004, and the practice moved from the 45m2 shop in 2005 down the road to 19 Park Ave, next door to Burleigh Family Practice. Here, we created a beautiful 100m2 space. It felt enormous after the old place, and allowed us to set up a little gym and Pilates space (so good!). Carol Piermont did a great job as our first Office Manager, creating procedures and protocols. Elena was born in 2006 Our family was complete, and life was wonderful.

Broadbeach Physiotherapy centre became ours in 2008, bought from Patrick Philippi, who went back to university to study teaching. Initially, it was just one room in Broadbeach Family Practice. Sincere thanks to all the physiotherapists and podiatrists who worked with us there. From these humble beginnings, Broadbeach Physio has grown to a stand-alone practice at shop 1/ 2633 Gold Coast Highway.

In 2012, a dear friend died suddenly at 40 years of age. It was a terrible shock and heartbreaking for many. Taking stock of what was most important to us Dan and I decided to take the trip around the Top End of Australia we’d always talked about in 2013. The girls were 7 and 8. Carol retired, and Savannah Fitzsimmons joined our work family as our Office Manager. We are forever grateful to Sav, as we couldn’t have done this trip without her holding the fort back home. Travelling for 16 weeks (our first long service leave ever), we covered over 10,000 km, camping, hiking and 4-wheel driving, seeing amazing things, learning about ourselves and our country and bonding as a family.

Over the years, we have had the good fortune of working with so many beautiful people in the medical community (GP’s, nurses, OT’s & specialists) and in our clinical and admin teams. Some have moved on and some have changed their career paths. To name a few: Carmel Teppper now works at Bond University with the medicine program. Leanne Kenway PhD is now associate professor at Griffith University. Ryan Carroll is a titled sports physio now working with the Australian basketball team! Anna Zayas is working in Adelaide as a massage therapist. Anita works for Monash Fertility.

Thank you so much to everyone who has joined us on our journey and the contributions you’ve made. A shout-out to our wonderful current team: Luke, Natali, Katrina, Lucy, Sandy, Callie, Shane, Shaun, Lisa, Karli, Tahlia, Nicole, Lisa, Freya, Jodie.

We are so very grateful to all the wonderful patients we’ve had the honour to serve over the last 25 years. Without you, there is no purpose.

We couldn’t have done it without you all❤️