Sunbear12's Australian Adventure

As noted at the start of my Cairns Aquarium walkthrough during the end of November I set off on a road trip going from the bottom of Australia in Lyndoch, South Australia up to Cairns, Queensland at the top. In the end I covered 6,000km (3,728miles) by car as well as taking 2 flights over the course of 15 days.

The main aim of the trip was to attend a workshop on keeping and breeding invertebrates in Kuranda a town roughly 30 mins drive north from Cairns. I have a large collection of invertebrates which I use in my business taking them to schools and events to educate children. The workshop was run by the couple who supply most of my invertebrates and a keeper from Melbourne Zoo.

My secondary aim was to visit as many zoos as I could along the way.

This is my third trip of the year with the other 2 being visits to Melbourne which lasted 2 days and 3 days respectively. On these trips I toured Melbourne Zoo, Melbourne Museum and Melbourne Aquarium twice along with Halls Gap Zoo, Ballarat Wildlife Park, Big Koala Wildlife Park and Moonlit Sanctuary once.

At the end of this trip I had visited a total of 36 collections across 5 states of Australia.

In the end I visited 21 animal based attractions. Below is a rough outline of how the trip went.

Day 1 – Leave Adelaide, drive to Mildura
Day 2 – Drive from Mildura to Dubbo. Visit Western Plains Zoo
Day 3 – Drive from Dubbo to Darling Downs Zoo. Drive to Toowoomba.
Day 4 – Drive from Toowoomba to Brisbane. No zoos visited.
Day 5 – Flight from Brisbane to Cairns. Visit Cairns Aquarium and Wildlife Dome. Workshop Day 1.
Day 6 – Workshop day 2. Visit to Kuranda Koala Gardens.
Day 7 – Workshop day 3. Visits to Kuranda Bird World, Australian butterfly sanctuary and Australian venom zoo.
Day 8 – Fly back to Brisbane.
Day 9 – Visit Sea Life Mooloolaba and Australia Zoo.
Day 10 – Visit Pet Porpoise Pool, Coffs Harbour Butterfly House and Billabong Zoo and Koala Park.
Day 11 – Visit Blackbutt Reserve, Hunter Valley Zoo and Australian Reptile Park.
Day 12 – Visit Symbio Zoo, Canberra Reptile Zoo and Canberra Aviary.
Day 13 – Rest Day
Day 14 – National Zoo and Aquarium
Day 15 – Altina Wildlife Park and drive home.

I was a bit unsure of doing full trip reports but due to the positive response to my Cairns Aquarium walk through I have decided to do reviews of all the attractions on this thread. I will be aiming to write them at a rate of one per day with the first half already written and just needing to be posted.

I would love any feedback to help keep these interesting and I can then use that to edit what’s been written for the next couple of days.

Also, as I went I was collecting maps at several of the zoos. I have 4 map pack’s with maps from Australia Zoo, Western Plains Zoo, Wildlife Habitat Port Douglas, Blackbutt Reserve, Billabong Zoo, Cairns Wildlife Dome, Hartley’s Crocodile Adventure’s and Darling Downs Zoo included. I would be more than happy to trade these with any interested zoochatters. Just shoot me a pm to arrange.

Below is day 1 which does not require its own section. I promise it will get more interesting when I get to the zoos.

Day 1 – Lyndoch to Mildura (5 hours, 339km)

Due to having a booking for my wildlife presentations business in the morning I was not able to set off on my journey till around 1pm. The original plan was to drive to Griffith a drive of roughly 8 ½ hours. In the end I fell short and by the time I reached Mildura around 6pm I was already tired so chose to stop there.

 

Day 2 Mildura to Dubbo (8 hours, 705km)

Day 2 began at 4am. I set off from Mildura heading for Dubbo. The drive was across an area of Australia known as the Hay plain. This is notorious as one of the most boring areas of Australia. Between each town is roughly 100-150km of driving with nothing along the way. This made for an interesting time. Entertainment was provided by my Spotify play lists.

By midday I had arrived at Parkes. This is a town roughly 2 hours out of Dubbo where I stopped for lunch. I then drove slightly out of town to the Parkes radio telescope. This is the telescope which received the pictures back from the first moon landing.

Another 2 hours driving saw me arrive in Dubbo around 2pm. Western Plains Zoo is easy to find off the main highway and I was soon through the gate. Unfortunately, it is mildly confusing to work out how to enter the zoo. I parked and went to the safari village where I was able to get my pass to get in. After getting my ticket, I went out and had a quick look at the monkey islands. These are a standard primate island with a range of mature trees connected by ropes and a mesh cage for housing the monkey’s when needed. On my visit one was occupied by spider monkey’s while the other was unoccupied.

After this I got back in my car and drove to the entrance to the zoo driving route. Once through the gate I drove only a short distance before parking and getting out again. This is my one complaint with Western Plains Zoo. It seems before entering that the best way to explore is by car. It becomes quite annoying to need to get in and out continuously and I feel you waste quite a lot of time doing this. In the end I felt it would have been easier to just walk around like you would at any other zoo.

The zoo opens with a brilliant African wild dog habitat. This is surrounded by a water moat and featured a large pack of African wild dogs. These were very entertaining to watch with lots of action including a small scuffle. Across from here is a similar island to the spider monkey’s in the same lake which houses a group of black and white ruffed lemurs.

Crossing back to the other side of the road I came across the meerkat exhibit. I was quite impressed by this habitat. While the exhibit itself is standard around it is what I dubbed a ‘meerkat garden.’ In my opinion it is one of the better way’s of doing a play space with tunnels and a sand pit with meerkat signs encouraging children to play like they are a meerkat.

Meerkat Exhibit by Sunbear12 posted 23 Dec 2017 at 11:08 AM

The exhibit itself features rather high concrete walls with some glass panels to allow viewing. Shade is provided for both visitors and meerkats by some large thatch umbrellas set in the front wall. The enclosure fit out is based around two large tree stumps which provide good sentry points and a range of rock piles. Also, viewable to the side is a secondary exhibit which was not particularly furnished on my visit.

Up the path from here is the black rhino area. These are simple yards with steel post fencing around the edges and a couple of trees in the middle. There are 2 yards on either side of a central viewing area. Going back past the meerkats and following the path along you come to the main black rhino habitat. This held a mother and calf on my visit. The spacious yard featured many mature trees fenced off. At the front it featured a ha-ha barrier with a low fence on the visitor side.

Next is the zebra exhibit. This was one of my favourite experiences in a zoo. There is no barrier at the top of the ditch for the ha-ha barrier. The only fence was an electric fence in the bottom of the ditch. As you walk up the hill you cannot tell there is a ditch there. As a result, as I walked up, and the group of zebras were walking towards me it gave the impression that there was no fences and they were just going to come straight up to me. Next to the zebra exhibit is the giraffe habitat. This has a similar design to the zebra exhibit and from the map it would seem the zebra and giraffe are normally mixed. 2 calves were present in the giraffe herd and this may have been why they were separated.

Giraffe Exhibit by Sunbear12 posted 23 Dec 2017 at 11:08 AM

From here I walked back to the car at the wild dog’s habitat and drove around to the car park near the elephants. From here I set off on foot to explore the rest of the zoo.

The first elephant habitat was home to the 2 boy’s Luk Chai and Parthi Hahn on my visit. Having now seen most of Australia’s elephant habitat’s the complex at Western Plains Zoo is probably my favourite. The yards are simple with cable fencing set slightly in from a ditch with concrete walls. Inside the habitats are spacious pools and a range of logs. The second habitat next door was empty on my visit with a sign stating the females and young were being kept inside the barn that day.

