Christine Powell, 57, Agent For Animal Actors

The Sunday Age

Sunday February 5, 2006

Heather Gallagher

Christine Powell, 57, agent for Animal Actors

Tell us about Animal Actors

For the past 34 years we've been training animals for film and television. There are two full-time workers on a nine-hectare farm in Macclesfield where the animals are housed and where I live. I have about 100 extra people who work for me supplying animals, then I act as an agent for lions, camels and crocodiles, that sort of thing.

How many animals are on your farm?

In the hundreds. It's also a rare breeds farm for endangered breeds of domestic farm livestock. Sheep, cattle, pigs and poultry are endangered because they're not suited to intensive production - I sell these animals free-range to restaurants in Melbourne and the Yarra Valley. I also run a dog training school called Sit Happens.

Have you always been an animal trainer?

I've been obsessed with animals since I was about five years old, when I picked up a stray kitten and refused to put it down. Her name was Dinah, after Alice's kitten in Alice in Wonderland. Then I got a German shepherd puppy and I haven't been without one since. I started my career as a veterinary nurse then I did some cat boarding and later became an instructor with a German shepherd dog training course. When I was about 27, I got itchy feet and came out here (to the country).

How did you become an agent for animals?

I advertised in the Yellow Pages that I did cat grooming and one day I got a call from Channel 7. There was a show called This Week Has Seven Days, which was a frontrunner to Burke's Backyard. Someone wrote to them and asked how to groom a cat. Channel 7 asked me to come in and do a demo. When I said I was a vet nurse, they asked if I'd do a piece to camera. After that I provided the animals for a show called Young Ramsay, which was about a vet. Eventually the phone bill started to mount up and a friend suggested I become an agent for animals.

And now you provide all the animals for Neighbours?

Yes. The first animal I provided was a black cat for Mrs Mangel. Then there was a story line with Guy Pearce that required a number of kittens - Guy decided to keep one of the kittens and he had it well into its old age. Now the animals include a dog called Audrey, a galah called Dahl and a sheep called Casserole.

Have the animals ever got into trouble?

Generally nothing much goes wrong, but the bird is a bit of a character. She gets down on the floor and does a little war dance and pecks some of the toes.

How does an animal become a star?

If they get in, it's $400 for a day's work for an animal. I get them to come here (to the farm) for an audition and if they're successful, they do an introductory course. I have to know they'll be responsible when they go onto a film set.

-- Interview by Heather Gallagher

© 2006 The Sunday Age

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