Saving the Species
It was Steve Irwin's late mother who had the dream to set up a wildlife hospital. Her son made it a reality. Now he's gone, we're all responsible for its future.
It's hard to keep a dry eye at the best of times in Beerwah's Australian Wildlife Hospital but, given my visit is only days after Steve's death, there's many a tear being shed around these parts. I'm retreating behind my sunglasses every chance I get, quite embarrassed by my wet eyes. But, it seems, I needn't be, considering my company.
“Steve couldn't stand seeing sick or injured animals,” hospital manager Gail Gipp laughs. “He'd come in early in the morning or late at night because he thought in the beginning that he wouldn't see too much then but he did. He was a very emotional man. He used to cry.
“I remember one day Jon (Hanger, the hospital's senior veterinarian) and I were working on two koalas on the table down there. It was just the two of us and they were both critical. One had a joey, it had been hit by a car. We only had one oxygen mask then so we were taking the mask from one to the other and working on both to save their lives and Steve came in. I took the little joey and I chucked it at Steve and said, 'Stick that up your shirt' and we just forgot about him.
“Half an hour later, he was leaning over the sink and he's got the little koala joey down his shirt and he's standing there with tears just running down his face saying: 'I can't do this'. And that was so much him. He loved animals, he can't stand seeing animals in pain,” she says, slipping in and out of present tense.
And while Steve wasn't there for all of them, there are literally thousands of similar stories from the hospital that will both wrench and warm your heart. Take Robbie, for instance: “Robbie was hit by a car and he was stuck to the exhaust pipe of the car and his head was so badly burnt and his arm and his leg. We couldn't save his ear. We used the back of his old ear to close the big hole that he had on his face because even his skull was burnt. Then we made him a new earhole,” Gail says with that perfect working balance of compassion, devotion and resilience.
Still Robbie brings more memories of Steve: “When Robbie came in, he had horrific injuries, really, really bad. Steve would come in and he'd stand outside the cage and just talk, talk, talk to Robbie every time he came in. One day Robbie looked up and then actually put his arm up and Steve took his hand and they stayed like that for ages. It was pretty special.
Gail and the hospital staff share Steve’s animal touch. She and Jon set up Queensland's biggest wildlife rehabilitation group, Wildcare Australia, in the early ‘90s. “Jon became a vet to only treat wildlife, that was his passion. And I've been a wildlife carer for 30 years. Steve used to call me the best koala carer ever. I used to hate that and now I love it,” Gail laughs. “I used to say, 'I hate it, people will think that I'm big-noting myself' and Steve would say, 'But you're not, I am'.”
Gail is far from a big-noter. It is only after a good hour of talking that I realise Gail actually lives in the hospital. “Yeah, this is my home. This is my kitchen table,” she laughs as we sit in the middle of what works as the hospital's intensive care unit and I notice one of the adjoining rooms is actually a modest-sized bedroom.
Gail's home is about to get bigger. Having treated more than 6500 animals since commencing operations in March 2004, there's a need for bigger facilities. Championing that effort was Steve himself and, with work starting next month, the hospital will soon be 10 times its current size. “He put such a lot of work into it. He went over every inch of the plans and I had the same sort of bedroom as what I've got here, which is all I need,” Gail says humbly. “He decided that wasn't good enough… He gave me a bedroom, a lounge room and a kitchen. That's the type of person he was.
“He pays all the wages here, all of the admin and last year committed to giving a million dollars a year for administration. And he gave us so much more. People say 'Wow, he gave a million dollars' and I say, 'What about the money he gave to set up?' We'd be struggling staff-wise and he'd say 'Get another vet, get another nurse'. At our first official meeting, Steve said 'You're never to look at an animal and think about the cost of fixing it. You're to look at an animal and think about how you can fix it and get it back to the wild'.”
Steve recently sent Gail flowers after a bad week. Fearing the answer, I ask anyway - ‘What is a bad week for you?’ “Sometimes it gets really depressing with some of the things that people do to them. And the reality is, the reason we exist, is because of humans and what they're doing to the environment. Whatever animal comes in here, regardless of how it's been injured, it is all because of habitat loss. That's the connection to it all. It's because we took the habitat that used to be there. People don't take it in that context. The reality is south-east Queensland won't have any koalas in 20 years if it keeps going. It is that bad.”
And it isn't just koalas they treat at the hospital - there's emus, kangaroos, snakes, gliders, birds, lizards, echidnas, wombats, bilbies, turtles and many other animals. More than 30 different species in total.
“People think that when you clear a bit of land, the animals will just move next door. The reality is that 95 per cent of them die.
“Steve was telling me a few weeks ago that one of his dreams was that before he died he wanted to revegetate Australia. That was his dream. He said 'And I'm going to do it, Gail'. Unfortunately, he didn't get to do it but we can and other people can. We have the power to lobby our governments and say 'No more clearing, these animals have a right to have their homes'. We've got to stop clearing and start replanting.
“Take care on the roads. Stop cutting down trees. Put away your pets at night, between dusk and dawn. Put ropes in your swimming pool so they don't drown. They can hang onto it and climb out. And being aware that if we don't do something now, they will be gone.”
As for gorgeous Robbie, will he ever go back to the wild? “We don't know yet. We're just going to see how he goes. He's got a long way to go.” It seems we all do.
To donate to the Australian Wildlife Hospital and Wildlife Warriors, visit www.wildlifewarriors.org or phone 5436 2026.
