And that is why Milburn & Neill Optometrists is moving this month, after more than 100 years at its premises on the corner of George and St Andrew Sts in the central city.
Its new home, from May 1, will be Dunbar House in Dunbar St, which will provide more room and mean the firm can expand its services.
There are two optometrists but they are planning to get a third when that growth happens.
As he prepared for the move, Mr Milburn joked he would not like to have to do it more than every hundred years, as the existing premises housed decades-old history.
On October 21, 1922, the Otago Daily Times reported the move to the corner site of "Messrs Hugh and G.K Neill, opticians and scientific instrument dealers".
The move back then, into a grocery store from the earliest days of settlement, was driven by the ever-growing business and it was outfitted as a "really up-to-date and thoroughly equipped establishment run on strictly scientific lines", the machinery run by Waipori power.
Dunedin-born Callum Milburn studied optometry in Auckland after completing his secondary schooling at Otago Boys’ High School. He was keen for a career in healthcare — "healthcare without blood".
After graduating, he returned to Dunedin and initially worked with the previous owner David Neill for "20-something years", before taking over the business when Mr Neill retired.
For a long time, Mr Milburn was aware the building needed earthquake strengthening and that the firm needed to move out. Dunbar House appealed to him because of the available car-parking and also extra room.
The business had been a long time in one spot — "I don’t know how many people have been in one location" — in an area which was once known as Fashion Corner. He did manage to miss the 100-year anniversary; a patient had to tell him, he said.
Changes had been aplenty over the century, and even during Mr Milburn’s tenure. When he started, there were paper records but, rather than a card, visit records would get indexed and stuck in a book which dated back to the early years of the 20th century.
The Hocken Library did not want those records, so Mr Milburn said he would keep an example of each book and he would "hold on to anything interesting", although he did not know what to do with the rest.
"There’s some really cool stuff ... I’ve had to stop going through boxes, it was taking up too much time," he said.
Technology — something Mr Milburn particularly enjoyed — was also "crazy different" to when he first started. Back then, there was a camera and visual field analyser. Now, he had run out of space for equipment.
But some things had not changed, like the chair named Betsy in his room, which was at least 80 years old. Her age — along with the removal of worry about children pressing buttons — was part of her charm, he said.
Mr Milburn, who is president of the New Zealand Association of Optometrists, said Dunedin had historically been very strong on the national governance side of the profession.
He enjoyed the insights and helping shape where the profession was going, seeing what members wanted and trying to provide that. Optometry’s scope continued to expand and one of the big areas it wanted to grow in was hospital-based optometry.
That was where there was a big need and the key was to make the job attractive, as there was a huge gap between public and private sector wages, he said.
The University of Auckland offered New Zealand’s only bachelor of optometry degree and it graduated between about 55 and 60 students each year. Last year, about three-quarters of the graduates left for Australia.
While Mr Milburn’s own children were too young to decide whether they would follow their father’s footsteps, he said it was a great option as a career.
He enjoyed helping people — "you don’t get up in the morning to sell glasses" — and described the firm’s patients as "lovely"; one had been a client for 60 years. He also enjoyed watching children grow up.
Part of the move would be establishing a myopia clinic, providing a service that was previously unavailable south of Christchurch. He was keen for Milburn & Neill to be a referral recipient, with southern ophthalmologists and optometrists referring to the clinic.
He still enjoyed his work and that was where technology helped.
They could now do a 3D scan of the front of the eye and create a lens based on that. This sMap3D provides a unique service that was previously unavailable south of Christchurch. Part of the move would also be establishing a myopia clinic for children to compliment the dry eye and IPL treatments.
Providing these specialty services means southern ophthalmologists and other optometrists refer to Milburn and Neill.
They could now do a 3D scan of the front of the eye and create a lens based on that, completely unique to the shape of the eye, and that was exciting.
While many things had changed over the past 100 or so years, one thing had not — "we will always be local and that’s not going to change", he said.
