Wildlife Recovery Support Rebate

The Wildlife Recovery Support Rebate provides authorised wildlife rehabilitators funding to care for wildlife impacted by emergency events, recognising their vital role in improving wildlife welfare across Victoria.

The program helps offset the costs of caring for sick, injured, or orphaned wildlife resulting from the emergency events commencing 7 January 2026.

Eligibility

To be eligible for the 2026 Wildlife Recovery Support Rebate, applicants must meet all the following requirements:

• hold current authorisation as a wildlife shelter operator or foster carer under section 28A of the Wildlife Act 1975 or be a registered veterinary practitioner
• be actively engaged in the care and rehabilitation of injured, sick, or orphaned wildlife, and maintain an up-to-date shelter record in accordance with authorisation conditions
• have or continue to provide care to wildlife impacted by declared emergency events commencing 7 January 2026
• have not previously submitted a rebate application to this fund
• provide written consent from the property owner if the applicant is renting the premises where wildlife rehabilitation activities are undertaken.

The following individuals cannot apply for funding:

• a person convicted of any offence under the Wildlife Act 1975, Wildlife Regulations 2024, Catchment and Land Protection Act 1994, Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act 1986 or similar interstate or federal legislation during the last 10 years
• any person who does not hold a valid wildlife shelter operator or foster carer authorisation under section 28A of the Wildlife Act 1975 or be a registered veterinary practitioner
• any person who is currently subject to investigation or is subject to a written direction or compliance notice from the Conservation Regulator.

Application process

Applications for a rebate must be submitted online using the Grants Online portal.

New application

To start a new application select out of the 2 streams below, or you can return to a draft application

Wildlife rehabilitators

Veterinarian practitioners

Supporting documents

Please submit the following documents with your application:

• a hand signed statutory declaration with invoices and receipts for eligible expenses and charges attached
• your latest animal record (between 7 January 2026 and date of application)
• evidence of ‘cost’ and ‘donation’ relating to veterinary clinic claims, for example receipts, paid invoices.

Download the Statuatory declaration (DOCX, 364.7 KB).

Supporting documents must be in an acceptable file type, such as Word, Excel, PDF, or JPEG. The maximum file size for each file is 10MB.

Guidelines

For full details, download the 2026 Wildlife Recovery Support Rebate program guidelines (DOCX, 687.9 KB).

Notification process

Successful and unsuccessful applicants will be notified via email after the eligibility assessment.

All decisions are final and are not subject to further review. Unsuccessful applicants can ask for feedback.

Funding information

A total of $150,000 is available under the 2026 Wildlife Recovery Support Rebate program.

Eligible applicants may apply for reimbursement of approved expenses, up to a maximum of $2,000 per applicant. Applicants are limited to a single application for reimbursement through this rebate program.

Eligible applications will be assessed on a rolling basis until the total allocated funding of $150,000 has been fully expended. Applications for rebates will close at 5 pm on 15 June 2026.

Eligible for reimbursement

The following expenditure are eligible for reimbursement:

• veterinary fees and supplies such as diagnostics and treatment, x-ray, blood and medication
• milk formula for juvenile and animal feed (fresh, dried or frozen)
• fuel cost for travelling to and from veterinary clinic or for animal rescue/release (limit to $100 per application)
• cleaning or disinfecting products
• consumables such as cropping needles for feeding or bottle teats
• personal protective equipment (gloves, eye/face protection).

No reimbursement

The Wildlife Recovery Support Rebate program will not support:

• services delivered outside of Victoria
• multiple claims for the same animals, either through the Wildlife Rehabilitator Grants or transfer of the same animal between shelters/carers
• payment of staff wages or traineeships
• recurrent operating costs (such as like rental fees, utility bills, insurance, council rates)
• upgrades or modifications of shelter facilities.

For further information on all other ineligible items, please refer to item 6 and appendix B of the 2025-26 Wildlife Rehabilitators grant program.

Funding per animal

Applicants may apply for rebate claims for eligible expenses up to:

Rebates will be capped at $2,000 per applicant.

As this is a rebate, all costs must be incurred before applying. An applicant is limited to a single application for reimbursement through this rebate program.

Additional information

If you require assistance submitting your application online, email grantsinfo@deeca.vic.gov.au

If you have documents to submit that cannot be attached to your online application you can email them to enviro.grants@deeca.vic.gov.au, quoting your application number. Attach all documents to one email, zipping the files if required.

For questions specific to the Wildlife Recovery Support Rebate program, please email enviro.grants@deeca.vic.gov.au or contact DEECA Customer Contact Centre on 136 186.

Note: No hard copy applications will be accepted. Late and incomplete applications will not be considered