JEANNET Kessels is the founder and director of Greater Springfield Veterinary clinic and is a mother to four children.
Last week, Dr Kessels gave a moving address to the assembled rally at the Opossum Creek dog park who were there to voice opposition to Stockland’s plans to flatten Woogaroo Forest at west Springfield for 1,800 homes.
“If the council allows this bushland to be wiped out, all the animals there will perish,” Dr Kessels said.
“These animals won’t magically find another place to live; most will die when the work starts, and the others will run away and get hit by cars.
“I have treated hundreds of koalas and kangaroos hit by vehicles during my career.
“It terrifies me that my grandchildren will have no idea of the fascinating wildlife I knew as a child.”
Dr Kessels said she worried about “generational amnesia”.
“If people never know what they had, they will not know what they have lost,” she said.
The vet has spent the past 32 years looking after pets at her veterinary practice which now has a staff of 60.
“Every time I euthanised a pet, I would cry with the owner; that’s more than 30 years of tears,” she said.
“I feel the same about all the animals in the forest who will have to flee in terror.
“Cutting down huge swathes of trees is not the answer for human happiness.
“Ipswich must move forward in its thinking and protect what little remains.
“Woogaroo Forest wasn’t called the Garden of Eden for nothing by the Victorians in the 1800s.
“The love of our children, poetry, art, beautiful music, quiet and solitude – these are the priceless things.
“And animals and nature are priceless, too, they are irreplaceable.
“Somehow along the way we’ve been tricked into thinking it’s only the material things we need.”
Ipswich has just 20 percent or remnant bushland remaining, the lowest proportion of any southeast Queensland council.
With a motto of “excellence with heart”, Dr Kessels has raised more than $650,000 for charity and said she was comforted that the community had united on an important issue.
“It is about protecting something that they deeply care about that resonates with their soul,” Dr Kessels said.
“The overwhelming message is, let’s not get depressed, let’s get active.
“We must act on the things we care about, but that doesn’t mean jumping up and down and causing trouble.
“It means being smart, persuasive and inspiring.”
Dr Kessels said wild places were great for good mental health.
“We are not meant to be stuck inside, we are meant to be outside,” she said.
“We’re meant to be connected with nature, and if we lose that connection, then all is lost; animals have the right to exist as well, and that’s been forgotten.”