Come in and meet the team at Hansen Optometrists in Clarinda St, Parkes. The Hanses stores in 1905 (top) and in 1930 (below).

The Hansen family have the distinction of being the oldest family operated and continuous running optometry practice in Australia, having provided eye care to the people of the central west for six generations. 

Their story began in the 1890s when Henry Hansen, a Danish immigrant and watch-maker opened his business in Orange. Henry Hansen sold ready-made spectacles as part of his inventory. 

Fast forward to the early 1900s, and his son Frederick began working at the family business, advertising himself as a “Scientific Optician”, performing rudimentary eye examinations and prescribing spectacles.

This tradition continued with his sons Lel and Bob, taking over the business after completing their optometry studies. This saw the evolution of the family business from a humble jeweller and watchmaker that dabbled in providing spectacles, into Western Optical Pty Ltd, with optometry practices in Orange, Parkes and Wellington. 

They also started the first lens grinding laboratory west of the Blue Mountains in NSW. This laboratory provided the lenses for spectacles all over central west NSW and further abroad.

Over the next 50 years, the scope of the Optometry profession steadily evolved as did Hansens, with the next generation of Hansen optometrists entering and running the business. 

In 2008, the fourth generation of Hansen Optometrists began working in the practice. Soon after in 2012, they purchased an existing optometry practice at 267a Clarinda Street Parkes, which became Hansen Eyecare Plus Parkes. 

They soon expanded operations, providing an optometrist five days a week, increasing staff and giving a much needed injection of new technology to better service the eye care needs of the people of Parkes. 

Hansens continues to defy current trends by remaining a fully independent, family owned optometry practice in a sea of foreign owned, corporate optometrists. They have survived the test of time, continuing to evolve and staying at the forefront of optometry with the latest advances in technology and eye care innovations. This allows them to provide the highest quality of eye care to their patients. 

They also pride themselves on their strong involvement in the local community, providing vision screenings to primary schools, after hours services, home visit to the elderly, sponsorship to local charities and spectacles to the less fortunate. 

Hansens delves into many of the sub-specialties of optometry including children’s vision, dry eye management, specialty contact lenses and orthokeratology. 

With optometry in their DNA and a fantastic team of support staff, there is little doubt that Hansen’s will continue to support the people of Parkes and the surrounding community for generations to come.