Following the path from here you come to the main savannah habitat. Viewing is possible from ground level at the edge of the habitat and a viewing platform. I found this exhibit fairly underwhelming with difficulty seeing all the way to the back and a range of obstructions that meant the only species I saw were the giraffes. The map also lists rhino, ostrich, blackbuck and eland.

Next to here is the cheetah exhibit. This is surrounded the whole way around by a water moat. The exhibit is grassed with many mature trees and some mounds with caves built in to them. Viewing is possible around 2/3 of the habitat. Following the path, I passed a similar habitat to the one for black rhinos at the start of the circuit. This time it housed a southern white rhino.

Crossing the road, I came to the common hippopotamus exhibit. The hippo complex is composed of three habitats. One is mostly water with an island in the middle. The second is mainly land with a small pond and the third was almost entirely land. These provided plenty of space for the hippos and it was great to see a grazing area provided.

Hippo Enclosure by Sunbear12 posted 23 Dec 2017 at 11:17 AM

Next was a pair of islands in one lake with white handed gibbons and ring-tailed lemurs these were like those at the start of the circuit. Another lake housed a series of three interconnected islands for siamangs.

A short walk away was the Asian wetlands complex with greater one horned rhino and short clawed otters. I only saw one of the two habitats for the rhino. This did seem slightly small compared to the other’s, but it had a massive pool. The otter enclosure was the largest I have seen. It was impressive with a large grassy land area which featured a stream running through it. At the end of the stream a large water area featured under water viewing.

Following this was a pair of Sumatran tiger enclosures. Both featured large water moats and many mature trees making for a pleasant habitat.

Sumatran Tiger Exhibit by Sunbear12 posted 23 Dec 2017 at 11:20 AM

Finishing off this walk around area at the centre of the zoo is the bongo habitat. This featured a nice stand of trees with a couple of viewing areas.

From here I returned to my car. It was around this time that I discovered one odd thing about Western Plains Zoo. Unlike most zoos in Australia which close at 5pm Western Plains Zoo close’s at 4pm. I had simply assumed it would close at 5pm so as a result the last of the zoo was a bit rushed.

I drove past the paddock enclosures for blackbuck, water buffalo, banteng, camel, barbary sheep and wild horse. These are all a similar design with a ditch at the front and a small stand off fence at the front with chain mesh fencing round the back. In doing this I did miss the lion habitat.

I made a stop at the Persian onager habitat to see the last of these animals in Australia. A herd of 4 was visible at the back of the enclosure in the distance. I then moved on to the dingo enclosure which featured a small moat but was otherwise like the others.

I then skipped the Australian animal section which consists of kangaroos, emus, koalas, echidnas and quokkas according to the map.

My final stop was at the Galapagos tortoise enclosure. This consisted of 2 main yards with low wooden fences. Each featured a small pond and was nice and spacious. At the back of the habitat is a pair of tortoise nursery enclosures with the hatchlings from the breeding program visible. The last part of the display is an indoor viewing area with a sand floored area for cold days. Most of the adult tortoises were in here on my visit.

Galapagos Giant Tortoise Viewing Area by Sunbear12 posted 23 Dec 2017 at 11:20 AM

From here I drove back to the visitor centre where a visit to the gift shop and a last look at the spider monkey island brought my visit to the end.

All in all, I was highly impressed with Western Plains Zoo. None of the exhibits were bad in my opinion and the new exhibits were of an increasingly good quality. Two new exhibits were under construction on my visit. One is the wild herds walkthrough. I have not been able to find any information on this development and it was not evident what animals it would hold from the construction taking place.

The other new exhibit under construction is Lion Pride lands. This habitat looked highly impressive from the work which I saw on my visit. The enclosure is massive and features unimpeded viewing across a moat with many caves and rocks for the lions to make use of. The development will also feature a goat yard for interaction and a renovated wetlands area. I look forward to visiting again to see this finished.

This review was incredibly long mainly due to the nature of Western Plains with few defined areas and few exhibits with a similar design. Hopefully as I go one the reviews will get a bit shorter which will be helped by the rest of the zoos being smaller private zoos. Next up for a walkthrough is Darling Downs Zoo.

 

I think that your review of Taronga Westerns Plain Zoo is brilliant and much appreciated. I've written literally hundreds of zoo reviews over the years and yet I still greatly enjoy reading the work of other zoo enthusiasts. Is it at all possible to walk around the establishment in Dubbo (my preference) or is a vehicle a necessity? I posted a link to the zoo's map below and it marks out 5 km of trails and so in theory it seems that a visitor could possibly have a long day of walking if they were determined to take their time. Would that be feasible?

https://taronga.org.au/sites/tarongazoo/files/TWPZ_Map_Ed16v6_WEB.pdf

 

Thanks for the great feedback snowleopard.

It is possible to walk around Dubbo with a path the whole way around. In the end I walked most of this circuit from the 3 stops I made. It would probably only take around 3 hours for me to walk around.

The zoo also hire out bikes and electric carts which you can use to get around.

 

The problem some people have with walking is:

• it's time consuming to get around, as the exhibits are large, but there are also large areas of bush and no exhibits in some areas (especially if using the paths in the centre of the zoo).
• In summer it can get very hot making walking unpleasant
• if it rains there is very little shelter

From what I understand, the main savannah habitat next to the elephants was designed specifically for Zoofari Lodge which is located several hundred metres behind the Elephant exhibit. Guests at the lodge have a much better view of the enclosure. The public viewing area you were at always seemed to me to be more of an afterthought.

And for anyone doing a big year, there are lots of wild birds in the zoo grounds - eBird lists 153 species seen there, and I've seen 67 species. I've also seen wild kangaroos and echidnas there too.

A good review Sunbear12. I look forward to reading more of them.



Hix

 

My one and only visit to Dubbo was way back in 2009. It's such a shame that arguably Australia's best zoo for mammals (and inarguably so for 'large' mammals) is stuck out in the middle of nowhere. It's easy to forget how good it is.

 

Thanks for the feedback everyone.

@Hix I actually looked at the zoofari lodge and thought that the viewing would be much better of the savannah from there. I can also imagine that the viewing would be good from the new safari vehicle tour they are now running would allow good viewing. Unfortunately though that was closed when I arrived at the zoo.

@CGSSwans it is a shame it's in the middle of nowhere. I would of done a lot more zoos on this trip had I gone up the east coast up and back instead of going out to the middle of nowhere to fit Dubbo in.

I'll be putting up the next review later on tonight.

 

Day 3 (8 ½ hrs, 729km) Dubbo to Toowoomba

Another early start saw me depart Dubbo at 4am. The next 8 ½ hours was spent on the road driving from Dubbo to Toowoomba. Along the way the scenery changed from barren plains to forest then farmland. One small highlight was seeing a wild major Mitchell’s cockatoo. Also, interestingly on this drive I saw the only wild live macropod of my trip which was a swamp wallaby. Normally back home I see macropods on the road almost every day and I had expected to see them daily on this trip.

By 12.30pm I had arrived at Darling Downs Zoo. The entrance is small but nice with a selection of gifts, some reptile tanks and a small selection of food and drinks. I grabbed a couple of sausages for my lunch and went out to begin exploring the zoo. Generally, I go through each new zoo I visit twice. One lap is without my camera just looking at the enclosures and the second is with my camera taking photos of each enclosure as well as some of the animals.

