www.WildlifeWarriors.org.au

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After a nice nights sleep in Brisbane I headed off with CrocConnections to Australia Zoo - Steve Irwins one - which is located near a place called Beerwah in the Glasshouse Mountains, approximately an hours drive from Brisbane. It was a bit of an emotional journey as it turned out that the driver Chris is actually the owner of CrocConnections, and he used to work at the Zoo and was a close friend of Steve Irwin and his family. He set up the company to get more people to go to the zoo, he raises money for the zoo and he has adopted a tiger there too. Hearing him talk about Steve Irwin was moving enough, never mind then watching a DVD that he made whilst he was alive which was basically his life story. But it was a nice reminder of the passion and enthusiasm he always showed for animals and conservation, and the main reason i wanted to visit Australia Zoo was to see if this passion showed in the way that the zoo is run and whether it would be different to any other zoos. On the final approach to the zoo, we drove along Steve Irwin Way, a road that has been renamed following his tragic death. When we arrived it was a bit like stepping into a shrine - the zoo must be exactly as it was before he died. Everywhere you look, there are pictures of Steve, on billboards, posters, and loads of merchandise. But the staff all seem to share his lively mannerisms and apart from a banner on one wall in tribute to him, and a tribute magazine in the souvenier shop, you would think he was still alive. I think they have taken the decision that he would rather money be spent on the animals, rather than reproducing an entire zoo-full of new merchandise without him. I can understand this but i did find it rather eerie all the same!

When we got there i linked up with 2 other girls who were also travelling alone, and one of the first things we did was have a photo taken cuddling a koala. We then wandered around the zoo, watching the Elephants be fed - you could queue to do this but i had already done it in Bali and the others weren't keen! At 1pm we went to the Crocoseum which is similar to a small arena/football ground - but it has a pool in its centre which connects to various crocodile enclosures. We watched a bird show, a snale show and then the crocodile show. Apparently they can swim at up to 30km per hour in water, but on land they are so slow they would never catch a human unless the human was incapable of walking! As well as the live shows, they screened a few short films, which featured Steve, Terri and their son Robert, who is extremely cute.

In the afternoon myself and Melody (one of the 2 girls - she's Canadian) had booked a Dingo Encounter- this meant we got to go into an enclosure with 2 Dingos and 2 keepers, and play with them and have some photos taken, both on our own cameras and by the Zoo's professional photographer. This was definitely money well spent!

As we were about to leave in the coach, our driver Chris decided to show us some of the areas that the general public don't usually get to see. Surrounding the Zoo is hundreds of acres of land that Steve and Terri have bought - before he died he had a plan to extend the Zoo to 300 acres. Terri is determined to carry on, but she is planning to make use of the land that they have and is aiming to extend it to 500 acres! This will include an African and an Asian section and they already have some animals there in quarantine which Chris pointed out to us, and i have a very zoomed in photo of 2 Cheetahs. The expansion will also include a river trip, which will have real wild crocodiles swimming in the river!! I would love to come back and see it when it is finished, but i don't think i'd be brave enough for that boat trip!

Another project that is due to start soon is the building of a brand new animal rescue hospital which he said will cost about $4million. The current one was built by Steve in memory of his mother who died about 6 years ago, but although it is a very small centre, it is now treating more animals than any other centre. To aid their conservation efforts, Steve and Terri have ploughed money into buying massive plots of land both in Australia and overseas - sometimes as much as 50000 acres - in bids to prevent certain species from becoming extinct. He also planted 50000 gum trees on some land they bought.

After hearing Chris talk about Steve, Terri and Bindi and after discovering just how much they achieved as a family, I have completely changed my opinion on Terri and the supposed exploitation of Bindi. So little of what i learned has ever been featured in the UK press. From the day she was born, she has been destined to be the next face of the Zoo - we watched footage of her birth as part of the DVD as Steve was filming with a crew when Terri went into labour, and they went to the hospital (didn't look like she was too chuffed about this!) but when she was born and she started crying, Terri said that if i was you i'd be crying as you're going to have to run a Zoo when you are older! Bindi's career was launched in Australia about 18 months ago, she has a clothing range, dvd's, and she does shows at the Zoo at various times of the year. She has complete freedom of what she wants to do when she is at the Zoo and as well as doing the shows, she has been known to work in the gift shops, set up a stall signing photos to raise money for the animals, and work with the keepers. Whatever she wants to do, she does it.... with a security guard to keep watch over her. Spoilt maybe, but not exploited! She is not your average 8 year old, and she has been brought up in the knowledge that she would be the next face of the Zoo and that it would be passed to her to run. The sad thing is, no one expected the Zoo to need a new face so soon. He was only 44 when he died. It seems that she wants to fill his shoes and see that everything he believed in continues, and to ensure people don't forget what he was trying to achieve. It could be said that despite what she wants, she should be kept out of the limelight and be allowed a "normal upbringing" but that is something she has never really had. She has a home tutor, and she lives in a Zoo and she had possibly the most un-normal childhood. But when you consider that Steve was only 9 years old when he captured his first crocodile - a 12 foot one at that! - maybe it's in the blood!

I thoroughly enjoyed my day at the Zoo, and i would highly recommend it to anyone. As well as the enthusiasm that all the keepers showed, it was a very educational Zoo - with lots of information about the animals not in the usual dull way, but in a Steve Irwin Crikey kind of way!

The only negative thing i could say is that you are able to have your photo taken with one of the Tigers there, but it costs about $500 for a group of up to 4 people, but there is no way for a single traveller to do this unless they can find 3 other random people to do it with them - the Zoo will not link people together and you must book before you go - so you can't even try and find people who might be interested when you get there! This is something i would have loved to do - but not on my own at that price!

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