Southern Cross University is partnering with Wildlife Recovery Australia to give veterinary students rare, hands-on experience in wildlife care and conservation. The collaboration will help address Australia’s critical shortage of veterinarians while producing graduates ready for rural and mixed-animal practice.

The partnership delivers hands-on wildlife-training to both future veterinarians and veterinary technology students in a collaboration which strengthens the University’s new veterinary courses and the national pipeline for practice ready vets.

Discipline Chair of Veterinary Sciences, Professor Rowland Cobbold, said: “Southern Cross Veterinary Technology and Vet Medicine students, through our unique distributive model, will have access to an authentic clinical training environment managed by expert wildlife vets and nurses. Students will get direct clinical exposure to wildlife triage, treatment, surgery and rehabilitation. These skills are increasingly vital to regional practice where vet clinics regularly treat injured native animals alongside domestic patients.”

Founder and CEO of Wildlife Recovery Australia, Dr Stephen Van Mil, reiterated the demand for wildlife knowledge and clinical experience: “Wildlife are presented to general practice vets across Australia every single day. Too often the animals arrive in boxes, are triaged late, and don’t get the outcome they deserve. Knowledge and skills in the unique physiology and anatomy of a diverse range of native animals are required to provide effective treatment for wildlife patients."

"Through this partnership, Southern Cross University Veterinary Sciences students will be among the very few in Australia to get hands-on experience with authentic wildlife cases treated at our three facilities: our bricks and mortar dedicated wildlife hospital at Lennox Head, the Byron Bay Raptor Recovery Centre, and Wildlife Recovery Australia (mobile) Hospital.”

“Our mission is to produce practice-ready vets – less purely theoretical and more prepared to step straight into dealing with wildlife, a variety of animals and rural practice.”

This partnership will also help address the shortage of veterinarians across NSW and regional Queensland.

“It’s estimated in Australia that we’re probably 1500 vets short, and we’re going to be addressing this shortage through qualified and trained wildlife vets,” Said Dr Van Mil.

Southern Cross has a distinctive focus on early clinical exposure and work-integrated learning, with students applying knowledge in real settings. In the Veterinary Technology program, clinical training begins from the first year, while Veterinary Medicine students undertake intensive animal husbandry early and progress to clinical rotations in the third year – developing practice-ready graduates grounded in regionally relevant practice.

“Our mission is to produce practice-ready vets – less purely theoretical and more prepared to step straight into dealing with wildlife, a variety of animals and rural practice,” said Professor Cobbold.

“Being from the region and for the region, we also prioritise professional connection and clinical pathways.”