Darling Downs Zoo is arranged as a circuit with enclosures on both sides of the path and then a side path taking you up to the newer African enclosures. I began by walking around ¾ of the circuit in a half hour to make my way back to the Afternoon talks for South American birds and monkeys. These were rather interesting, and the presenter did a very good job.

Following this I went back to the start to begin my walk around with the camera. The park is roughly splint in to Australian, Asian, South American and African zones. The first is Australia. This begins with a series of aviaries. These housed black cockatoos, galahs, corellas and sulphur crested cockatoos. Next to these a large grassy yard fitted out with a series of small ponds connected by a stream ending in a large pond that was home to an Australian pelican, plumed whistling ducks, Burdekin ducks and water whistling ducks.

Across from this habitat was the koala exhibit. This is one of the largest koala exhibits I have seen with many branches for them to sit in and a nice undercover area. This was surrounded by a corrugated iron fence. A pair of bush stone curlews and some tammar wallabies lived on the ground. I also spotted an aldabra giant tortoise in this yard. Viewing is from a small raised boardwalk.

Next door a similar yard was home to some common wombats. This featured a couple of hills and a tree. The dens were of an interesting design with breezeblock walls and an open top which was viewed through a mesh fence. Also housed in this yard were some cape barren geese.

Wombat Den Viewing by Sunbear12 posted 24 Dec 2017 at 9:02 AM

Next to this was the yard which houses some wallabies (I did not note the species) along with the greater rhea. Another yard across from this was home to some emus and red kangaroos.

Across from that yard is the water bird aviary. This is a good-sized aviary which is nice and tall. It features a range of nice sized trees and was home to black winged stilts, torres strait pigeons, white headed pigeons, Wonga pigeons, topknot pigeons, nankeen night herons, spur winged plovers, royal spoonbills, glossy ibis, purple swamphens and lady Amherst pheasant. These were the signed species and there may have been others.

Next is the Asian section. This begins with the siamang exhibit. This is a decent sized aviary style habitat with many branches and ropes from which they can swing. Next door another aviary has the zoo’s troop of rhesus macaques. Further along is the zoo’s tiger yard which is well planted.

Siamang Gibbon Exhibit by Sunbear12 posted 11 Dec 2017 at 9:05 AM

Running the length of these three habitats on the other side of the path is a yard for red deer, blackbuck and ostrich. Finishing off the Asian section a small aviary was home to some bleeding-heart pigeons.

From here a short walk through a space allotted for future developments takes you to the new African section which currently houses three species. One is the cheetah. Their complex features one large long yard with a shade shelter. At the end are the house and some small separation yards. Across from this habitat is a spacious giraffe yard. This is a nice size with a large barn at the back. Also sharing this yard are some addax. At the back in a smaller yard I could see some zebra which are marked on the map as being mixed with the giraffe and addax. At the back of the park is a yard for camels which has a small viewing area alongside the giraffe yard.

Coming back down to the other side of the park you pass the yard which houses the llamas and gunaco. The rest of the African section is located on the second side of the circuit. It begins with the meerkat habitat. This is well done with a spacious outdoor yard with a series of logs for them to climb. Next to this is a house with an indoor viewing section plus some more off display housing.

Meerkat Exhibit by Sunbear12 posted 11 Dec 2017 at 9:05 AM

Next to the meerkats are the 2 lion yards. These are nice with grass floors though my preference would be for them to be slightly larger. It was interesting to see my first white lions though.

Across from the lions a large yard housed the main herd of zebras including their 2 foals and a pair of ostrich.

The African exhibit finishes with a hamadryas baboon habitat with a large group which was nice and active making them interesting to watch and the serval habitat. This is a nice aviary style exhibit with wooden cladding and glass viewing windows on the front. Inside are some small trees and logs.

The final section of the park is South America. First is the large yard with a good-sized pond for Brazilian tapir capybara and mara. Next door to this a large aviary housing sun conure, tawny frogmouth, bleeding heart pigeons and the first of the Brazilian agoutis.

Across from these a pair of similar sized aviaries were home to pairs of blue and gold macaw and scarlet macaws. The scarlet macaw aviary was also housing a capybara on the floor who had been causing troubles for the other capybara.

Following the path, you come to the reptile section. On one side of the reptile house an outdoor yard housed some of the zoo’s aldabra giant tortoise collection along with some rhinoceros iguana.

Inside were four habitats for green iguana, boa constrictor, reticulated python and I did not note the fourth species but if I remember correctly it was a yellow anaconda. On the other side of the reptile house is an American alligator exhibit.

Across from here 2 small aviaries house African grey and amazon parrots. Finishing off the South American section was a series of primate exhibits. The first was a large aviary style habitat for a bachelor group of brown capuchins fitted out with a range of branches and ropes.

Next to this a series of three similar aviaries housed pygmy marmosets, cotton top tamarins and emperor tamarins. These were clad on the front with wood and had windows for viewing. Inside were several plants and ropes. These made for nice habitats though the reflections on the glass made viewing slightly difficult.

Capuchin Exhibit by Sunbear12 posted 11 Dec 2017 at 9:05 AM

Across from this a larger aviary featured a large family group of common marmosets. This is one of the best exhibits for the species I have seen with the group being so large that there is plenty of activity going on in the habitat. Also on the ground of this exhibit were the Brazilian agouti including some recent babies.

The final habitats at the zoo are some more Australian species. An aviary housed eclectus parrots, metallic starlings, white browed wood swallows, black winged stilts and rose crowned fruit doves.

A series of three aviaries was home to some owls along with a mixed exhibit housing brush tailed possums, perentie and if I remember correctly there was also a wombat in here. Across the picnic area were the last exhibits I visited home to some lizards and another aviary. Unfortunately, I did not note the species in either.

Darling Downs Zoo is a very nice zoo. In the end I spent 3 hours there and went around 3 times. I spent a large amount of time watching the cheetahs and giraffes and having a look at their exhibit. If development continues to meet the standard of these 2 new habitats the Darling Downs Zoo will develop in to a very nice facility.

 

After a couple of day's break for Christmas I am restarting my blog of my adventures across Australia. Tonight I will be posting 2 posts as one does not include any zoo visits, enjoy.

Day 4 – Toowoomba to Brisbane (683km – 8 hours)

Yes, you read that correct. This day was a bit of a mess. If done directly Toowoomba to Brisbane is a 3 ½ hour journey. Unfortunately, this is where my journey began to go a bit off track. The original plan for this trip was to drive the entire way to cairns. The original plan for day 4 was to already be halfway to Rockhampton. Then the rest of the drive to Rockhampton would take place that morning and I would explore the Rockhampton Zoo before driving to Mackay.

I set off from Toowoomba planning to just make up the difference by setting off early. Unfortunately, mid-way through the day I was still a good way off Rockhampton and had no chance of reaching Mackay in any decent state. This was a result of following some slow trucks and several areas of roadworks. I reached the small town of Eidsvold and decided to head back from Brisbane. I booked some a flight for the next morning to get me to Cairns and some accommodation in Brisbane for the night.

This had been Plan B from the start, but I do wish I’d made that decision a tad earlier. By the time this was done I arrived at my accommodation around 9pm and went to bed.

A couple of small asides since this post includes no zoo reviews. One annoying thing about Queensland which made this detour much more taxing is that their rural roads all appear to be 100km/h. Only once did I see a 110km/h road, and this was just before I left the state on the highway. This is much too slow for me being from South Australia where minutes from the city you can be on a 110km/h road.

