Podiatrist St Kilda

Getting to us from St Kilda

The clinic is at Level 1, 6–10 Chapel Street, Windsor — the northern end of Chapel Street, just up from the St Kilda side. From most of St Kilda it is a five to ten minute drive, and from Balaclava or Ripponlea it is closer to five.

Public transport is genuinely easy here, which is why most of our St Kilda patients do not bother driving. The 78 tram runs the length of Chapel Street and stops close to the door. The 5, 64 and 67 all connect through from the St Kilda Road side. Windsor station on the Sandringham line is a short walk, one stop from Balaclava and two from Ripponlea.

If you are driving, street parking on Chapel Street itself is metered and competitive, particularly on weekends. The residential streets a block or two east are usually easier and only add a couple of minutes on foot.

Windsor opens Monday to Thursday 8.30am–6pm and Friday 8.30am–1pm, with a fortnightly Saturday morning 8.30am–1pm. It is also where our GenesisPlus laser work is done, so nail and wart appointments run from here anyway.

What we treat

General podiatry, which means most feet are treated on the day rather than sent away for a second appointment: heel and arch pain, corns and callus, ingrown toenails, thickened or painful nails, diabetic foot assessments, and knee or hip pain that traces back to how the foot is loading.

Alongside that, a lot of biomechanical work: gait assessment on the treadmill with video, exercise prescription, and custom or prefabricated orthotics where they genuinely help. Footwear advice here is specific rather than vague — useful in a suburb with as many runners in it as this one. If you are weighing up whether devices are worth it, our guide on whether you actually need orthotics is an honest place to start.

Laser treatment for fungal nails and warts uses our FDA-cleared GenesisPlus Nd:YAG 1064nm laser. It is needle-free: fungal nail treatment feels like little more than warmth, while wart treatment stings briefly with each pulse. Fungal nail treatment runs at roughly an 85% success rate after two to three sessions, and most wart patients see results within two to four.

What happens at your first visit

A first appointment starts with the story: what hurts, when it started, what makes it worse, what you have already tried, and what you actually need your feet to do. Bring the shoes you spend the most time in, including work shoes and sports shoes, because the wear pattern on a well-used sole often tells us more than the feet do standing still.

From there we look at the skin and nails, test the joints, and watch you walk. If the problem is mechanical we explain what is loading incorrectly and why, then start treatment on the spot: offloading, taping, a footwear change, an exercise or two, or debridement of painful skin and nails. You leave with a plan and a realistic idea of how long it should take.

Bring your Medicare card, your health fund card and any referral or care plan paperwork. We claim through HICAPS on the spot at every clinic, so with all major Australian health funds you only pay the gap. If your GP has written an Enhanced Primary Care plan for a chronic condition such as diabetes, arthritis or vascular disease, Medicare rebates may apply. DVA Gold Card holders and WorkCover patients need a referral; nobody else does. We take Visa, Mastercard and EFTPOS.

Who we look after around here

St Kilda sends us a genuinely mixed list. A large part of it is hospitality and retail staff working the Acland Street and Fitzroy Street strips, who are on hard floors for eight or ten hours and come in when a manageable ache has stopped being manageable. Another large part is runners and gym-goers — the beach path is busy year-round, and the training errors that go with it are predictable enough that we see the same few injuries on repeat.

Then there are the long-term residents around Elwood and St Kilda East who want nails and skin kept comfortable and safe, particularly where diabetes or circulation is a factor, and families wanting children’s feet looked at properly rather than dismissed.

Common questions

This page is general information, not personal medical advice. Reviewed by Gideon Poratt, Principal Podiatrist (B.App.Sc (Pod), M.A.Pod.A), a member of the Australian Podiatry Association. Please book an assessment for advice specific to your feet.