– Our Optometrists –
Celia Bloxsom
Celia Bloxsom is the principal optometrist of Eyeconic Optometry Southport. After graduating with first class honours from QUT in 2000 along with the Don Noack prize for contact lens studies, Celia worked in a Brisbane CBD practice alongside contact lens educator and designer John Mountford for five years. It was through his mentorship that Celia found her affinity for contact lenses and began fitting lenses for all types of corneal conditions, including keratoconus and corneal grafts. Celia has shown time and again that there is no age limit for contact lenses, fitting lenses to babies as young as 6 weeks and adults as old as 90!
It was in these early years of practice that Celia also discovered a love for orthokeratology. Orthokeratology contact lenses are lenses that you wear at night to mould the cornea and, after their removal, allow you to see clearly through the day. Her enthusiasm for this lens type led her to become Secretary for the Orthokeratology Society of Oceania in 2003, a position that she still holds today. Through the society, Celia has been heavily involved in coordinating large international conferences to provide continuing education for fellow optometrists and has lectured extensively throughout Australia on contact lenses in all their forms.
In addition, Celia has been a guest lecturer and supervising clinician at QUT’s School of Optometry for the past fifteen years and, along with her fellow contact lens supervisors, she was jointly awarded the QUT Vice Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Learning and Teaching in both 2010 and 2013.
Celia left Brisbane in 2005 and has been involved in private practice on the Gold Coast for the last 10 years. Opening Eyeconic Optometry in March 2016 has fulfilled Celia’s vision of an independent optometry practice, combining her love of fashion and luxury eyewear with her passion for fitting contact lenses to discover individual vision solutions for every person’s unique lifestyle.
Ben Chant
Ben Chant graduated his optometry education in 2011 from QUT with honours. Upon graduation, Ben started working in optometry practices in Brisbane before relocating to an independent optometry practice on the Gold Coast in 2012. Ben then embarked on further study and completed his ocular therapeutic qualifications in 2014 and is now able to prescribe treatment for a myriad of ocular conditions. Through the course, he discovered a new passion for the diagnosis and treatment of ocular disease, especially the wide-ranging treatments for glaucoma and dry eye.
Ben has worked in all scopes of optometry, including optometry chain stores, private practice and ophthalmology. However, Ben’s passion first and foremost is patient care and the relationships he has created with his patients over the years is the thing that Ben most enjoys about being an optometrist.
Outside of work, Ben adores sport of all kinds and especially loves supporting his beloved AFL team, the Brisbane Lions.
Andrew Arnall
Andrew Arnall graduated from Q.U.T. in 2004 with first class honours. He spent his formative year as an optometrist working in various practices in North Queensland, Southeast Queesnland and South Australia before settling on the Gold Coast in 2006.
Over the next decade, Andrew honed his skills in advanced contact lens practice, particularly orthokeratology and scleral lenses. In 2016 Andrew became the clinical optometrist at Outlook Eye Specialists, and he works primarily for Dr Stephen Godfrey, ophthalmologist. He also examines children with strabismus at the ophthalmology department at the Gold Coast University Hospital every Thursday morning. He is also licensed to prescribe medicines under the PBS, having attained a Graduate Certificate in Ocular Therapeutics from Q.U.T. in 2013.
Andrew will be available for consultation here at Eyeconic Optometry every second Saturday.
Henriette Warnken
Born and raised on the Gold Coast, Henriette completed her Master of Optometry from Queensland University of Technology with Honours.
Henriette has been working at Eyeconic for several years, initially as an optical assistant and now as an optometrist. As part of her 5 year degree, Henriette achieved full ocular therapeutic qualification, and was selected to complete part of her degree at the University of Waterloo, Canada.
Henriette enjoys working in private practice, and has a particular interest in contact lenses and myopia control.
