Future of Wing's Wildlife Park in Tasmania impacted by floods

Tasmania’s recent flooding resulted in the family that owns Wing's Wildlife Park at Gunns Plains being cut off from animals and on-site staff.

While they regained access on 15th October and found their animals safe, along with the staff and residents who tirelessly watched out for them, the ABC reports that they now realise the future of their popular tourist attraction is uncertain.

Flooding caused significant structural damage to the property as well as the loss of stock throughout the cafe and souvenir shop.

Speaking to ABC, Wing's Wildlife Park manager Gena Cantwell, whose parents Colin and Megan Wing founded the park 36 years ago shared "everything is up in the air at the moment. Our focus was to just get in, get the animals, and make sure they were OK.

"We've done that but over the coming weeks we're going to have to sit down and have some tough conversations about where we go from here.

"The buildings, the Wildlife Park infrastructure, we can't get insurance for that. We did have in 2011 and 2016 but now, nobody is offering."

ABC has reported that the Park has received much needed assistance with one Launceston building firm providing seven builders, while machinery operators volunteered time and invaluable earthmovers. Staff, locals, and friends of the park also helped shovelling mud and piling up appliances, merchandise, and materials destroyed in the flood.

The Wing family expects the park will be closed for months rather than weeks – a very unfortunate situation to be in having lost much business to COVID and with the tourism season ramping up.

To help her grandparents, Natalie Wing has created a gofundme campaign to “relieve some of the financial stress off my family as they start to come to terms with the amount of damage.

“Due to the wildlife park not having flood cover, all costs to get the park up and running again will be out of pocket. The wildlife park has a long road ahead, but I hope we can get my family's beloved business back on its feet so everyone can enjoy visiting again.”

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Images: Credit: Wing's Wildlife Park FB