Koala Crusade
News source: Weekender 30 August 2007
By Elizabeth Moore
A year after Steve Irwin's untimely death, his passion survives. Wildlife Warriors' chief veterinarian Jon Hanger is one of the reluctant heroes struggling to keep Australia's fauna and flora out of harm's way.
The son of a district court judge, Jon Hanger spent seven of his formative years in Hong Kong where his father had taken up a magistrate's post. It was an unlikely start to a life that's largely been dedicated to preserving the natural environment.
These days, Brisbane-born Jon is the head veterinarian at the Australian Wildlife Hospital in Beerwah which Steve and Terri Irwin set up in 2003 in honour of Steve's late mother, Lyn, who was a wildlife carer and had always wished for such a facility.
Jon - or Doctor Jon as he is commonly called - is also the first port of call should one of Australia Zoo's animals or, by chance, one of Bindi Irwin's pets, become sick.
While I was speaking to Jon at the hospital on the far side of Australia Zoo's vast car park, in came the newest Irwin megastar, Bindi, carrying a towel-covered cage. Asked what was underneath the cover, Steve and Terri's nine-year-old politely replied: "It's my pet rat - I think he's got the flu."
It's all in a day's work for Jon who, true to his chosen profession, is happy to help all creatures great and small but is especially knowledgeable on the subject of koalas.
After his early years in Hong Kong, Jon moved with his parents to Townsville then, seven years later, to the Gold Coast where his parents still reside. On graduating from school, Jon studied veterinary science at the University of Queensland.
During this time, the young environmentalist landed a job at Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary in Brisbane. On the weekends, he would cut clippings from eucalypt trees to feed the koalas and, for fun, go snaking (the night-time practice of catching snakes on the road and letting them go again at a safe distance from the bitumen - with your bare hands, no less).
After Lone Pine, Jon scored a part-time job at Koala Town, opposite Dreamworld on the Gold Coast. While combining study and work, the young nature lover and some like-minded vet students formed a wildlife vets group. His fate was sealed.
Jon graduated and went into private practice on the Gold Coast. He treated mainly domestic and farm animals and blames "bad people skills" as the reason he moved on after nearly three years of working for himself. "It took me years to get over the sound of the pager," he quips.
Instead, he went back to University to do his PhD on koala retrovirus, a disease that produces AIDS-like symptoms in koalas and can manifest itself in the form of leukemia, lymphoma and other bone marrow disorders.
On completion of his thesis in 1999, Jon became Dreamworld's first resident vet, having consulted to them in his private practice days. Most of his time was spent looking after the theme park's 100 or so animals, including 60 or 70 Australian natives, while the tourist attraction's management also allowed him to use its facilities for wildlife carer work.
At the end of 2003, Jon, having made a name for himself in environmental circles through both his work and his involvement in establishing Wildcare Australia, received a call from Wes Mannion, Steve Irwin's best mate and the director of Australia Zoo. Wes asked if Jon would help them with their plans to set up a wildlife hospital at the zoo.
"Wes was obviously trying to butter me up and he took me on a tour around the zoo," Jon, now a father-of-two, says frankly. "I just really liked their attitude towards the animals. They weren't just stock animals, they were almost like their pets. Then, at the end, Wes and I sat down in the dirt playing with the dogs (including Steve renowned dog Sui) and I thought that was pretty cool.
"The thing about this place is that Steve had wanted it set up primarily to care for wildlife that was being injured. That's its reason for being, whereas at Dreamworld the primary purpose was to look after the stock animals and they allowed me to bring in wildlife, which I was very grateful for."
In the four years since Jon joined the Wildlife Warriors team, he has been a part of its highs and devastating lows, including Steve's tragic death when a stingray barb pierced the Crocodile Hunter's heart almost a year ago.
"After the shellshock wore off, we all decided our path in life was to achieve Steve's dream, even better than he might have expected, so that's what we resolved to do," Jon, who lives with his family on 24 hectares at Toorbul, recalls. "I guess one of the saving graces is this place is so busy, we didn't really have time to stew and mope around and grieve. The animals kept on flowing in and we had to get on with the job. It just keeps on getting busier. I'm scared of the day when our workload goes down because then I'll know this region has devastated its wildlife. There are still habitat remnants here that support a reasonable level of biodiversity but we're losing them rapidly".
After an intense hour of discussion on the future of this area and the world environment in general, Jon smiles - "now you go and try and turn that into a feel-good story".
As I gather my things, keen to catch another glimpse of Bindi and maybe her rat, the differences between my reality and Jon's hits home. I jump back in my car and return to my harmless office environment. By the time I arrive back, Jon will have checked on Bindi's pet, euthanised another koala infected with the retrovirus and dealt with any other native animal that has come into harm's way.
