Grayson the sugar glider is treated by Wildlife Recovery Australia veterinarians.
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A number of local native animals have been added to the list of more than 12,000 that Wildlife Recovery Australia has treated since 2020.
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Nearly three months into a national tour, a crew of expert wildlife veterinarians from the organisation have cared for animals across the country, travelling in Australia’s first mobile wildlife hospital, Matilda.
They ticked Strath Creek off the schedule on Saturday, April 18, treating a cockatoo, a swamp wallaby and a sugar glider, while also offering valuable education to local wildlife carers.
Leoni Weston of LnLz Wildlife Care and Rescue was the local host of the Byron Bay-based team.
After seeing Matildain action, she hopes for a time when mobile veterinary hospitals for native animalswill be accessible Australia-wide.
“All of us who attended thought we need one of these in every state. It’s a phenomenal resource,” Ms Weston said.
“Where we’re located, for us to go to an exotic vet is generally a minimum of an hour and 15 minutes to an hour-and-a-half.
“Having a resource like this, far fewer animals would suffer.”
Wildlife Recovery Australia’s purpose is to treat native Australian wildlife, and its current tour is among a long list of ways it achieves this.
The organisation has also started a veterinary faculty at Southern Cross University and has developed a national framework.
Matilda is Australia’s first mobile wildlife hospital.
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The framework was created after South Australian Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young announced she would push for the Federal Government to allocate $20 million for national wildlife projects annually, with a briefing paper needed to be presented to Environment Minister Murray Watt.
Wildlife Recovery Australia chief executive Stephen Van Mil said the organisation was leveraging the tour to push this framework.
“As part of the national tour, we spent a few days with Matildaat Parliament House, and numerous politicians, MPs, senators and ministers came and saw us,” Dr Van Mil said.
“We really discussed in depth the important need for a wildlife framework at a Federal Government level.”
Dr Van Mil agreed that having a resource like Matildain every state would be invaluable.
“We’ve covered five states and one territory so far ... everywhere we’ve gone, the problem with wildlife is the same,” he said.
“Wildlife are in trouble every single day. We don’t have to wait for bushfires or floods or cyclones to know that.
“There are thousands and thousands of volunteer carers all around Australia and vets providing services pro bono to the best of their ability. It’s a very broken system nationally.”
A local swamp wallaby was cared for by expert hands.
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Months on from the summer bushfires which rocked the local landscape, Ms Weston said Matilda’s visit was all the more significant, highlighting the need for specialised wildlife clinicians across the country.
“We’re losing species at a rate we can’t keep up with,” she said.
“Koala Alliance have predicted, and I believe them, that by 2050, Victoria won’t have koalas.
“We need something like Matildawhere there are states that have varied and larger populations of wildlife ... they are an invaluable, essential resource.”
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