THE CLOCK IS TICKING - WE NEED TO BE OUT OF HERE BY SUMMER.  IF WE CAN'T FIND ANYTHING IN FNQ, WE WILL RELUCTANTLY HAVE TO LEAVE THE REGION.  In May 2023, we were forced to relocate again and the only place available to us (because of the rental crisis) was a house in Innisfail.  We are grateful to have a roof over our heads but this is not the right roof.  Our work (and our live-in volunteer's health) has been compromised by being here.  We have been looking for a suitable place for 10 months now and can't find anything in our budget because the rental crisis is even worse.  We need to be out of here by summer.  We are looking for a house on shared acreage or a private rental for a house.  Or there might be somebody who wants to buy now but doesn't want to move in for several years and could rent to us for a reasonable amount.  There are some criteria because we are caring for an extremely sensitive animal.  Please have a look at our gumtree ad:  https://www.gumtree.com.au/s-ad/innisfail/property-for-rent/house-wanted-in-region-around-cairns-before-summer-arrives-/1326093867   and please share the word!  Thanks.

We just can't develop every piece of land in the country.  There are special places that we need to preserve for our children's children and we call those national parks.  A walking track and some very basic amenities are fine but the govt wants to put "high end ecotourism" resorts in many of them.  These will be privatised and will block off that part of the park to only their paying guests.  That is not why national parks were created.  There is a petition on the Qld Parliament website to have the protective provisions in the Nature Conservation Act restored so that parks will be free from commercial interests and private leases.  Please sign if you want these parks to be protected for future generations.  https://www.parliament.qld.gov.au/Work-of-the-Assembly/Petitions/Petition-Details?id=4090

We tried to have three garage sales to reduce the volumne of stuff we have but those have not done well.  So we are offering the "continuous garage sale".  If you want to make an appt to come in and see the range of books, tanks and other things, then please contact us and you can view our items in luxurious privacy.   Non-fiction books include nature, birds, sharks, animals, new age/spiritual, home improvement, coffee-table books on cars, Australiana, health and food, travel and so on.  Also succulents; lockable Reptile One display tanks; assorted aquariums; chaps; Star Wars stuff; solitary bee boxes (with bees!); a steel map/plan cabinet; a geology collection; tumbled stones, etc..

Our group with a live-in volunteer has been renting in the private market for over 25 years and we have been forced to move SEVEN times.  This has caused an increditble waste of very limited resources and imposed massive burdens on our live-in volunteer.  We are absolutely sick of it.  Now that the rental crisis has gotten so bad, we are now locked out of the 'standard rental market'.  We cannot afford what agents are charging and we need to move again when this lease ends (we only took this place because there was nowhere else to go but this house is not appropriate for our work).  We are casting a wide net to find a long term place to operate (please note we are not commercial and do not have signage out front).  We could share an 'environmental' acreage (e.g., land for wildlife, biodynamic, organic farm); or we could rent a standalone house privately from a reasonable owner; or someone could buy a sales property to rent to us under a long term covenant (and we can help improve the property).  We need to be convient to Cairns but are looking at northern Cassa coast, Mareeba, and Douglas shires.   We do have some specific criteria however which are necessary for our operation.  If you are in any of the positions described above and would like to talk about the possibilities, please contact our President soonest on (07) 4006-3784.  Please also bring this to the attention of anyone you know who is cashed up and looking to do something important for conservation.  OUR FUTURE IS DEPENDANT ON FINDING A BETTER HOME FOR OUR WORK!

Thanks to some sharp spotting by a resident, we received a frog on Jan 6th that has tumours growing out of its mouth.  We are arranging for a biopsy to be done since this is a tumour type we have not tested before.   It is another reminder that no matter where you are, please keep a lookout for frogs that have any kind of lumps anywhere on the body.    If you see one, use gloves or a plastic bag stretched over your hand to pick it up, place in a plastic container with an air hole and a tiny bit of water (not tap water) and bring indoors before contacting us.  UPDATE:  the lab results are in - it is squamous cell carcinoma (the first we've received in the Common Green tree frog) - see our Cancer page in the Health section for more info.

Now that Containes for Change is refunding wine bottles too, don't forget to donate your refunds to us.  We really need the support!!

Our member number is C11038890 and our name in that program is the frog hospital.

Thanks and enjoy your holidays!

HELP NEEDED NOW IN THESE AREAS:  a person who knows JOOMLA, a person comfortable with LINUX, and a person with very basic carpentry skills.  If one of these is you, please contact us asap.  Thanks!

