Cobber the koala lies on a soft pink towel, woozy from surgery to repair his broken leg. Bruce the python is sulking deep inside his cage. Nippy the galah – unusually, for a galah – is nowhere to be seen.
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A giant green turtle is being hauled inside; he's swathed in the scent of fear and infection. Who knows whether he'll make it through the night?
These native animals are all patients at Australia Zoo's Wildlife Hospital at Beerwah on Queensland's Sunshine Coast. They bear the nasty scars of urbanisation: car strike, dog attack, habitat destruction, marine pollution.
But the koalas – those sweet marsupials which, along with kangaroos, draw thousands of visitors to Australia's shores each year – are under particular threat.
Listed as vulnerable in Queensland, NSW and the ACT, an estimated 4000 of these slow-moving gumleaf-eaters are killed every year by dogs and cars alone. Sometimes they're shot with pellet guns or bows and arrows. And they're prone to the effects of chlamydia, an organism present in most healthy koalas which is triggered during periods of stress, leading to possible blindness, infertility and even death.
But travellers, whose journeys around Australia wouldn't be quite the same in the absence of the country's iconic native species, are proving themselves to be powerful contributors to the longevity of the very fauna they set out to see. By choosing operators that run ethical, charitable conservation projects or promote animal protection through education and visitor programs, they're contributing directly to the preservation of Australian wildlife.
At Australia Zoo's Wildlife Hospital, Cobber is now lifting his head and shaking off the anaesthetic. Visitors who've come here on a day trip with AAT Kings are viewing him from behind a wall of glass; they delight as another koala steadies herself on her squat legs and crawls, baby-like, along the hospital floor (koala proportions are similar to those of human babies and toddlers, which is why we are so easily drawn to them).
This is a safe space for Cobber and the other 800 or so koalas treated in this facility each year. Once an avocado packing shed, this bright, modern medical facility is where the injured and orphaned animals are examined when they're brought in by members of the Australia Zoo Rescue Unit.
There's an intensive care room and a pharmacy here, a laboratory and an X-ray room, and holding facilities for males and females, diseased and non-diseased koalas alike.
"There's no doubt about it, habitat destruction is leading to a dramatic decline in wildlife," says Dr Amber Gillett, senior veterinarian and co-ordinator of veterinary research at the hospital.
"To put it in perspective, [the hospital has] been here for 11 years and we've had more than 58,000 wild animals brought through to us. So if we weren't here, that's 58,000 animals that would never receive any kind of treatment, even if it's just euthanasia to put them out of their misery.
"Or, those animals that we save … they wouldn't have that opportunity if the facility wasn't here. We get them back out there and they're able to breed and contribute to the population, so [the hospital is] really crucial."
Philanthropy is central to the hospital's success: it runs entirely on funds raised through the zoo's charitable arm, Wildlife Warriors. One of its biggest fundraising drives is the annual Steve Irwin Gala Dinner, held each November in memory of Australia's most beloved wildlife warrior and in aid of important conservation initiatives.
But it also profits from important partnerships forged with tourism operators such as AAT Kings and The TreadRight Foundation (both part of The Travel Corporation), which support the hospital's koala rehabilitation project through cash contributions and the construction of an eco-friendly housing facility for patients.
The not-for-profit TreadRight encourages sustainable tourism right across The Travel Corporation's family of brands; AAT Kings embodies this call to action by incorporating Australia Zoo and the hospital on its itineraries, with a view to educating travellers about the urgency of native Australian animal conservation.
Educating the public is crucial: while Cobber will recover from his injuries and eventually be released close to where he was first discovered, the approaching summer trauma season – during which animals become more active and hence more susceptible to car strikes and dog and cat attacks – will see an influx of koala admissions. Up to $5000 will be spent treating each koala, with every penny well worth it, says Gillett.
"Koalas are an incredible species to work with. What you can do with a koala and how well they settle in a rehab situation is just overwhelming," she explains.
"Koalas seem to most of the time accept what's happening and – as long as they've got leaves [to eat] and they're comfortable and they're not in pain – they just go with the flow until they're ready to be released."
Out in the purpose-built gum plantation that sits beside the hospital, some of these chilled patients are learning to be koalas again.
In a nearby rainforest enclosure, orphaned koala joeys are practising their climbing skills. In adjacent recovery enclosures birds are tentatively flapping their wings, snakes slithering and turtles – kept unnaturally buoyant when they ingest plastic bags – diving deep once again.
These are the hospital's success stories, the little Aussies that have survived trauma and are on their way home. It's a bittersweet highpoint for Gillett, who readily admits to being emotionally affected by her patients.
"There's a lot of euthanasia and a lot of heartbreak and a lot of feeling dissatisfied with why these animals are coming in in the first place," she reflects.
"But then, there's the other side of it when you get a lot of rewards from giving those animals a second chance."
TRIP NOTES
MORE INFORMATION
GET INVOLVED
The annual fundraising Steve Irwin Gala Dinner is on Saturday November 21 at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre. See: steveirwinday.org.au.
TOURING THERE
AAT Kings offers a full-day Crocodile Express and Australia Zoo tour priced from $139 per adult and $89 per child. Departing daily from the Gold Coast and Brisbane, guests spend the day with over 1200 animals, getting hands-on with koalas, wombats, snakes and kangaroos. See aatkings.com.
The writer was a guest of AAT Kings.
