The first thing I noticed about Dundee’s Wildlife Park was that it was beside a pub called Dundee’s Hotel, and that was next to Dundee’s Diner. In actuality, much of the park is not next to, but right behind the pub and diner. Indeed, there is a glass fronted aviary with parrots in the back of the pub. The Dundee complex is in Murray Bridge in South Australia. I’d never heard of it and assumed the wildlife and exhibits would be typical of a small fauna park, and for the first 15 or 20 minutes it seemed that way. http://www.zoochat.com/1279/entrance-138761/ http://www.zoochat.com/1279/map-138796/ http://www.zoochat.com/1279/warning-sign-138758/ The main entrance building, as well as ticket sales and a gift shop, includes a large sit-down area that looks like it could be used for school groups, meetings or birthday parties. Right beside this area, under the same roof, is a large crocodile pool for their Saltie, ‘Heartburn.’ A smaller enclosure next to it has a Freshwater Croc and some Short-neck Turtles. And in a corner, in a circular colourbond tank, is a juvenile saltie. The tank has a wire roof, not to keep the croc in but to keep things out. It doesn’t look like much from the outside, but it is certainly an adequate enclosure for the animal inside. The whole building has a temperature and humidity higher than the outside environment. http://www.zoochat.com/1279/saltwater-crocodile-pool-exterior-138714/ http://www.zoochat.com/1279/saltwater-crocodile-pool-138713/ http://www.zoochat.com/1279/saltwater-crocodile-quot-heartburn-quot-138759/ http://www.zoochat.com/1279/heartburn-saltie-138795/ http://www.zoochat.com/1279/signage-138760/ http://www.zoochat.com/1279/freshwater-crocodile-138762/ http://www.zoochat.com/1279/juvenile-saltwater-crocodile-tank-exterior-138712/ http://www.zoochat.com/1279/juvenile-saltwater-crocodile-tank-interior-138711/ http://www.zoochat.com/1279/juvenile-saltwater-crocodile-138710/ This was not quite what I expected, but as most small parks ensure the entrance and gift shop (where the money gets spent) is modern, I figured they spent a bit extra to make the whole building good, so they could publicise the crocs with advertising for parties, meetings etc. I later discovered this was wrong – the building used to be a Butterfly House and when it was taken over some years ago, they moved the crocs in. Wandering outside I encountered a small prefabricated aviary with canaries and diamond doves. Following the path I came to a large sloping paddock (a few acres in size) with some enclosures round the edges, a large tin shed sand a duckpond. Wandering up the path I passed free-ranging donkeys, alpacas, Red Kangaroos, Western Grey Roos, Cape Barren Geese and Black Swans. http://www.zoochat.com/1279/aviary-canaries-diamond-doves-138715/ http://www.zoochat.com/1279/duck-pond-138717/ http://www.zoochat.com/1279/free-ranging-donkey-alpacas-138720/ http://www.zoochat.com/1279/western-grey-kangaroo-138763/ http://www.zoochat.com/1279/red-kangaroo-female-138718/ http://www.zoochat.com/1279/signage-138719/ http://www.zoochat.com/1279/free-ranging-cape-barren-goose-138764/ At the top of the paddock was an emu enclosure, fairly standard. Next to it was a yard with an ostrich and Water Buffalo. Not an impressive yard, but nothing I haven’t seen in other fauna parks. Then I looked at the buffalo’s hooves... http://www.zoochat.com/1279/emu-emclosure-138721/ http://www.zoochat.com/1279/ostrich-water-buffalo-enclosure-138723/ http://www.zoochat.com/1279/water-buffalo-138724/ While I was walking around kangaroos and alpacas kept coming over to me to see if I had any food (the entrance sells bags of animal food for a few dollars), something I didn’t have. A black swan that was on the path had all its neck feathers puffed up, an indication it wasn’t happy about my presence. It was on the path in front of me, so I regarded it for a few moments before walking past it, keeping as much distance as I could so as not to unnerve it – I was unsure if it felt threatened or was just aggressive. I got past it OK, and a couple of metres further along (when I was past the threatening point and it should be calming down) I turned my back on it. Immediately I heard the shuffle of webbed feet on gravel and turned around to find it about to attack the backs of my legs. It stopped as I turned and hissed at me. I stood my ground for a few moments, and then backed away from it. No problems after that – well, not for me. Some minutes later a young European couple were seen running from the black terror. http://www.zoochat.com/1279/aggressive-black-swan-138722/ The kangaroo refuges and other yards were wooden post and wire affairs, but the echidna enclosure had a colourbond fence, simple but neat looking. It was a decent size for echidnas and, although depicting a semi-arid environment (this is Murray Bridge after all) with a sandy substrate, it was vegetated with grasses, shrubs and small eucalypts. There were several logs in the enclosure too and, try as I might, I couldn’t find an echidna. Obviously it had some good places to hide. http://www.zoochat.com/1279/echidna-enclosure-138716/ An extremely large walkthrough aviary complex was the next place to visit. Imagine two very long aviaries with domed roofs, side-by-side but separated by about 7 metres. Then add a roof and connecting walls between them to create a third aviary (which was in turn split in half with a dividing wall to make a complex of four individual units). A pathway led you through the different enclosures. http://www.zoochat.com/1279/exterior-arid-walkthrough-aviary-138733/ The first aviary ran the length of the complex, along one side of it. In the photos I have uploaded I refer to it as the Arid Walkthrough, because the environment looks like an arid part of Australia. There were several different species of parrots including Princess, Regent, Superb, King, Red-wing, Cockatiel and Ring-neck. There were also Silver Pheasants and Wood Ducks. The parrots were tame and so when the European couple came in with their bag of food the parrots came down for a feed. http://www.zoochat.com/1279/interior-arid-walkthrough-aviary-138732/ http://www.zoochat.com/1279/interior-arid-walkthrough-aviary-138725/ http://www.zoochat.com/1279/cockatiel-138772/ http://www.zoochat.com/1279/princess-parrot-138765/ http://www.zoochat.com/1279/superb-parrot-138766/ http://www.zoochat.com/1279/king-parrot-138768/ http://www.zoochat.com/1279/regent-parrot-138776/ http://www.zoochat.com/1279/redwing-parrot-female-138769/ http://www.zoochat.com/1279/ringneck-parrot-138770/ http://www.zoochat.com/1279/blue-ringneck-parrot-138771/ http://www.zoochat.com/1279/australian-wood-duck-138777/ http://www.zoochat.com/1279/silver-pheasants-138726/ http://www.zoochat.com/1279/silver-pheasant-138773/ http://www.zoochat.com/1279/feeding-parrots-arid-walkthrough-aviary-138799/ Walking through a door into the middle of the complex leads to an aviary with Koalas. The pathway here is fenced, so you can’t actually get to within touching distance of the koalas. However, I understand they do have Koala holding sessions during the day. The second middle cage was being renovated and housed nothing. http://www.zoochat.com/1279/koalas-yard-138727/ http://www.zoochat.com/1279/another-koala-yard-138728/ http://www.zoochat.com/1279/koala-138774/ The last aviary was a bit of a disappointment. Like the Arid aviary, this one ran the length of the complex. Unlike the Arid aviary, this one was thickly vegetated with shrubs and trees – Hakea, Melaleuca, Callistemon, Casuarina and Eucalypts. The disappointment was with the occupants – well-over 100 Barbary Doves (and the odd crested pigeon and feral pigeon). My personal view is that it is a waste to have it populated with Barbary Doves, when it would be IDEAL for a mixed finch/dove/softbill collection, with a few neophemas thrown in for colour. http://www.zoochat.com/1279/walkthrough-barbary-dove-aviary-138731/ http://www.zoochat.com/1279/barbary-doves-walkthrough-aviary-138729/ http://www.zoochat.com/1279/barbary-doves-walkthrough-aviary-138730/ http://www.zoochat.com/1279/barbary-doves-138775/ http://www.zoochat.com/1279/barbary-dove-walkthrough-138740/ Leaving the aviaries the last outdoor enclosure you encounter is a large wallaby walkthrough. The only sign I could see said “Parma Wallaby”, but I could see no parmas. There were, however, several friendly Swamp Wallabies (friendly until they realised I had no food) and a few Tammar Wallabies. Noticing the Parma label had the distribution map for Tammars, I wondered if they had confused ‘Parma’ with ‘Tammar’ (or their other name of ‘Dama’ Wallaby). The two species are similar, but these looked like Tammars to me. http://www.zoochat.com/1279/wallaby-walkthrough-138734/ http://www.zoochat.com/1279/swamp-wallabies-138778/ http://www.zoochat.com/1279/young-swamp-wallaby-138737/ http://www.zoochat.com/1279/swamp-wallaby-joey-138781/ http://www.zoochat.com/1279/swamp-wallaby-joey-138782/ http://www.zoochat.com/1279/swamp-wallaby-138735/ http://www.zoochat.com/1279/bad-label-138736/ http://www.zoochat.com/1279/tammar-wallaby-138779/ Walking out of the