Do you take pride in your work?  Do you want to support frog conservation but feel you might not have the skills needed?  Not to worry! 

Our volunteers don't need to know anything about frogs to support our work.  A group with this much workload needs all sorts of people with skills ranging from gardening, to house cleaning, to washing up, to shuttles, to bottle collectors.  If you have technical skills such as video production, marketing, journalism, or social media - we need your help too.   If you might like to join our all-volunteer team, contact us!

Why can't our group have a permanent home????  We have been forced to relocate seven times and we can't get grants or government help for that.  We have to use your precious, hard-earned donations for those moves.  There is a beautiful 165 acre property for sale at Butcher's Creek (Topaz) which backs onto Bartle Frere.  There is enough space in the house to cover all our activities plus educational displays, guided walks, in situ breeding, etc.  The price has come down several times and is down to $900K.  Surely there is someone who can afford to purchase this beautiful property for conservation and provide us with a permanent home to continue our work. Have a look at:  https://www.realestate.com.au/property-acreage+semi-rural-qld-butchers+creek-141228876

We need to dramatically reduce the volume of our stuff - not only to bring in money to pay the bills but also reduce moving costs.  We have ads on Gumtree and hope to advertise on facebook as soon as we can find someone to assist with this.  We've got a map cabinet, pavers, aquariums of all sizes and personal stuff from our president such as books, dvd's and other items.  See the full range on Gumtree at this link:  https://www.gumtree.com.au/s-seller/the%20frog%20hospital/1014594198/date/1

We have a new business sponsor!!  Our first from Innisfail, too!  Say hello to Innisfail Brakes.  We are proud to receive your support.  If you are a local business and want to support our work (doesn't have to be cash - goods and services work too), please give us a ring.

Would you like another way to support our group?  We're registered for Containers for Change and Re-collect.  You can return your bottles and donate those coins to us!  Our Containers for Change ID number is  C11038890 and we are listed as the 'frog hospital'.  If you are a participant of Re-collect, you can search for us on their site or tell the collector who picks up your bottles. We are listed on Re-collect as Frog Safe.

Are you retired or looking for something different to do with your spare time?  We have lots of assorted tasks here ranging from the simple but time-consuming to those requiring technical backgrounds.  We current have a need for somebody who likes to spend time on facebook to post and monitor responses for us.   If you want to have a chat about the possibilities, please give us a ring on (07) 4006-3784.  Have a good day.

Many thanks to Hinterland Aviation! We were informed of a frog in Cooktown with an advanced stage of cancer and Hinterland promptly sent it down to Cairns - as they have done many times before. It is wonderful to have the support of local businesses and the local wildlife rescue people in Cooktown - it makes our work so much easier.

Just when we were starting to wonder how many more months we could keep our doors open, a very nice donation arrived from Mitch and Lisa which will add a few more months to our estimations! We are so grateful for kind people out there who value what we are doing. Lots of good karma coming to you Mitch and Lisa! And thank you to all the other donations that arrived in December. We need all of them to keep going!

This is the time of year when we start to see frogs with cancer. Please keep a lookout for any frog that has any lump(s) anywhere on the body. Use gloves or a plastic bag over your hand and place it into an ice cream container with airholes cut in the lid and bring indoors. Ring us to arrange transport. Some of these frogs might have parasites or abscesses which are treatable but, if they have cancer, we don't want them to remain in the wild.

We hope that you will think of the frogs at Christmas time. We really want to keep our rescue doors open but donations no longer cover the bills. Froggies would be very happy if we receive financial prezzies this year!

Many thanks to Endeavour Tools in Melbourne for renewing their sponsorship! Your support helps keep our animal rescue operation afloat.

Many bouquets to Henk at Umbrella IT for helping us out. Finances are tough at the moment so Henk covered our domain and SSL renewals for us!! Many, many thanks Henk!

We have to start selling off stuff to bring in some money. We have large glass tanks, a Reptile One enclosure, bottles of centrimide and chlorhexadine, a small walk-in aviary, bowls and trays of assorted sizes, bandages, etc. Some things are free to wildlife carers. Please let us know what supplies you use so we can share instead of throwing away.

Tuskers Cafe in South Mission Beach loves their local community groups! They held a raffle and dozens of local groups' names were put in the hat. We won a second prize drawing of $500. which is critically important to our existence at this time when so few donations are coming in. THANK YOU Tuskers!