Tomorrow’s review’s will see me in Cairns visiting Cairns Aquarium and Cairns Wildlife Dome.

 

Day 5 – Brisbane to Kuranda (2hr 15min, Roughly 1,500km)

Another early start saw me set off from my accommodation for the airport at 4am. I had prearranged car parking for the 3 days and cleared airport security. My flight was scheduled for around 6am and in a nice change left on time. I filled my time on the plane with some puzzle books and a bit of work and was soon in Cairns.

At the airport I collected my luggage and went to the ‘information desk.’ I figured this would be a volunteer run independent body like most airports. As a result, I requested information on the best way to get Kuranda (in case you hadn’t noticed I’m not big on forward planning). The lady sold me a bus ticket that she assured me would take me to Kuranda.

20 minutes later I was on the bus. Another 20 minutes and something seemed off. It’s a 20-minute drive from the airport to Kuranda but we were still in Cairns and I had been told it would take 45 minutes total to get there. I sat tight though and after 45 minutes the driver put me out on a roadside and told me that’s where my ticket got me too. Getting out my phone I discovered I was near another bus stop which was where the bus to Kuranda would depart from but that was in another 2 hours from what I could tell and by now it was already 11. I had a dinner in Cairns that night at 5 so it no longer made sense to go to Kuranda by bus. But I could take an uber. That didn’t work either though as they had no drivers.

As a result, a small change of plans once again took place. I decided to walk 20 minutes around to the aquarium. Here the girls at the front counter were very friendly and happy to help with storing my luggage, getting my ticket and helping to organise my trip out to my dinner that night. This was a pleasant to start to what quickly became a highly enjoyable aquarium visit.

I have already reviewed Cairns Aquarium in its own thread as it was the first review of this institution on zoochat which can be seen here - Cairns Aquarium - Cairns Aquarium Walkthrough

Following my first lap of the aquarium I decided to visit Cairns Wildlife Dome. This was another 10 or so minute walk from the aquarium. This was made much easier without my luggage though.

Cairns Wildlife Dome is located on the roof of the Pullman Reef Casino making finding the entrance a bit of a challenge. The access is through the elevators located at the back of the casino’s restaurant area. Interestingly there are no noticeable signs outside the casino pointing to the entrance of the wildlife dome. The only giveaway is the dome on the roof which is smaller than I had expected.

Once out of the elevator you arrive in the area which serves as the entrance, gift shop and koala encounters area. Inside the gift shop is a small tank housing a juvenile boyd’s forest dragon. The koala encounter area is a small basic yard with a couple of branches for the koala who is being used for interaction that day to sit in.

Once you pay for entry to the wildlife display, along with any animal encounters or high ropes activities which are also offered you walk up a set of stairs and proceed through the air lock in to the main wildlife dome.

The wildlife dome is a large walkthrough aviary with a range of mammal, reptile and bird display’s around the edge. As you enter to the left is a semi-circular yard for birds, in front of you is a waterfall and to the right is a fenced off area for cockatoos and a tank for scrub pythons.

In the semi-circular yard are Papuan frogmouth, laughing kookaburra and sulphur crested cockatoo. It was unclear if these birds were clipped and as such remained in this area or if they had free rein though they were all in here for my entire visit. The cockatoo yard had a couple of perches for the cockatoos which were free flying in the aviary to get away from people. Species in this space were eclectus parrot and red tailed black cockatoo. The waterfall formed the back of the presentation area discussed later. It also split the pathway which goes around the outside of the dome.

I went to the left which takes you up to the side of the dome where you turn and go up the boardwalk. To the right is the enclosure for the adult freshwater crocodiles. 2 were contained in this glass walled enclosure which contains a pool and a sanded area. Taking a small set of stairs down, you go back against the wall past a row of 9 enclosures of varying sizes but similar in design labelled python path. It was home to a range of lizards and snakes including olive python, jungle python, carpet python, bearded dragon, murray darling carpet python, krefft’s river turtle and pink tongued skink.

Next to this is a low walled yard with a large pond for mertens water monitor, blue tongue lizard and eastern water dragon. Next to this you go through a gate. This takes you in to a small walk through yard for a pair of female red-legged pademelon. On the right is an underwater viewing window for the large saltwater crocodile discussed later. There is also a small side yard for a juvenile saltwater crocodile. Located back from the path within the pademelon yard is a large tank for green tree frog. Also viewed from this yard is a large aviary for many sugar gliders.

Leaving the pademelon yard through another gate is a small freshwater crocodile yard. This contained several juvenile freshwater crocodiles. Next to this are two similar rock walled yards for the dome’s koalas. These featured a couple of perches connected by a stick. These could certainly do with having a few more perching options though are acceptable as they are.

Going through another air-lock you enter a small aviary for finches and small parrots which wouldn’t suit the main aviary. Birds in this aviary were budgie, double-eyed fig parrot, zebra finch, noisy pitta, diamond dove and king quail.

The final enclosure encountered on the outside loop of the dome is ‘the billabong which includes a number of turtles and lizards. Unfortunately, I did not note the species.

This brings you back to the entrance. From here I went back to the start of the boardwalk and instead of turning to the snakes kept going toward the saltwater crocodile. This is a standard crocodile yard with a pool and sandy area for it to haul out. Like most crocodile exhibits I have seen it could be larger but its no different to what they have elsewhere.

The last area is a large mock rock presentation area which is used for a range of presentations throughout the day.

Cairns Wildlife Dome is surprisingly well done through successful species collection and good landscaping. It was easy to spend an hour there. I was impressed as I got in for free though I may have been slightly disappointed if I had to pay the $24 entry free. It is clearly a place geared for tourists. One can also hold a koala, snake or crocodile for $16 and take place in the high ropes and zipline activities which add between $21 and $75 based on the number done. These activities also give certain parts of the wildlife dome a very cluttered look.

Leaving Cairns Wildlife Dome, I went back to the aquarium where I spent another enjoyable 2 hours wandering around and enjoying the well done exhibitory. I then got some transport out to my dinner at a lovely patch of forest called crystal cascades. It was a great night meeting a range of zookeepers from around Australia followed by a bush walk.

On this walk we saw a range of invertebrates along with a scrub python, pink tongued skink and an unidentified small mammal. Following this I was taken back to my accommodation where I fell in to bed after a long day.

 

Day 6 – Accommodation to Kuranda Village (15 minutes’ walk)

Day 6 began with a taste of the rainforest. Walking out the door of my rather basic backpackers hostel accommodation I crossed paths with a brush turkey and a range of birds made their presence known with their various calls. Bounding across the grass were a pair of red legged pademelons.

Following a quick shower, I walked down to the town of Kuranda. This is a small tourist village surrounded on four sides by rainforest. Most visitors to the town come through the scenic railway which leaves from Cairns allows for a couple of hours in Kuranda then returns to Cairns using the skyrail cable car. As a result, most shops and attractions only open from 10am to 3pm making the place interesting to stay for a couple of days.

The workshop venue was located just off the main street and was easy to find. The workshop ran from 9am to 4pm and covered a range of topics about keeping and breeding invertebrates. It was a worthwhile experience, but I won’t bore you with details.

An hour was allocated for lunch and this gave me the opportunity to explore some of the smaller wildlife attractions in Kuranda. After getting my lunch from the bakery I walked across to the heritage markets where the Kuranda Koala Garden and Birdworld Kuranda are located.

