Australia Zoo's Wildlife Hospital at Beerwah began with a mother. Lyn Irwin, Steve's mum, was a pioneer of wildlife care, and in 2004 Steve and Terri turned an avocado packing shed on the zoo grounds into a working hospital in her memory. Four years later, on Steve Irwin Day, a purpose built hospital opened, with its own surgical theatre, x ray room, intensive care and pathology lab. Care is free to the public and no native animal is ever turned away, and since 2004 the hospital has cared for more than 165,000 of them, nearly thirteen thousand of them koalas. Last December one of those koalas, Flower, came in from Central Queensland, more than ten hours away. She was driven the whole way by the mother of Dr Ludo Valenza, the hospital manager and wildlife vet. Flower spent her first weeks in intensive care, then moved to the rehabilitation enclosure to practise climbing eucalyptus again, one eye lost and the other perfectly healthy, getting ready for the long drive home to the wild.

A koala reaching for eucalyptus leaves, Queensland.
A koala reaching for eucalyptus leaves, Queensland. Photograph: A koala reaching for eucalyptus leaves, Queensland by cuatrok77, via Wikimedia Commons under CC BY-SA 2.0.

Spring is the hospital's busiest season. "From August onwards, koalas are on the move searching for mates, new habitat," Dr Ludo says, and this year the team set a record for koala arrivals in a single day, then broke it again less than a week later, first nine and then ten. By late September it had already cared for two hundred more patients than at the same point last year, a hundred and ten of them koalas, after a 2025 to 2026 season with almost two thousand more patients than the one before. Terri Irwin says every patient is a reminder of the incredible wildlife we share our world with. Next Sunday, 15 November, is Steve Irwin Day, and somewhere on the Sunshine Coast there will be a vet, a nurse and quite possibly a vet's mum making sure another koala gets home.

A wild koala high in the eucalypts at Kennett River, Great Otway National Park, Victoria.
A wild koala high in the eucalypts at Kennett River, Great Otway National Park, Victoria. Photograph: A wild koala high in the eucalypts at Kennett River, Great Otway National Park, Victoria by KobiWiki, via Wikimedia Commons under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Our short take: the spring figures are from Noosa Today (28 September 2026) and Flower's story is by Ronalyn for Sunny Coast Media (23 March 2026). Photographs: as credited in captions.