Coastal Wildlife Recovery
“After a storm we used to triage animals on a verandah. Now there is a second theatre, and the animals that would have waited are the ones we save.”
Wildlife conservation charity
Noosa, Queensland
Coastal Wildlife Recovery takes in injured wildlife from the Sunshine Coast hinterland and the Noosa river country — koalas hit on roads, seabirds after storms, flying foxes after heat events. The hospital was built for a quieter decade. In storm season admissions arrived faster than one treatment room could handle, and animals were being assessed on a verandah while they waited.
The charity's volunteer carers, who take animals home for the weeks of rehabilitation that follow, were also at their limit. There was nowhere on site to hold animals that were past treatment but not yet ready for release, so carers were asked to take more than they safely could, and some animals were declined at the door.
A loan from Charity Bank Australia funded an extension to the hospital: a second treatment room and theatre, an intensive care area with proper isolation, a purpose-built pre-release aviary and soft-release enclosures, and a rainwater system that keeps the site running when the power and the water both go out — which, on that coast, they do.
The hospital now works through storm-season admissions on the day they arrive rather than triaging a queue, and its release rate has climbed across every group it treats. The soft-release enclosures mean animals go back to the bush fit rather than merely alive. Around a hundred and forty volunteer carers now work with the hospital, and the new isolation area has let the charity take on disease-response work with the local council that it previously had to refuse.
The charity had been told by more than one lender that a wildlife hospital was an odd asset with no obvious resale. Charity Bank Australia looked instead at the charity's twenty-year operating history and its supporter base, and structured the loan around the seasons the charity actually earns in. The board valued being able to pick up the phone to the person who had visited the site, particularly during a build that ran through a wet summer.
“After a storm we used to triage animals on a verandah. Now there is a second theatre, and the animals that would have waited are the ones we save.”
Dr Alina Sperling, Veterinary Director at Coastal Wildlife Recovery
About Charity Bank Australia
Charity Bank Australia is the loans and savings bank owned by and committed to supporting the social sector. We use our savers’ money to lend to housing, education, social care, community and other social purpose organisations across Australia.
Nothing in this article constitutes an invitation to engage in investment activity nor is it advice or a recommendation and professional advice should be taken before any course of action is pursued.
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