On this day I only explored the Kuranda Koala Garden. This is another overtly tourist oriented attraction. The entry is just a small desk located off to the side of the market. Once through the gate though it is a rather impressive little attraction. All the main Australian animal’s people will want to see are here in an area which can’t be much bigger than a few acres.

Unfortunately, this review will be sparse on detail as I did not anticipate this visit so did not have my camera and as a result am working off the map and my memory.

The first enclosure is a large lake housing many freshwater crocodiles. This is a rather large enclosure which you first encounter from a high bridge over the middle of the water making for a nice entry. It also has a decent sanded area for crocodiles wishing to escape the water which can be viewed closer later.

At the base of the bridge there is a small yard for a number of lizards and turtles. Next to this are the display koala yard’s. These were basic but nice. Following on from here is the koala holding area. This was very busy when I was there, and I anticipate it is there main money maker. Next to the queuing area a generously sized tank housed a pair of green tree python’s.

Walking past the koala holding area you come to a gate which takes you in to the wallaby yard. Off to the side is small yard for some quokkas. Next to here are the pair of wombat exhibits. These are quite basic with a dirt floor and a couple of burrows in which they can sleep.

From these two exhibits it is possible to see up a hill to the rows of koala enclosures. It was truly amazing to see the number of koalas which the park maintains to sustain having koalas available for holding all day. For those not aware in Queensland koalas have better working conditions than humans. Those used for interaction are only out for 30mins and then get every 3rd day off. As a result, park’s need large numbers of koalas’ and seeing the set ups for this at each attraction was fascinating compared to South Australia where the 3 parks offering koala interaction offer it 3 times a day for a maximum of an hour so most have less than 10 koalas.

The wallaby yard consists of a grassed area with an open area to the left and a fenced off area to the right allowing for interaction in part of the exhibit and rest area in the rest. Listed species on the map are red legged pademelon and swamp wallaby but I also remember seeing one of the grey kangaroo species and I believe I counted 5 species in total.

Leaving the kangaroo yard, you come to the second viewing for the crocodile exhibit. To the left is the entrance to the nocturnal house. This was a pleasant surprise and is wonderfully done. The structure is simple. Inside a boardwalk runs in a rectangle round the middle with exhibits either side. To the right as you enter an exhibit held a number of white lipped tree frogs. The centre of the rectangle held 2 bilby enclosures each with a burrow under the boardwalk which was visible from either side.

Running around the outside was 3 aviaries and a yard for northern bettong. The aviaries held Papuan frogmouth, mahogany glider and a few other species I can’t currently recall. As you exit another tank is home to some rough knob tail geckoes.

Leaving the nocturnal house, you come to a pair of aviary style enclosures with glass fronts with one home to sugar gliders and the other home to mahogany glider’s. Next to here a small undercover area had some tanks for frogs, lizards and snakes. Behind you here was a small display on the history of the area and this was the last attraction before going up the ramp to the exit.

All in all a very nice little park which fulfils its goal of being a place for tourists to quickly and easily see the majority of Australian animals they would be looking to tick off their bucket list. I couldn’t fault any of the enclosures (though the green tree frog tank which was decorated like a backyard using fake grass and mini tools was interesting) and the nocturnal house was very impressive. I could’ve spent a fair while in there just hoping for a glimpse of a couple of the oddities which they hold.

Following this I went back for part 2 of the workshop. This broke up around 4.30pm while gave me a couple of hours to walk to the only place open in town, the bp service station to grab some dinner and head back to the accommodation before our planned night activity. Kuranda is eerie after 3 with deserted streets and closed shop fronts certainly making for an interesting experience.

Our night time activity took us to a privately-owned patch of forest a short distance from the town with the aim of acquiring a couple of invertebrates for each of our respective zoos. This was a pleasant walk with highlights including seeing many wild frogs and a boyd’s forest dragon.

I managed to collect some giant rainforest snails, rainforest tree katydids and palm katydids which have made nice additions to the collection. One of the other workshop participants was staying in the room next to me and gave me a lift back. Along the way we dropped someone else off which included a nice stop to look at a wild night tiger (brown tree snake) which was on the road.

 

Day 7 – Kuranda

Once again, I made my way in to the village of Kuranda for the 3rd and final day of my workshop along with 3 visits to wildlife collections. The morning’s workshop included discussions on enclosure design and breeding our invertebrates before the group got a tour of the Australian butterfly sanctuary.

The Australian butterfly sanctuary is located alongside the Kuranda Heritage Markets which is also the location of the Kuranda Koala Gardens and Birdworld. It consists of one building which houses the butterfly greenhouse, museum and gift shop. Next to this connected by a short pathway is the laboratory where they breed and raise the caterpillars. The Australian Butterfly Sanctuary is one of the only butterfly houses in Australia where they breed and raise their own caterpillars as opposed to sourcing them from other breeders or the wild.

As we were on a group tour we were taken through the back entrance and straight to the laboratory. This is a room with a series of 5 tanks showing the different caterpillars which they are raising. There is also a large aviary where the chrysillis are hung so they can emerge. A large window allows viewing of the eggs and caterpillars which are being raised in quarantine ready to move in to the large aviary. There also views over the range of aviaries out the back which allow the butterflies to live in optimum conditions for them lay to their eggs.

From here we were taken in to the greenhouse. This features a range of boardwalks moving around the plants and feeders. It housed a range of Australian butterflies. There is also an area called butterfly lovers bridge where they have signs relating to a range of butterfly related myths.

Exiting the greenhouse, you walk through the museum with many butterfly and other pinned invertebrate specimens. You then walk through the gift shop and exit the sanctuary.

Like most butterfly sanctuaries it is a very simple facility that was toured in under 40 minutes even with the guided tour portion. While it was fun, and I enjoy seeing butterflies I feel like the facility would disappoint had I paid the $19.50 entry fee and isn’t somewhere I would rush back to.

From here I went with a group from the workshop to the next door Birdworld. This is a singular large walk in aviary which houses a range of birds from around the world. At the entrance they sell bags of food for the birds. While I expected these to be a bag of seeds which aren’t the healthiest for many of the birds housed there instead they contained a healthy mix of nuts, fruits and vegetables plus a few seeds. It also appeared that the intake is well monitored as no extra bags were placed out after the last couple were brought by our group.

All in all, birdworld was pleasantly surprising. It starts with a large deck at the top with an undercover area where a range of the friendly birds were sitting. From here the path winds down to the bottom of the aviary. In the bottom corner a decent sized aviary housed a range of finches. A path then runs along the bottom of the aviary. On one side of this a small lake housed many waterbirds while on the other side was 2 decent sized enclosures which housed a pair of cassowary.

You then head up the other side of the aviary where the side wall has a range of separation enclosures where new birds can be introduced, or sick birds can be held etc.

You then come back up to the deck at the start where you can take the exit through a small gift shop and back out in to the market.

The aviary houses a wide variety of species from across the world including macaws, eclectus parrots, galahs, sulfur crested cockatoos, ibis, spoonbills, conures and more. Most of the cockatoos are eager to approach visitors to get a feed and will readily land on visitors to interact with them.

I can certainly see the appeal for tourists and the place was quite busy on my visit. Had I been alone I feel I would have toured the facility in 20 minutes but some of the people I was with got quite in to feeding and interacting with the birds and we ended up spending an hour there. It also nicely compliments the next-door Kuranda koala gardens which is owned by the same company and the only birds there were the Papuan frogmouth. I imagine that most tourists would buy the combined ticket which is offered and visit both in the same visit.

