Local critters can feel much safer now with the opening of Wildlife Victoria's first regional 'Travelling Veterinary Service' in Warragul.
Based at their new hub in Masterson Crt, the travelling vets respond to calls to Wildlife Victoria, driving out and providing a free wildlife emergency response service, treating injured and sick wild animals. Staff are based locally, minimising the travel time as much as possible.
They also make regular visits to local wildlife shelters, providing animals with specialised expert care they might not otherwise receive.
The hub is the second Wildlife Victoria has established, and the first regional huby, following the success of its first hub in the outer eastern Melbourne suburbs.
Warragul was selected as the first regional hub due to a combination of a 50 per cent increase in cases in West Gippsland, a shortage of specialised wildlife vet services in the area and ongoing population growth.
The service has been operating for more than a month, and in that time vets have attended to more than 30 animals and made almost 80 visits to local wildlife shelters.
A large crowd attended the recent official opening to see the facilities, which include a specialised transport vehicle, medical equipment and a state-of-the-art microscope.
In March, Wildlife Victoria fielded more than 10,000 reports to their emergency response service and had more than 6000 animals reported. The organisation is 93 per cent funded by public donations.
Wildlife Victoria chief executive officer Lisa Palma said the regional hub had been "in the pipeline for about two and a half years at least."
"There is a critical nationwide shortage of vets, but very few vets that focus on wildlife. As you can imagine, a lot goes into a service like this," she said.
She added that the increased urbanisation and growth in Warragul put it at the forefront of discussions when it came to location.
"I think there's been high demand for this for a long time and we've moved as fast as we can and we're looking forward to continuing," she said.
Ms Palma said Wildlife Victoria planned to establish more travelling vet services regionally, with Bendigo the next area planned.
She did concede, however, that future expansions of the program were dependent on public donations. She urged anyone who wanted to show support to head to Wildlife Victoria's website and donate.
For more information on Wildlife Victoria, including how to report a wildlife emergency, head to wildlifevictoria.org.au.