Our Tasmanian team have recently managed free of charge the construction of a new enclosure for the endangered Tasmanian Devil, encouraging sub contractors to donate materials and time to this project. The Tasmanian Devil has come under threat from a deadly facial tumour, and this development is important in the preservation efforts.

In 2009 Hansen Yuncken was a major sponsor for the Rotary Health Bike Ride, a ride around the country to raise awareness and money for fitness and health. The ride commenced in March 2009 and concluded in Melbourne after 17,803 gruelling kilometres. Many hundreds of riders took part in the 9 stages, and 4 hardy souls completed the entire distance.

The Lyell McEwin Hospital site team forged a community/business partnership with the hospital regional Volunteers Association to manage, promote and seek in-kind contributions and cash donations for the ‘Visitor Garden’ project.  A run down and uninviting space which was generally unused, has been transformed  to a garden which offers visitors and patients of the hospital a relaxing place in which to sit and make the hospital experience a more pleasant one. The project design work started in early 2008 and the project was completed in October 2009. Hansen Yuncken also raised 75% or $80,988 of the $108,071 required to complete the garden. Hansen Yuncken was presented with the “Ann Taylor Award for Outstanding Contribution, which is awarded each year to an individual or group who have made an outstanding contribution to the work of the Volunteer Association during the preceding 12-month period, and from which there will be an ongoing legacy.

Hansen Yuncken in a joint initiative with Rotary and the NSW Department of Education & Training has established program to reuse surplus furniture from the Building the Education & Training Program.  The initiative facilitates all aspects of transport of furniture to developing countries and creates an educational goodwill program for school communities.  It also provides government with a more socially and environmentally acceptable solution to disposal by landfill as was envisaged under the contract.

In association with the Australian Rotary Health Fund, Hansen Yuncken has established an annual scholarship worth $25,000 to provide assistance to recipients undertaking medical research. As a recipient of this scholarship, Victoria Leitch of the Child Health Research Institute in SA is conducting research into a debilitating bone condition called Craniosynostosis.