The park provides a handout on entry listing the bird species which they house, and I may type this up eventually.

Following this the rest of the group I was with went off to get lunch but as I wasn’t particularly hungry I decided to tour the last of the wildlife related attractions in Kuranda Village. This was the Australian venom zoo.

This is an interesting facility. You start by heading down a ramp in to a basement area where four tanks housed venomous snakes. Heading back up to the entrance area are a couple more exhibits where you are taken on a guided tour. This includes some frogs, a brown tree snake along with a range of Australian tarantulas and scorpions. I chose not to hold the snake at the end as I have plenty of my own at home to hold daily meaning the visit was over in about 15 minutes.

All in all, another interesting attraction ticked off the list.

Following this it was back for the final part of the workshop with a tour of the facility owned by our hosts where they breed a range of invertebrates and a workshop on macro photography. At the end of the workshop I said my goodbyes and headed back to my accommodation to pack my stuff ready for my flight back to Brisbane the next morning.

 

Just jumping in here to say that I've really enjoyed reading your reviews so far and hope the rest isn't too far away

 

After a busy few months I've finally got a few moments to finish this thread. Hopefully within the next couple of weeks I'll get around to finishing the last of these posts and then I can cover the rest of my trips I've been on and am going on in the coming month's.

Day 8 – Kuranda to Brisbane (2hr 15min, Roughly 1,500km)

Originally my flight was booked for 10am. As such I organised a pick-up for 6.30am from my accommodation to leave plenty of time to reach the airport. Unfortunately, once again my plan went off the rails when their car broke down and the driver failed to contact me for over an hour meaning I missed my back up option of the morning bus at 7.30am. As such by the time I went to organise alternative transport no one wanted to come as they were all busy with other pick-ups as it was the busy period of the day. It’s not helped by Kuranda being half an hour out of Cairns and poorly serviced by taxis, uber, bus etc. As a result, I walked down to Kuranda where I managed to organise to leave on the next bus. This meant I missed my flight and had to organise to leave on the next flight back to Brisbane at 2pm.

Not a great start to the day. I arrived at the airport around 11.30am. Check in opened at 1.15pm so I settled in to do some work and waited for the flight. By the time check in opened the flight was already delayed till 3pm. I went in to the airport where I got some lunch and then returned to my work and puzzle books.

The flight left after 3 and meant I arrived back in Brisbane around 5.30pm. I got my bags hopped in the car and drove up the sunshine coast where I checked in to some nice accommodation which was also the second cheapest of the trip. One small win in an otherwise annoying but not life ending day. Maybe one of these day’s I’ll start planning thing’s properly.

I did some planning for the next day’s activities and then went to bed.

 

Day 9 Sunshine Coast to Gold Coast (2hr, 197km) – Part 1

This is probably my favourite day of the trip visiting 2 stand out facilities and having everything run to plan. Which was probably helped by this being the one day with a decent plan in place.

The morning started at 8am leaving the accommodation to head for Sea Life Sunshine Coast. Running right to time I arrived at the aquarium at 8.45am. After a 15 minute wait I was let in to the aquarium. Like all aquariums these day’s they have the obligatory photo at the start but here they were happy to let me pass without hassle.

This is the 3rd aquarium I have visited in Australia and the second of the Sea Life chain. Interestingly Sea Life has not gone overboard updating this aquarium, so it is not as generic as others in the chain. That said I might have liked to have seen some updating with the aquarium being confusing to navigate and some of the area’s starting to look a little bit dated.

The aquarium is broken down into 11 zones with the first being tidal touch pools. This area includes the obligatory sea life ray pool but here it is a toned back beach mural on the wall as opposed to the psychedelic colours seen elsewhere. Listed species were blue-spot fantail ray and epaulette shark.

Across from this are 2 touch pools side by side with the usual range of sea cucumbers, starfish, shark eggs etc. One thing I didn’t love here was that a ledge ran along the length of the tank for children to stand on but meant adults were ridiculously tall compared to the tank or were stuck viewing it from a metre away.

Ray tank by Sunbear12 posted 23 Dec 2017 at 7:59 AM

Leaving this zone, you move in to zone 2 which is the seahorse sanctuary. This zone begins with a bubble tank for hinge-beak shrimp and toxic sea anemone. While I’m not usually a fan of size distortion in aquariums using curved tanks with this shrimp it worked quite well making for an interesting view of what is usually a small un-interesting species.

Further along a couple of tanks held sea horse along with weedy sea dragon and then a rectangular tank was home to razorfish.

Leaving this area, you come to coastal wreck which seems to feature most of the aquariums ‘deadly’ species in an area with some pared back ship themeing. The 6 tanks of this section were of similar design being rectangles with glass for viewing on 2 sides and then the other 2 sides forming the back walls covered with mock rock or planks of wood. The species on display in these tanks were blue-spot rock lobster and versicolour painted crayfish, moray eel, yellow assessor, cowfish, lionfish and an octopus species.

Lobster and Crayfish Tank by Sunbear12 posted 23 Dec 2017 at 7:59 AM

At the end of this zone is another corner tank with two pop-up bubbles and some fake coral housing starfish and clownfish.

Leaving this zone you come to a landing with the option of going straight ahead or down a ramp to the lower floors. Following the maps recommended route takes you down the ramp to zone 4 which is marked as octonauts but was formerly the bottom of the freshwater streams zone. This is still intact with two large scale tanks which are the most impressive enclosures at the aquarium. One is an Australian freshwater tank with a number of large barramundi and pig nosed turtles. This is also the water area for the freshwater crocodile but on my visit, he was using his land area. Next to this tank is another large tank for Mekong giant catfish, pacu, alligator gar and giant paganisus.

Second Tank in freswater zone by Sunbear12 posted 23 Dec 2017 at 8:11 AM

Next to this a waist high tank with a large mock rock back wall and waterfall houses some archerfish. Across from this an odd rock walled grotto with some glass windows housed a trio of mertens water monitor.

On my visit the walkway in this area was being cluttered with a range of large plastic models from the octonauts, a kids tv show. I actually quite like the finding dory tie-in sea life have running at sea life sunshine coast at the moment and was previously at sea life Melbourne on my last 2 visits. This includes a series of small, easily ignorable screens in each zone which kids can watch a scene from the movie which teaches them something about marine conservation and sustainability. It also includes a themed area which I will describe later. This octonauts tie-in on the other hand it quite garish and in your face. The worst part is that in the models of the bears from the show they have inserted tanks the majority of which are too small for their inhabitants which included some small fish, hermit crabs and a pair of axolotol.

Octonauts Display by Sunbear12 posted 23 Dec 2017 at 8:06 AM

At the end of this zone you go through a door into seal cave. This is the underwater viewing area for the seal exhibit. It features 4 large glass panels to see in to the pool and a small seating area. On my visit none of the seals were making use of the water.

From here you walk back to the ramp and go down again to the lowest level of the aquarium. This is the oceanarium. This area features a one-way route through a curved tunnel. This is my least favourite oceanarium I have seen. It appeared to be split in to 3 sections. Each of these seemed fairly narrow and in a number of areas were quite poorly lit. It also seemed to be fairly empty. Listed species in this area were grey reef shark, blacktip reef shark, whitetip reef shark, giant grouper and wobbegong.

