Day 61 Brisbane (Australia Zoo)

Australia Zoo has been a scheduled stop on our trip since the beginning of planning.  As much so as the Bungle Bungle, and Theme Parks.  A day which was anticipated to be as much for Lisa and myself as it was for the kids, and it truly did not disappoint.

It was after 0900 when we left the park for the short drive North to the zoo.  We must be staying in a good spot as the traffic looked pretty hectic heading into town, but we had a great run out.  On arrival, we were approached by a park attendant that offered to chauffeur us around in a golf cart all day for the special price of $400.00.  'Cos a family with 3 kids can afford that. 




Inside the gate, we were treated to some tortoises being fed as we sauntered aimlessly into the zoo.  There were all sorts of activities for the kids to do including digging in sand for dinosaur bones and uncovering fossils on a rock wall.

The kids got their photo taken on this replica of a 6m crocodile.  These size reptiles are rare today, but conservation is helping some of these animals grow to size.  Brutus and Big Scotty were both 5.5m crocodiles to give a gauge of how big they would have looked out of the water.  (See Day 27 Darwin)


Australia Zoo would have to be one of, if not the best zoo I have ever seen.  All of the enclosures are huge, and have natural or near natural habitat for the exhibits.  From the Aldabran Land Tortoise feeding, we headed into the park past the Wombat exhibit, and the Birds of Prey exhibit that had a Wedge Tail Eagle flying laps of its enclosure. 
  
We were making our way towards the Elephant feeding, when toilet necessities hit Rowan, so I took him on through the Rain forest Aviary which Lisa tells me was spectacular  (How cool is the colour of this bird?  METAL) through the Red Kangaroo enclosure and past the sleepy Koalas in their scribbly gum trees to the loo at a brisk pace just shy of a run...Hooray!

I should be thankful though that disaster was averted, and we were able to continue the morning without wet pants.  As we back tracked to find everyone else, we were able to see the Koalas up close and personal.  All of the kids got a chance to give them a pat.

We made it to the Elephant enclosure whilst the feeding was underway, so we were all able to pass a piece of fruit to the hungry little fellas.

From the elephant feeding we made our way through the tiger exhibit where they house two Bengal Tigers.  This exhibit is beautifully crafted to allow viewing for a majority of the time.  There is also a large pool for the tigers to swim in which also is fronted by the glass.  We lingered here for quite a while before heading across to the Africa exhibit. 

It was Steve Irwin's dream to have a big African animal exhibit at his zoo, and he excelled in his vision to get an open plain feel to the exhibit. 

There was a Southern White Rhinoceros, several Giraffe and some Zebra in the open plain, whilst on the other side was another breeding pair of Aldabran Land Tortoises.

We thought is a bit fitting that they had replicated pride rock for the exhibit (The Lion King - Disney)  Whilst we were there, there was a film crew putting footage together for a documentary or TV series so the giraffes were hungrily following the ute around making for some great photos.

There is also supposed to be a cheetah run, and Bindi's Boot camp, but I could not find the cheetahs and Bindi's Boot camp was closed for refurbishing.

Australia Zoo has long been renowned for its show at mid day, with Steve getting his crocs to perform their behaviours for throngs of fans.  They have erected the great Crocoseum which seats around 5000 people, and this was to be our next stop.

It was to be too big a walk for little legs though so we waited for the park shuttle to take us back.

We got our seats and were treated to a fantastic show of free flying birds (Macaws, Black Cockatoo, a Whistling Kite that was plucking meat out of the sky on the wing, a Jabiru that flew in just above our heads, Lorikeets, and a huge Andean Condor that flew in on a 3 meter wingspan.)  The flight show was quite amazing and very well presented. 

The centrepiece of the show was always Steve's beloved crocs though, and they brought out Digger, a 4m Salty and hand fed him in and out of the water.  Not quite as impressive as the jumping croc tour, but very cool all the same.

After lunch we got some roo food for the kids and headed over to the Kangaroo and Wallaby enclosure.  On the way there was an exhibit of Echidna which we stopped and watched for some time.  These little guys didn't stop moving and made taking a photo quite challenging.

Our kids have fed the kangaroos at Whiteman Park previously, so it wasn't as exciting for them as it could have been but Emma and Rowan ran around from Roo to Wallaby shovelling food into their faces.  At least they didn't seem to mind too much.

The last show of the day that we wanted to catch was the Tiger Experience, so it was back to the Tiger enclosure in the hope that we could get a seat.  The amphitheatre was already packed, so I sat on the steps with Rowan, Emma and Ashley and left Lisa at the windows with the camera.

With one handler for each of the Sumatran Tigers, we were able to watch and experience some of the natural behaviours of these big cats, as well as some of the trained behaviours to assist with the maintenance and vetting of the animals.

During the display, they had the big male climb a tree to get his treat.  He weighs over 130kg, and scaled up and down the pole with ease. 

The female who only weighs in at 80kg, was enticed to leap for a treat over the log.  They also showed us the fight stance on the hind legs, and some other natural postures which were awesome to see.  Pity that there are less than 5000 left in the wild.

It is hard not to be moved by the sight of these amazing big cats.


There weren't many more things for us to get around to so we got moving to the Red Panda exhibit.  There were two of these guys in the display, and they were both actively climbing around and pillaging the bamboo for its leaves.

From here we made our way back to the wetland birds.  We found a couple of these handsome guys in one of the ponds.  The Jabiru are also known as a Black Necked Stork, and are the only stork found in Australia.

Not only do they stand more than waist high to me, their beaks look like they are razor sharp, and are used for impaling fish before they "throw them back" to eat them.  I love the way the feathers shine and change colour from green to blue to purple depending on the light.

We could tell that it was getting late in the day as we passed back through the kangaroo enclosure.  When I look at this photo , I get the impression that this guy isn't really going to fit any more food in. 


I wish I was that relaxed.





Lisa and I had to help Steve with this croc.  Well...at least you know we were there as well...we don't feature in many of the photos as we are always on the other side of the camera.  Thanks Ashley for the great picture.

We started to head back towards the entry of the zoo, and came across a few more cool exhibits.  There were two enclosures with Tasmanian Devils, and they too were running around all over the place making photographs challenging in the failing light.

We also saw a Dingo, some Perentie and some Otters whilst making our way out.  All up there were only two animals that we didn't see, being the Cheetahs and the Kimodo Dragon which was too cold to come out and see us.  We braved the gift shop and finally got back to the car exhausted.

It was decided that again we were too stuffed to cook so we drove up to the Ettamoogah Pub for a beer and some dinner.  The pub was fantastic with some great displays and heaps of character.

The food was great, and we got back to the caravan well after dark. 

Thumbs up to Australia Zoo and the Irwins for their conservation efforts.  This is a must see attraction in Brisbane, probably more so than the theme parks.  Everyone had an awesome day.