Wildlife wellbeing is our priority
An Eastern grey kangaroo found caught in a stormwater drain during ex Tropical Cyclone Alfred receives urgent medical care from Wildlife Recovery Australia Vet Nurse Alberto Bernabe. Video James D Morgan | Getty Images
Wildlife Recovery Australia (WRA) is transforming the way Australia cares for its wildlife. Our mission is simple yet urgent: to deliver positive outcomes for sick, injured and orphaned native animals while shaping a sustainable, coordinated future for wildlife care nationwide.
From a wildly successful crowdfunding campaign turning the concept to build Australia’s largest mobile wildlife hospital into reality in 2020, to championing the establishment of a National Framework for Wildlife Rescue, Treatment and Rehabilitation, Wildlife Recovery Australia’s highest priority is the protection and wellbeing of individual native animals and entire species through the pursuit of once-in-a-generation reform.
Our three flagship facilities - Byron Bay Wildlife Hospital, Byron Bay Raptor Recovery Centre, Wildlife Recovery Australia Hospital (“Matilda”) - exemplify the type of facilities that need to operate within a national framework of professional standard, sustainably funded national wildlife care.
They have been developed to meet growing demand. Until mid 2025, our mobile wildlife hospital was the first and only all species wildlife hospital operating between Sydney and the New South Wales-Queensland border. This limited our capacity to be deployed to go to wildlife in need during a disaster because our veterinary were treating up to 100 patients a week in peak periods.
In August 2025, WRA took ownership of a bricks and mortar veterinary hospital in Lennox Head, a coastal town 20 minutes from its original Byron Bay home. This third facility has expanded our capacity to treat more wildlife across separate locations, and frees up our mobile facility – Wildlife Recovery Australia Hospital, aka ‘Matilda’ - to be the proactively mobile wildlife hospital on wheels it was built to be.
In March 2026, WRA will take this vision on the road. Supported by UD Trucks, “Matilda” will embark on a 22-wheel national tour through Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia. Now in planning and seeking sponsors, this highly visible campaign will engage communities, wildlife organisations and governments with the urgent need for a sustainable national model, while showcasing WRA’s innovative capacity to deliver care wherever and whenever it is needed.
Through extraordinary vision, expertise, experience and strategic partnerships, WRA is delivering high quality wildlife care in one of Australia’s biodiversity hotspots, and expanding its vision and audience nationally and around the globe.
With leadership, innovation and determination, Wildlife Recovery Australia is not only saving wildlife today — it is building the foundation for a coordinated, resilient and sustainable future for Australian wildlife care.