Meet Our Team

**We have some new Boongarry team members! Profile updates in progress**

Boongarry’s Background

Boongarry Veterinary Services was first established by Annabelle Olsson in 1993 to provide a dedicated veterinary surgery for the newly formed FNQ Wildlife Rescue Association (of which Annabelle was a co-founder), and for local zoos, wildlife parks and government agencies managing endangered species. It has continued these consultancies ever since.

From 2001 to 2010, Boongarry traded as Airport Vet Surgery, a small animal and wildlife veterinary practice on the outskirts of the Cairns CBD. While quickly becoming one of the busiest general practices in the region, it also treated,  pro bono, around 4000 wildlife cases per year.

Today, we aim to provide a high quality standard of service and advice for our clients. Each member of our team has been selected for their particularly unique skill set and experience in their various fields of interest and expertise.

Annabelle Olsson - Director and Principal Veterinarian

PhD, BVSc, MSc, MANZCVSc (Avian Health; Wildlife Medicine), Cert IV Captive Animal Management, Cert IV Animal Control and Regulation, Cert IV Workplace training and Assessment

Annabelle has always had a passion (many say obsession) with all creatures great and small. She began caring for wildlife as a child growing up on the northern outskirts of Sydney. Veterinary Science was a natural progression. She has worked in rural and suburban practice, but found her perfect balance in far north Queensland in the late 80s.

She has advanced training and experience in avian, reptile and wildlife medicine, having been admitted to the Australian and New Zealand College of Veterinary Scientists by rigorous examination in two chapters, Avian Health and Wildlife Medicine & Husbandry, and having a high professional case load of pet birds, reptiles and other unusual or exotic pets.

Annabelle is regularly consulted on forensic medicine and provides expert evidence on a variety of matters. She undertakes national and international consultancies including crocodile farms and zoos, as well as established conservation projects. Some of these include crocodile monitoring on Cape York and cassowary ecology in the Wet Tropics (with QPWS), macaque management and control for the Invasive Species Network in Micronesia, tiger conservation programmes in Thailand, cassowary monitoring in West Papua, and lecturing on Wildlife Medicine and Conservation Biology in Galapagos.

Annabelle has a strong research focus. Her Masters (in tropical ecology and veterinary science) produced original research on aging data and health parameters in free-living spectacled flying foxes, and her PhD on anaesthesia in estuarine crocodiles has had international impact on crocodile welfare and management. She has been published in textbooks and peer reviewed journals, and regularly presents at clinical and research focussed conferences around the world. She also trained in Guam with the Durrell Institute on island species-led conservation initiatives.

Annabelle has assisted in setting up and managing indigenous animal health programmes in many Cape York communities, and is involved in training and mentoring of animal management officers. As well as the privilege of assisting remote communities to develop self-sustaining animal health initiatives, she has the bonus of observing such amazing wildlife as palm cockatoos, 5 metre crocodiles, marine turtles and countless other species in their natural habitat while working in what she describes as the most beautiful consulting room in the world!

Annabelle still finds time to enjoy the wonderful FNQ lifestyle, spending quality time with her family and animals, and at every opportunity disappears with the kids, dogs and horses to locations all over the region.

Jessica McCutchan - Associate Veterinarian

Sarah Panigas - Veterinarian (Intern)

Alexandra Digweed - Practice Manager and Veterinary Nurse 

Alexandra was born and raised in FNQ with an embedded passion for native wildlife, particularly birds. She has been involved in wildlife rehabilitation almost since she could walk, and has successfully reared and released innumerable species and individuals over the years.

Alexandra has a particular interest in wildlife rehabilitation (techniques and implementation/practice), and successfully reared cassowary chicks under a “father” bird she made from a wire planter frame, hessian planter box liners, some blue polypipe and a red glove for wattles. The chicks were subsequently released to the wild with radio trackers attached, and monitoring data indicated successful integration into their wild environment.

After working as a zookeeper at a local wildlife park for a number of years, Alexandra left to formalise her knowledge and interest in conservation, completing Cert III and IV in Conservation and Land Management studies. She then travelled to Jersey in the Channel Islands and completed the Endangered Species Recovery course with the Durrell Conservation Acadamy.

Tiffany Hungerford - Veterinary Nurse

  Tiffany has always had an interest in native wildlife. This interest become especially apparent when her family started rescuing and caring for native wildlife when she was 11 years old. She had a particular passion for macropods and has successfully raised and released many agile wallabies and other species including swamp wallabies, eastern grey kangaroos, common wallaroos, antilopine wallaroos and red-legged pademelons. Tiffany has also successfully reared and rehabilitated other mammals including; brush-tailed possums, striped possums, bandicoots, melomys, sugar gliders and northern quolls.

As a teenager Tiffany began work at a local wildlife park while finishing her secordary schooling, before commencing full time employment as a wildlife keeper at another park. Tiffany specialised in the care of captive mammals, in particular the koalas, gaining a lot of knowledge about their breeding cycles and also experiencing the rare opportunity of hand-raising a koala joey. Her animal handling and captive management experience also includes various species of birds and reptiles.

Late 2011 saw the arrival of Tiffanys' son. While staying at home caring for her son Tiffany decided it would be a good opportunity to further her studies, completing a Certificate III in Animal Studies (Veterinary Nursing).

During her spare time, Tiffany enjoys spending time with her son taking him to the local wildlife parks, beaches and other activities around Cairns.

Lucy Weeks - Veterinary Nurse