World's largest wildlife hospital opens at Beerwah
Tue 18 November 2008
Kim Lahey, Post-Graduate Communication
The new $A5 million Australian Wildlife Hospital provides humanitarian aid for thousands of native animals injured by human activity, and leads the way in research and veterinary training.
Loss of habitat, road accidents, domestic pet attacks, fire and disease result in over 5000 animals being brought to the hospital each year, with the facility capable of treating up to 10,000 animals a year.
With around 70 per cent of patients being victims of road accidents or domestic pet attacks, it is not hard for Australian Wildlife hospital manager Gail Gipp to see where the demand for medical attention comes from.
“We are the most dangerous predator on earth,” Mrs Gipp says.
When the original hospital, a converted avocado packing shed, opened in 1994 Mrs Gipp and her staff imagined a slow increase in demand and many years in the temporary facility.
Instead, Mrs Gipp says the hospital had “massive growth very quickly”.
“People just get in the car and drive here from northern NSW and fly animals in from Gladstone and Mackay,” Mrs Gipp says.
Now the facility employs 28 staff, including seven veterinarians, and has a network of up to 70 volunteers.
The last five years have been an intense time for Mrs Gipp and her staff.
“Some nights I don’t get any sleep at all,” Mrs Gipp says.
Night nurses are now employed since the new hospital opened, and for the first time Mrs Gipp returns to her room in the old hospital. 
“Going back in the building at night, it’s quite raw for me,” Mrs Gipp says.
It is fitting that the new hospital opened on November 15, Steve Irwin day.
Steve was the driving force for the project and, together with his wife Terry, formed Wildlife Warriors Worldwide, the charity which funds the hospital.
Plans for the new facility began late one afternoon in 2005.
A customer delivered an injured noisy minor bird for treatment at the then-hospital, and asked if he could stay and see what went on.
“A few hours later I had forgotten he was there, we were so busy,” Mrs Gipp says.
“He said to me ‘This is amazing, what do you want?’
“I told him I wanted a dollar from every ratepayer to keep the facility going.”
The next day she was advised the customer was then-Federal Minister for Revenue Mal Brough, who had lodged a submission to the Federal Government for funding. The result was a $A2.5 million federal contribution to the new hospital.
Wildlife Warriors Worldwide provided the remaining $A2.5 million, contributed from Australian fundraising efforts as well as from sponsors, including Australia Zoo.
Dwarfing the old hospital in size and facilities, the new 1300 sq m veterinary facility contains purpose-built operating rooms, an intensive care room, laboratory, X-ray and CAT-scan rooms, patient admittance bays and nursery for koalas, echidnas and other orphaned wildlife.
The hospital is also a major centre for research and training.
As a side arm to Wildcare Australia, a network of over 700 trained carers who look after orphaned or injured wildlife in their homes, Mrs Gipp runs a “First Aid for Wildlife” course for carers and vets.
Statistics from the hospital provide vital background information on the course.
“The course has really taken off,” Mrs Gipp says.
“Soon it will be available to every vet surgery in Australia.”
University of Queensland’s (UQ) school of veterinary science associate professor of companion animal medicine and surgery Lucio Filippich says vets have been graduating without sufficient knowledge of wildlife to be able to give them proper care.
“Now, people are realising wildlife needs proper medicine and surgery rather than the cursory care given in the past,” Dr Filippich says.
Dr Filippich says the Australian Wildlife Hospital has “without a doubt made a very important contribution to people realising that the treatment of wildlife required medical and surgical training”.
Dr Filippich also says the UQ undergraduate program is being revised in consultation with industry experts, including the Australian Wildlife Hospital, to include core wildlife medicine and surgery components.
Mrs Gipp’s determined quest to open the eyes of the public about animal welfare also continues.
“It’s about education, and I’ll never stop doing that,” Mrs Gipp says.
“We love the donations, but if someone said to me ‘Would you take the million dollars (for the hospital) or get 20 people to change their lives and do something positive for this planet?’, I’d take the 20 people any day.”
Mrs Gipp believes wildlife are often affected and injured through human ignorance, and her wish is for people to be educated so that they care about what they do.
This can be as simple as driving with wildlife in mind, and keeping domestic pets inside fences at night.
“I’d like to see one day there’s no use for a facility like this,” Mrs Gipp says.
Four daily tours are offered at the hospital, so the public can view operations, special medical treatment, rehabilitation, and nursery areas first hand, as well as gain a better insight into how their daily activities impact native wildlife.
Image(s) designed by Kim Lahey