You leave this area by taking the ramp back up to the main leavel of the aquarium. Zone 7 is freshwater streams and is the upstairs area of the octonauts zone. The main exhibit here is the haul our area for the freshwater crocodile. This is a relatively small area of mock rock and stones. It also includes a small stream and a couple of live plants.

Freshwater Crocodile Exhibit by Sunbear12 posted 23 Dec 2017 at 8:17 AM

Also in this area is top down viewing of the tank for Mekong giant catfish, alligator gar and giant paganisus. Across from these two exhibits area four tanks housing a range of freshwater fish and a young pig-nosed turtles. These were some of the best-looking tanks in the aquarium with brilliant aqua scaping. This included an underwater waterfall which had been created using stones which to me seemed like a great idea. Fish in these tanks included clown loach, silver shark, motoro freshwater stingray, peacock bass, Malawi blue dolphin cichlid and electric yellow cichlid.

Leaving this area, you walk past a set of toilets and the entrance to the gift shop to sea island. This is the home of the aquarium’s Australian sea lion’s and fur seals. On my visit 2 animals were out on exhibit. This is an adequate enclosure for these 2 but according to one sign at the aquarium they have 9 individuals. I would hope that there are significant off-show holdings otherwise it is a quite small space for these animals.

Sea Lion Arena by Sunbear12 posted 23 Dec 2017 at 8:17 AM

The exhibit is fitted out with a mock rock land area with a large lighthouse and a waterfall. To each side are some decks which I presume are used by the trainers during presentations. The centre of the habitat is a decent sized pool which is relatively deep. In front of the exhibit is a large seating area for the aquarium’s main attractions which is the seal presentation. Unfortunately, I had to leave before this though.

From here you walk through the café area which takes you past the entrance to the gift shop and the soft play area before you re-enter the aquarium building. Here you go through the final zone which is jellyfish kingdom. This section of the aquarium begins not with jellyfish but with a generic great barrier reef tank. This had a backing of coral with a range of small fish. The only one I recognised was the blue tang.

Another small tank near this was home to a sea anemone with many ocellaris clownfish also present.

Following the corridor, you come to the first jellyfish tank for a large number of moon jellyfish. These are housed in a very large tank and there would have been around 100 jellyfish in the tank. This area also featured tanks for chambered nautilus, upside down jellyfish, blue bubbler and a plastic bag.

Jellyfish Tank by Sunbear12 posted 23 Dec 2017 at 8:17 AM

Exiting this area, you exit the aquarium through the photo collection area and then exit the aquarium. You do have the option of going through the aquarium as many times as you would like by going back through the entry.

I spent 1 ½ hours doing 2 laps of the aquarium. It’s a decent aquarium but I think it could do with some further updating on a couple of areas in the coming years. Its becoming a common theme of my aquarium visits that I always feel like I would love to spend more time there but that there just isn’t enough to see.

I am going to split this post here as this one is already quite long with underwater world being a major attraction and the next post is the biggest zoo of the trip.

 

Day 10 Sunshine Coast to Gold Coast (2hr, 197km) – Part 2

Grab a coffee and settle in. This long post covers in detail what is an extremely large facility

Leaving Sea Life Sunshine Coast around 10.30am I set off for Australia Zoo. I had mixed feelings about this visit. I had always followed Steve Irwin and marvelled at his work. Since his death though it seemed like Australia Zoo had stagnated and I wondered if I would see enough to make it worth the entry fee. One thing to take in to consideration is that I only paid $5 for entry and I’m not sure I would have been as impressed had I spent $60.

I needn’t have worried. By the end of my day at Australia Zoo, in fact within the first hour I was hooked. I wanted to play around with plans and get a second day at this fantastic zoo and I was even considering applying for the next job that came up there. It’s not without fault but it sure is the closest I have ever seen.

Everything here is oversize and that begins as soon as you turn off the highway in to the carpark. There would easily be over 1.000 car parks here and by the time I arrived at 11.30am it was already a quarter full.

The entrance was by Australia Zoo standards fairly modest with an undercover area with 5 ticket desks. I got bounced around between these for a while as they worked out how to process my membership card. Once this was done I entered the zoo and was already amazed. The first enclosure you see for rhinoceros iguana. This is a stone walled yard with some glass viewing panels inserted. It is pleasingly landscaped and split in to 2 sections with a lizard visible in each.

Rhino Iguana Exhibit by Sunbear12 posted 23 Dec 2017 at 9:38 AM

From here I decided to head straight to the crocoseum and the nearby food court to get my lunch and a seat ready for the wildlife warriors show. On the way I came across the first of the roving wildlife, a brahminy kite. This was out with a handler and I spent a bit of time talking to him and viewing the bird. In this time a small crowd started to build and the bird started to look slightly uncomfortable and I was impressed that the presenter took the bird back to his enclosure at this point.

Arriving at the crocoseum just showed me how crazy this place was going to get. I expected something big but this place is massive. I walked through the main corridor past the photo kiosk, a gift shop, the animal photo area, the information desk and then up the stairs to the food court. This area has a few hundred tables and about 10 different food outlets serving different varieties of food.

I got some lunch and then went to the crocoseum where I got a seat. I had expected that over the 15 minutes I was there the stadium would fill ready for the show. But when it began the stadium wasn’t more than a quarter full. While this would be impressive for most zoos on a Tuesday I can’t help but feel its not enough to maintain the number of staff the zoo had.

The show is very impressive if not slightly annoying. It starts with a crickey off which involves everyone pretending they are animals and yelling Steve Irwin’s signature catchphrase. Then a range of macaws are free flighted, followed by a pair of kites. After this some snakes were walked through the audience followed by a jabiru walking across the centre of the arena and an Andean condor free flying. A red tailed black cockatoo is then brought out to pretend he is stealing some money from an audience member. The star of the show, the saltwater crocodile then swam out in to the middle of the stadium and the handlers proceeded to feed it and talk about crocodiles.

From here I went to the information desk as I had decided while waiting for the show to take the Wildlife hospital tour at 2.30pm. I booked this and enquired as to when would be a good time to see the cheetah. The man at the desk informed me they should be out right then, so I made way up to the Africa section of the zoo.

The rest of the area’s I walked through I would explore again later in the day I did explore the Asian area which I was not able to return too later. This area begins with the red panda yard. This is a fantastic enclosure with rock walls and several mature trees for the red pandas to climb. The floor of the enclosure includes a range of plants.

Red Panda Exhibit by Sunbear12 posted 23 Dec 2017 at 9:31 AM

Following the path, you enter the tiger exhibit. This feature’s a pair of undercover viewing area’s and also a grandstand to watch the daily tiger presentation in front of the underwater viewing window. The enclosure feature’s grass and bark areas with the back wall’s screened with bamboo. There are also some platforms for the tigers to lay on. Interestingly on my visit the tigers were all asleep and a pair of handlers were just sitting against one wall talking.

Making my way up through the zoo I reached the gate to Africa and sitting just there under a tree was a cheetah with 3 handlers. It was just licking an iceblock while the keepers spoke to visitors about them.

Meerkat Exhibit with sightline over African exhibit by Sunbear12 posted 23 Dec 2017 at 9:31 AM

Continuing through the oversized archway I was greeted by the large savannah exhibit which is grassy and features zebra, giraffe and southern white rhinoceros. The yard is a great size and still has a range of trees and uninterrupted views across the exhibit. At the end is the zoo’s newest exhibit’s which are a pair of meerkat habitat’s. These are well designed to provide views across the habitat’s out across the savannah habitat. These enclosures are made of mock-rock and feature a dug down moat with a central platform. I was initially worried that these were entirely concrete but the centre is filled with soil topped with stones and a range of plants and logs providing climbing opportunities. The platform’s also feature a range of tunnels for the meerkats to climb through.

