Our Team

Australian Wildlife Hospital

Gail - Hospital Manager

Gail, like Jon, has loved animals since she was a tiny girl and has 27 years of experience with hand-raising and caring for sick, injured and orphaned wildlife. Gail is also president of Wildcare Australia, one of the volunteer wildlife rescue groups that work closely with our Australian Wildlife Hospital. Gail ensures that the Australian Wildlife Hospital runs smoothly and that none of our little patients’ needs are overlooked. She also fills in as a vet nurse. As far as Gail is concerned, she is living her dream to spend 24 hours a day helping wildlife in distress (Gail actually lives in the hospital so that our patients don’t get left alone!).

Jon - Veterinarian

Jon is a veterinarian who has loved animals since he was a little boy. Jon has been working with Australian wildlife for 15 years, and was ecstatic to be given the opportunity of setting up Wildlife Warrior’s Australian Wildlife Hospital in December 2003.

Jon loves the challenges and rewards of helping sick and injured wildlife, although some of Jon’s patients don’t always love him back! He reckons there’s no other job he’d rather do.

Che - Veterinarian

Che graduated from university in 2004 and is excited by the opportunity that this position brings. Che has grown up with a wide variety of animals, including wildlife, and has a passion for them all.

Throughout her university training she has taken every opportunity to enhance her wildlife knowledge path from a veterinarian and conservation point of view.

Amber - Veterinarian

Amber has had a passion for wildlife for as long as she can remember and dreamed of being a vet. Growing up, she also experienced Australian wildlife through raising injured fruit bats and the occasional possum and wallaby.

Amber’s real experiences with wildlife began five years ago when she travelled to South Africa for a wildlife symposium and game capture course. She loved it so much over there that she returned in the beginning of 2003 to continue her veterinary degree there for the year. That year, Amber was lucky enough to get a job with the DeWildt Cheetah and Wildlife Centre in South Africa. She worked as an assistant handler for one of their ambassador cheetahs and as a tour guide, helped with feeding and also assisted the vet with all sorts of procedures from minor injuries to limb amputations. She also got involved with the African Wild Dogs and Brown Hyena.

After returning to Australia in 2004, Amber completed an externship program with Taronga Zoo for four weeks and in 2005, spent some time with the Australian Wildlife Hospital and met the staff, which Amber says turned out to be the best thing she had done, because this, along with her experiences overseas and in Australia, helped her get to where she is now – an employed vet at the Australian Wildlife Hospital.

Stacey - Veterinarian

Stacey is a casual veterinarian here at the Australian Wildlife Hospital. Stacey’s interest in wildlife began at a very young age, and inspired him to complete his veterinary degree at university.

He has spent the past 14 years in a private practice taking care of stray and orphaned wildlife. He has also worked for private wildlife parks, been involved in captive conservation breeding programs and in assisting government wildlife departments.

Stacey’s area of special interest is avian medicine and he relishes the opportunity to work with and assist the broad range of wildlife species presented at the Australian Wildlife Hospital.

Vicky - Veterinarian Nurse

Nurse Vicky joined our Australian Wildlife Hospital after 10 years as a veterinary nurse in private veterinary practice. Nurse Vicki loves wildlife and, like Gail, has spent many years helping sick and injured wildlife as a volunteer wildlife carer.

She was thrilled to come and work at the Australian Wildlife Hospital, where she can dedicate all of her time to caring exclusively for wildlife and helping our beautiful wild patients on their road to recovery. Vicki looks after the day-to-day care and medication of our patients, and helps Dr Jon with veterinary treatments and procedures.

Pauline - Veterinarian Nurse

Pauline is a veterinary nurse who joined the Australian Wildlife Hospital team on a casual basis just after Christmas 2004. She had been nursing with domestic animals for the past ten years, working intensely with birds both domestic and wild for the past four years.

After working as a volunteer for three months at the Australian Wildlife Hospital the opportunity to join the staff came up.

After living in an area that is known as koala habitat and observing their movements and behaviour, Pauline appreciates how precious koalas are. The opportunity to work with them hands-on is like a dream come true for her.