Story: Elizabeth Innes
It was Steve Irwin's late mother who had the dream to set up a wildlife hospital. Her son made it a reality. Now he's gone, we're all responsible for its future.
It's hard to keep a dry eye at the best of times in Beerwah's Australian Wildlife Hospital but, given my visit is only days after Steve's death, there's many a tear being shed around these parts. I'm retreating behind my sunglasses every chance I get, quite embarrassed by my wet eyes. But, it seems, I needn't be, considering my company.
“Steve couldn't stand seeing sick or injured animals,” hospital manager Gail Gipp laughs. “He'd come in early in the morning or late at night because he thought in the beginning that he wouldn't see too much then but he did. He was a very emotional man. He used to cry.
“I remember one day Jon (Hanger, the hospital's senior veterinarian) and I were working on two koalas on the table down there. It was just the two of us and they were both critical. One had a joey, it had been hit by a car. We only had one oxygen mask then so we were taking the mask from one to the other and working on both to save their lives and Steve came in. I took the little joey and I chucked it at Steve and said, 'Stick that up your shirt' and we just forgot about him.
“Half an hour later, he was leaning over the sink and he's got the little koala joey down his shirt and he's standing there with tears just running down his face saying: 'I can't do this'. And that was so much him. He loved animals, he can't stand seeing animals in pain,” she says, slipping in and out of present tense.
And while Steve wasn't there for all of them, there are literally thousands of similar stories from the hospital that will both wrench and warm your heart. Take Robbie, for instance: “Robbie was hit by a car and he was stuck to the exhaust pipe of the car and his head was so badly burnt and his arm and his leg. We couldn't save his ear. We used the back of his old ear to close the big hole that he had on his face because even his skull was burnt. Then we made him a new earhole,” Gail says with that perfect working balance of compassion, devotion and resilience.
Still Robbie brings more memories of Steve: “When Robbie came in, he had horrific injuries, really, really bad. Steve would come in and he'd stand outside the cage and just talk, talk, talk to Robbie every time he came in. One day Robbie looked up and then actually put his arm up and Steve took his hand and they stayed like that for ages. It was pretty special.
Gail and the hospital staff share Steve’s animal touch. She and Jon set up Queensland's biggest wildlife rehabilitation group, Wildcare Australia, in the early ‘90s. “Jon became a vet to only treat wildlife, that was his passion. And I've been a wildlife carer for 30 years. Steve used to call me the best koala carer ever. I used to hate that and now I love it,” Gail laughs. “I used to say, 'I hate it, people will think that I'm big-noting myself' and Steve would say, 'But you're not, I am'.”
Gail is far from a big-noter. It is only after a good hour of talking that I realise Gail actually lives in the hospital. “Yeah, this is my home. This is my kitchen table,” she laughs as we sit in the middle of what works as the hospital's intensive care unit and I notice one of the adjoining rooms is actually a modest-sized bedroom.
Gail's home is about to get bigger. Having treated more than 6500 animals since commencing operations in March 2004, there's a need for bigger facilities. Championing that effort was Steve himself and, with work starting next month, the hospital will soon be 10 times its current size. “He put such a lot of work into it. He went over every inch of the plans and I had the same sort of bedroom as what I've got here, which is all I need,” Gail says humbly. “He decided that wasn't good enough… He gave me a bedroom, a lounge room and a kitchen. That's the type of person he was.
“He pays all the wages here, all of the admin and last year committed to giving a million dollars a year for administration. And he gave us so much more. People say 'Wow, he gave a million dollars' and I say, 'What about the money he gave to set up?' We'd be struggling staff-wise and he'd say 'Get another vet, get another nurse'. At our first official meeting, Steve said 'You're never to look at an animal and think about the cost of fixing it. You're to look at an animal and think about how you can fix it and get it back to the wild'.”
Steve recently sent Gail flowers after a bad week. Fearing the answer, I ask anyway - ‘What is a bad week for you?’ “Sometimes it gets really depressing with some of the things that people do to them. And the reality is, the reason we exist, is because of humans and what they're doing to the environment. Whatever animal comes in here, regardless of how it's been injured, it is all because of habitat loss. That's the connection to it all. It's because we took the habitat that used to be there. People don't take it in that context. The reality is south-east Queensland won't have any koalas in 20 years if it keeps going. It is that bad.”
And it isn't just koalas they treat at the hospital - there's emus, kangaroos, snakes, gliders, birds, lizards, echidnas, wombats, bilbies, turtles and many other animals. More than 30 different species in total.
“People think that when you clear a bit of land, the animals will just move next door. The reality is that 95 per cent of them die.
“Steve was telling me a few weeks ago that one of his dreams was that before he died he wanted to revegetate Australia. That was his dream. He said 'And I'm going to do it, Gail'. Unfortunately, he didn't get to do it but we can and other people can. We have the power to lobby our governments and say 'No more clearing, these animals have a right to have their homes'. We've got to stop clearing and start replanting.
“Take care on the roads. Stop cutting down trees. Put away your pets at night, between dusk and dawn. Put ropes in your swimming pool so they don't drown. They can hang onto it and climb out. And being aware that if we don't do something now, they will be gone.”
As for gorgeous Robbie, will he ever go back to the wild? “We don't know yet. We're just going to see how he goes. He's got a long way to go.” It seems we all do.
To donate to the Australian Wildlife Hospital and Wildlife Warriors, visit www.wildlifewarriors.org or phone 5436 2026.
Story: Elizabeth Innes
