Sunshine Coast Hinterland Times

Carmel feeding a possum

“I was always interested in animals”, says Carmel Givens.” As a child I brought every stray home. I was a rescuer. I remember writing a letter to a wildlife park in Africa when I was 12 asking for a job. They politely told me to contact them again when I was older”.

Carmel is someone who has a way with animals, especially those in the wild. She literally takes in any injured animal that may come her way. That means swamp and red neck wallabies, eastern grey kangaroos, koalas, gliders, possums, paddy melons, bandicoots, birds, lizards and snakes.

Both Carmel and her husband Ridley are WILVOs – wildlife volunteers – and on their wooded 40 acre property on the hinterland, they are constantly taking in animals in need of care. The winter is the quiet time but normally they have five or six animals under care at any one time.

There are more than 100 WILVOs on the Sunshine Coast, from people living in small flats to those like Carmel and Rid who have the space and the facilities to care for a broad range of animals. Their property is also a place from which animals can be released back into the wild.

The WILVOs are self-funded and raise money through generous donations both large and small. Every WILVO has to do a certain number of workshops every year to stay in the scheme and it’s illegal to look after wild animals unless you have a permit.

Sadly, more and more animals and birds find themselves being delivered to Carmel’s door. She says the main causes are cars, cats and dogs. “Cars especially”, says Carmel, “because they hit everything. People drive far too fast. It’s a shame too that people still let their cats out at night because they get so many of our smaller mammals especially our little gliders”.

Loss of habitat through the cutting down of trees is another threat. “For example, soon it will be rare to see Ringtail Possums on the Sunshine Coast and the Common Grey hardly ever comes into care now. Scaley-breasted lorikeets are depleted too and a lot of our snakes. I think people are too eager to kill snakes”.  Carmel and Ridley would be one of the main contacts on the hinterland.

“I usually ask the people who find the animals to name them. A Montville couple found a possum out of the pouch and I asked their two year old to name it. With absolute certainty he said ‘he’s Jimmy”.

“The joy of seeing them fly off and wander back into the bush is great. I just love to give them a second chance. While there’s that need I want to keep going.  I sometimes wish the scale of what we do was less, but I can’t ever see myself saying no”.