Wallaby yard there is another small yard with some small farm animals and cockatoos. After this you enter a series of buildings and enclosed aviaries behind the Diner and the Pub. The first building is the reptile room, with several tanks displaying the usual reptiles – Lace Monitors, Scrub Pythons, Carpet Snakes etc. Leaving this room you enter what looks like a covered walkway with a wire-fronted cage housing a Barking Owl (barking it’s nut off the entire time I was there) and large glass-fronted cage holding Blue-winged Kookaburras, Water Dragons and some chelonian (the label wasn't really telling me much). I’m not thrilled at having birds behind glass, but it’s possibly better for them as far as temperature and humidity goes. I did notice the only way into this enclosure was through a door on the right. Just inside the door is a fake rock wall with a large rock protruding so anyone entering the cage has to squeeze past this rock. Very badly designed. http://www.zoochat.com/1279/example-reptile-tanks-138741/ http://www.zoochat.com/1279/lace-monitor-enclosure-138738/ http://www.zoochat.com/1279/scrub-python-tank-138739/ http://www.zoochat.com/1279/barking-owl-138745/ http://www.zoochat.com/1279/blue-winged-kookaburra-tank-138742/ http://www.zoochat.com/1279/label-138744/ http://www.zoochat.com/1279/bad-positioning-stonework-138743/ From here you walk past a cage with Major Mitchell Cockatoos into a walkthrough aviary housing many cockatiels and budgies - all different colours and all prepared to sit on your hand and be fed – some ground doves and a cock Golden Pheasant. Not the best looking aviary, but it looks like it was built by a bird person and not some builder employed by an aviculturalist. And good for the birds. http://www.zoochat.com/1279/interior-cockatiel-budgie-aviary-138746/ http://www.zoochat.com/1279/cockatiels-budgies-138748/ http://www.zoochat.com/1279/budgies-138747/ http://www.zoochat.com/1279/cockatiel-log-138785/ http://www.zoochat.com/1279/new-guinea-ground-dove-138784/ http://www.zoochat.com/1279/golden-pheasant-138783/ The path leads to a separate smaller aviary (labelled as “Finches” on their map) which has Zebra Finches (various colour mutations), Diamond Doves, King Quail (blue), Turquoisine (lutino), Scarlet-chested and Bourke’s Parrots (rosa). http://www.zoochat.com/1279/interior-walkthrough-138749/ http://www.zoochat.com/1279/silver-blue-king-quail-males-138792/ http://www.zoochat.com/1279/scarlet-chested-parrot-138791/ http://www.zoochat.com/1279/white-zebra-finch-138790/ http://www.zoochat.com/1279/rosa-bourke-parrot-138789/ http://www.zoochat.com/1279/diamond-dove-nest-138787/ http://www.zoochat.com/1279/turquoisine-parrot-138786/ The path then leads back inside to a hothouse (or hotroom) where both temp and humidity were noticeably high, and the plants were very leafy and luxurious. A small viewing platform looked over a pond where another saltwater crocodile lived. http://www.zoochat.com/1279/interior-croc-hothouse-138750/ http://www.zoochat.com/1279/croc-hothouse-138751/ Walking out of the hotroom lead to the nocturnal ‘house’, which had an indoor and outdoor area. Indoors were some tanks with things like Spinifex Hopping Mice and Womas; the outdoor area housed wombats, Barn Owls, Fruit Bats, Possums, Thick-knees, Potoroos Bettongs and Kookaburras. The outdoor part has a fair amount of light (even on a cloudy day) because half the roof was wired, so everything was asleep apart from the kookaburras and thick-knees. The wombat enclosure was small and consisted of lots of dug-up dirt, a concrete pipe and shelter to sleep in. http://www.zoochat.com/1279/spinifex-hopping-mice-138754/ http://www.zoochat.com/1279/woma-tank-138753/ http://www.zoochat.com/1279/walkthrough-enclosure-kookaburras-possums-bettongs-potoroos-138756/ http://www.zoochat.com/1279/wombat-enclosure-138752/ http://www.zoochat.com/1279/common-wombat-138793/ http://www.zoochat.com/1279/brushtail-possum-138757/ http://www.zoochat.com/1279/barn-owls-138794/ Something I liked was, in order to cut down on the light, grape vines growing in the Barn Owl cage and completely covering the roof of the owls and Fruit bat cages. I've never seen enclosures with large bunches of grapes naturally hanging down (in the owl cage only, though). http://www.zoochat.com/1279/grapes-aviary-138755/ This was the last enclosure in the park, and as I made my way back to the entrance I realised I had spent almost two hours there, much longer than I imagined I would have. I also mused on the fact there were many decent (possibly expensive) exhibits and lots of animals. As I left I asked the girl at the ticket gate if the pub subsidised the park (it was midday and only myself and the European couple had come into the park that morning). Initially she answered “Yes” but then said, “Well, no” and clarified this by stating that the Park, Pub and Diner were all one business concern and they didn’t really look at the individual takings. The park brings in patrons, who then use the pub’s or diner’s facilities afterwards. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ For a small fauna park I’d never heard of, only 10kms from Monarto Zoo, I was pleasantly surprised as they had some decent enclosures, and lots of animals prepared to interact with the visitors. I’ve always been against public feeding of animals, probably because I’ve spent most of my time in mainstream zoos where feeding can cause lots of problems, and I’ve heard of some shocking things the public have fed. But in smaller fauna parks the selling of peanuts or biscuits (or whatever else) not only gives the visitors an interaction with the animal and therefore a better experience, but also provides enrichment for the animals as they get small feeds at different times of the day. The animals I saw feeding (parrots and macropods) were not aggressive to the public or to each other. I also noted later that almost every fauna park I visited allowed feeding, but only of “animal food”, which had to be purchased. I would be very keen to hear of anyone else’s knowledge of the history of this park, or their views of the park and it’s inhabitants. Hix
I went two years ago, wasn't bad for a smal park and definitely was good for tourists in the region. When I was there they were building a pheasantry just before the reptile house, did they complete that or was there no sign of it?
An incredibly detailed review, and whenever I read write-ups of small Aussie wildlife parks the establishments all seem to blend together. There are essentially the same bird, reptile and mammal species at most Aussie parks, although naturally those animals are extremely rare to see for Canadians like me!
Hix, were you able to go inside the other walk-through aviary which you could go through once you were inside the barbary dove aviary? From what I remember this aviary had guineafowl, I think a pair of pheasants and some smaller parrots.
I've never heard of this place either, but it sounds like I should have! @snowleopard: really, what do you expect? Wolverines or tamanduas or whatever simply aren't going to turn up in a small business wildlife park in Australia. It's hardly a fair criticism.
@CGSwans: who says I was being critical? I love Aussie wildlife and Australia in general! There is definitely a lack of variety at the major zoos, let alone small wildlife parks, and I was only pointing out the obvious.
snowleopard has got a point all the smaller parks all seem to have the same mix of native animals. And that really annoys me as we have got a fantastic collection of marsupials in australia, and alot of them are not in these parks when they should be .
Yeah, there was a few pheasant cages along one wall of the farmyard area, just before the reptile house. I didn't spend any time there because I'm not interested in domestics, and the more time I spent at Dundee's meant the less time I would have at Monarto. I know what you mean. When I first went to the USA, the zookeepers would proudly show me a grassy yard with a couple of kangaroos and an emu, and wonder why I was excited by the wild squirrels! The barbary dove aviary was just one long aviary, and the path led outside through an airlock. No ther aviaries there. Think I saw some free-ranging guineafowl, though. Yes, it's a little disappointing at times. But most of those animals are common and easy to come by, and easy to look after (and enclosures are not overly expensive to construct), which is why the fauna parks have them. These days it's usually the display of these animals that I find interesting, although many of those are carbon copies of what other parks are doing. Having said that, I was VERY impressed by Cleland. Hix
Thanks for the review Hix. As I mentioned in the photo gallery request thread, I'll have to grill my father as to why he hasn't told me about this place which is less than 5km from where they live.
There's not really much on the internet. It closed in July 2011. In February 2011 there had been a large fire at the hotel which spread to the zoo and killed various birds and reptiles (No Cookies | The Advertiser), so the closure may have been connected to that.