Meerkat Exhibit by Sunbear12 posted 23 Dec 2017 at 9:31 AM

Leaving this area, it is a decent walk back down the same path to reach bindi’s island. This is a walk-through enclosure for ring tailed lemurs with a range of smaller habitat’s within. Access is through a ship-wreck with double doors which are staffed to ensure the lemurs do not escape. Walking around the island you first come to Aldabra tortoise yard where a couple of these animal’s have a nice grassy yard with some trees to roam. Across from this yard was where I saw my first lemurs. The lemurs are watched by a number of keepers at all times to prevent unwanted visitor interactions.

Continuing around the island you to come to bindi’s treehouse. On the approach you pass a low-walled yard with a range of sticks along which macaws can climb. The treehouse is three levels and under two of the staircase’s are enclosures are enclosures for an alligator snapping turtle and some boa constrictor’s. The alligator snapping turtle enclosure was in my opinion too small though that seems to be a common theme with these. Also viewable from the treehouse is a second island which house’s another group of ring tailed lemurs. From here you return the entrance and exit once again through the ship wreck.

Lemur Island by Sunbear12 posted 23 Dec 2017 at 9:34 AM

From here I quickly walked back to the zoo entrance and across the car park to the Australian wildlife hospital where I was going on the hospital tour. This was a good hour long guided tour around the behind the scene’s areas of the hospital. This included a range of impressive off display holding areas for the koala’s which are being rehabilitated at the hospital.

From here I returned to the entrance and started to explore the rest of the zoo. I started with the komodo dragon’s which live in a yard with high rock wall’s with glass window’s for viewing. Next door a similar but slightly larger yard is home to a perentie. Both are furnished with sand a range of plantings. Next door a yard with rock walls the whole way around and a pond and waterfall home to mertens water monitors, water dragons, bearded dragons and blue tongues.

Across the path is an enclosure for Asian small clawed otters. Their exhibit feature’s a mock rock back wall with viewing on three sides through glass windows. At the front a pond provides underwater viewing and the exhibit is furnished with a range of plants.

Otter Exhibit by Sunbear12 posted 23 Dec 2017 at 9:38 AM

Tucked in the bottom corner of the park a small pine log walled yard housed some tawny frogmouths.

Next I explored the crocodile environmental park. This is the section where most of the park’s crocodiles live. The yard’s are all of a similar design with chain-link fencing surrounding a yard with grass, some plants and a pond for them to swim in. Most of the ponds are natural while three are concrete ponds with clear water.

In total this section had 6 saltwater crocodile enclosure’s and 1 enclosure each for freshwater crocodile’s and American alligators.

Also in this section in the back corner was the kid’s zoo with a range of small pens for domestic goats and sheep. A nearby yard house’s some alpacas.

Following the path you see the enclosure for binturong. This feature’s a back mock rock wall with a range of spots for the animals to rest A large shelter extends out over the rest of the enclosure from the rock wall. Running from this are a series of branches for them to climb. Viewing is either through a large glass window in a shelter or over the wooden posts which make up the rest of the fence.

From here a path runs between the cassowary and dingo yards. The cassowary exhibit is made of three large chain link pens. This area is particularly lush with a range of mature trees forming a canopy and a pond.

The dingo yard is similar but also features a large area of sand. At the centre of the enclosure is a mock rock mound where they can sit. In front of this is the glass viewing window’s.

Next is the Tasmanian devil enclosure. This is a pair of glass and mock rock walled yard’s with a central mock rock house with indoor viewing. Also attached to the outside of this house is a small yard for shinglebacks.

From here I walked back to the crocoseum to view the saltwater crocodile pens at the back of this area. These are 7 similar pens with brick walls and a large concrete pond in the middle. This is surrounded by grass. Each of these is connected to a raceway which the crocodile’s use to enter the crocoseum for the Wildlife Warriors Show.

Going down the other side I entered roo heaven the large walk through habitat for kangaroos and wallabies. At the centre is an odd mock rock mound with a small yard made of pine logs at the front for short beaked echidna. Inside the walls are painted with large murals on the kangaroo’s life history. The yard is massive with a creek running through the middle and a range of rock mounds for the wallabies to climb.

Leaving this area you enter the wetlands zone which features large chain-link walled yards with ponds and lush tropical planting for jabirus and brolgas. Another more open yard is home to emus.

From this area I went to the koala walk-through. This is one of my favourite display’s of this species in Australia. A number of mature trees are fully accessible to the koalas with only a low fence separating visitor’s from these trees. At the centre of the enclosure some perches provide an area for up close interaction. I especially like the signs under each tree which had a koala in it to help you find them.

You exit this yard in to walkthrough grassy yard for red kangaroo’s. This area then exits in to the rainforest aviary. This is an incredibly large aviary with a central wide path providing ample space on either side for the bird’s and a range of plantings along with a waterfall feature. Species present include eclectus parrot, figbird, star finch, satin bowerbird, king parrot, Burdekin duck and glossy ibis.

Next are the two absolutely massive wombat yard’s. These are amazing to view with varied area’s of leaf litter, grass and sand for the animal’s to explore. An inside tunnel provides viewing of the wombats within their large den’s.

Wedge Tailed Eagle Exhibit by Sunbear12 posted 23 Dec 2017 at 9:41 AM

A small side path takes you round the wedge tailed eagle. This is the best habitat for these species I have seen. It is easy to see even a flighted eagle being happy in here with plenty of room to move and perches for them to rest on and it is certainly adequate for what I believe to be rescued individuals.

King Cobra Exhibit by Sunbear12 posted 23 Dec 2017 at 9:41 AM

Following the path you come to the snake house which has recently become home to some lizards as well. This is the least exciting portion of the zoo with the exhibits being mostly the standard fare seen in most other zoo’s. Species on display included king cobra, western diamond back rattlesnake, taipan, eastern tiger snake, black tiger snake, gila monster, fierce snake, king brown, red-bellied black snake, green tree python, woma python, spotted python.

Gila Monster Exhibit by Sunbear12 posted 23 Dec 2017 at 9:41 AM

Exiting the reptile house I came to the koala exhibit in front of the crocoseum this is a nice wood walled yard with a boardwalk around three sides. In the centre a range of perches provide a nice habitat for the koala’s.

My final exhibit to explore was the American alligator yard’s which is a series of 6 pens running either side of a central walkway housing one alligator per yard.

As I left I visited the gift shop and got a few souvenirs of my visit. I had an absolute ball at Australia Zoo. There were very few other zoo’s on this trip where I couldn’t find an exhibit which could do with some improvement but Australia Zoo bucked that trend. While I expected a bit more from the reptile house they are certainly not bad enclosure’s.

If Australia Zoo can continue to develop new habitat’s and improve it will be great but if they had the same enclosure’s in 20 years I’m not sure they would seem outdated its just how to keep enough guests coming through to ensure the funds to run what is a very large facility.

Following my visit, I made my way back to my previous nights’ accommodation to pick up the deposit which I had left behind and then drove 2 hours south towards the Gold Coast where I was staying for the night.

 

Yes it's a little bit confusing. The official name used on their website and map is Sea Life Sunshine Coast but they have a number of refrences in the facility and other places to Underwater World Mooloolaba.

 

What species are in roo heaven?