When Pauline is not hand-raising orphaned wildlife, she is kept very busy raising her own two little humans, and maintaining her own menagerie of animals! She also has a passion for sailing, windsurfing, horseriding and squash.

Kia – Veterinarian Nurse

Kia joined the Wildlife Warriors team in March 2006. She began nursing domestic animals in Sydney over 12 years ago. Then she discovered a love of wildlife by becoming a volunteer carer as well as a volunteer zoo keeper with the Australian Mammals section of Taronga Zoo. This then led to a full-time job working with the great apes as well as chimpanzees and gorillas at Taronga. Kia then spent three years working at Western Plains Zoo, Dubbo, specialising in large hoof stock and big cats. The highlight of her career so far has been travelling to Africa and working in a chimpanzee orphanage.

Kia is passionate about conservation and believes every individual can make a difference. In her spare time she is dedicated to caring for and hand-raising orphaned possums and gliders!

Cheryl - Veterinarian Nurse/Animal Assistant

Cheryl was a dedicated volunteer who worked four days a week at the Australian Wildlife Hospital and is now a full-time vet nurse/animal assistant.

Cheryl is responsible for organising the volunteers on a daily basis and making sure all the outside enclosures and areas are kept clean and tidy.

Like everyone else in the Australian Wildlife Hospital, Cheryl assists in veterinary procedures, medicating and making sure the welfare of our patients comes first.

Sarah - Administration Officer

Sarah has had a love of all animals since she was a young girl. She volunteered at the hospital for nine months whilst studying wildlife management/marine science and running her own business in the determination to change her career. Sarah was offered a full-time position at the Australian Wildlife Hospital in 2004, so she sold her business and hasn't looked back since. Sarah has also been involved in various wildlife rehabilitation groups.

Over the years, Sarah has travelled extensively overseas, always trying to get to every national park in each new area; she spent four months travelling through Africa with her fiancée, which Sarah says was an experience she will never forget! In her spare time, Sarah enjoys scuba diving, bushwalking, beach-going and socialising.

Julie - Administration Assistant

Julie was born and grew up in Zimbabwe. She has always loved animals and had incredible experiences camping in the bush with elephants rubbing themselves against her tent, and hyenas attacking the eskies!

Julie immigrated to Australia in January 2006 and began teaching, then started volunteering at the Australian Wildlife Hospital in April working at the Reception Desk. In October she was delighted to be offered a part-time position as an Administration Assistant. Julie loves every day that she works here and is constantly amazed at the variety of animals that come in. She uses her experiences when supply-teaching on other days, to educate children about Australian wildlife and their preservation.

Briano - Animal Wrangler
Kate - Administration Assistant

Briano has a wealth of hands on experience, having worked for Australia Zoo and, more recently, the Australian Wildlife Hospital, for over thirteen years. Briano is responsible for rescuing sick and injured wildlife, releasing rehabilitated animals back into the wild, and relocating wildlife to safer habitats.

Kate's role is also an action-packed one - receiving wildlife emergency calls in the surgery, heading out on wildlife rescues and assisting the vets and nurses to care for sick and injured patients.

Briano and Kate married in late 2005 and share a passion for wildlife and conservation - their honeymoon provided an opportunity to realise a long-held ambition to see first-hand the abundant wildlife in Sri Lanka.

Jacquie - Volunteer co-ordinator

All her life Jacquie has had a consuming passion for all things animal, so she loves working so closely with Australian wildlife. Jacquie is proud to be a part of an organisation that really makes a difference. Every day brings new patients and new experiences, and even though many situations are extremely challenging, Jacquie says there is no place she'd rather be.

Lisa - Volunteer Co-ordinator

While raising and still raising children, Lisa has realised she'd prefer working with animals! Lisa proudly started volunteering at the Australian Wildlife Hospital back in February 2005, and in April 2006 she was offered the position of Volunteer Coordinator. “It was truly a dream come true,” she said.

Lisa has always been interested in animals of any kind and has many pets at home, but it wasn't until she started working here at the Hospital that she realised her true passion was for wildlife. Lisa hopes to learn more about conservation and would love to become a vet nurse in the future. In her spare time, Lisa enjoys taking her family to the beach and going to as many wildlife workshops as she can.