Gill and Col Brownhill have been running the Eumundi Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre with the assistance of volunteers since its inception 14 years ago. The Centre provides a service that covers the whole Sunshine Coast taking in roughly 1500 patients a year and caring for them until they are ready to be released into a suitable habitat.

The Brownhills have put in an amazing voluntary effort over those 14 years operating a Centre that is a unique facility offering care for injured and orphaned wildlife.   But now the time has come where alternative arrangements must be made to ensure the Centre’s sustainability into the future.  This is most important for our wildlife as no similar large facility exists anywhere on the coast.

Supporters and residents  are invited to attend a public meeting on Tuesday 24th January from 5.30-7pm at the Imperial Hotel Eumundi function room. The Centre needs additional members of the Centre's incorporated body.  Membership is $25 pa.  It also needs leaders and helpers with governance, administration, animal care, publicity and fund raising skills to come together to draw up a plan to secure the future of the Centre and to map out a way to raise the substantial amount of funding needed to meet future needs.                           

The 10 acre property at 1411 Eumundi/Noosa Road Eumundi contains 15 flight aviaries,  nine  possum houses and two large intensive care buildings housing 20+ diurnal and 30-40 nocturnal birds and animals.  There are also four heated boxes for very young or sick patients and four fenced paddocks for wallabies, kangaroos, ducks and swans.

Operating costs for the Centre, mostly for food for the patients, amount to $30,000 annually and have been met over recent years by grants from the Council’s Environment Fund and donations from community groups such as the Eumundi Historical Association and Eumundi and District Community Association, animal welfare groups and the public.  There is now a need to raise more funds to engage a caretaker for the Centre who can eventually take the reins of the Centre. 

Recently the Centre was granted listing as a Registered Environmental Organisation with Deductible Gift Recipient status.  This means that donations of $2 or more are now tax deductible and we are hoping that this will be an incentive for environmentalists and benefactors more widely to donate generously to support the Centre into the future.

Secretary of the Centre Chris said,  "We know the service has been valued by many people over the years and we urge all of them to consider attending the meeting on 24th January to help secure the future of what is a very special centre for our wildlife and our environment."

For any enquiries or offers of assistance, please contact the Centre secretary Chris Hartley on  5442 7397 or Ken Hodges on 0400 300 719.

Background media articles about the Centre here and here.