Crikey, It's Steve Irwin's Zoo!!

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May 8th 2008

Published: May 18th 2008

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Emma and Gary

Wallaby

Panoramic Picture: Zoo Kangaroo (a wee bit blocky due to site picture size regulations)

Australia Zoo

On Thursday morning we awoke bright and early catching the 8am train from Brisbane eager to get to the zoo for it opening. I think poor Gary was beginning to get tired of me going on and on about the zoo but I was desperate to cuddle one of the Koalas and my expectations of the zoo was high from my internet surfing whilst working hard in Sydney.

The train journey was around an hour and a half, and after arriving at Beerwah, the courtesy bus was already there waiting to transport us to the zoo. Throughout the short bus ride the driver provided us with some background information on the zoo, currently 70 acres ,the zoo aims to grow to 500 acres in the next 5 years, offering wildlife from many other parts of the world including South East Asia, which is currently being constructed, Africa, Madagascar and South America.

Keen to cuddle a Koala, we headed off in search of the photo studio via the alligators and the crocodiles, some of which looked very mean indeed!! There was a

Cuddly koala

large number of alligators and crocodiles at the zoo, which is really not surprising considering Steve Irwin's passion and love for the creatures. I was so excited to finally cuddle the koala and Gary was able to get into the photo too, giving him a little pat on the back. That was me set for the day with a huge smile on my face.

The zoo was very informative, eco-friendly and all the staff were extremely knowledgable and aware of all the animals they had to deak with in the zoo, and they were also very happy to accommodate any questions from the visitors to the park. It was very clear as we walked around the zoo that it was very unlike any other zoo or wildlife park we had been to before, it was more about raising awareness of these animals and educating humans on how their actions could help or hinder their existence.

Throughout the day we saw a number of different animals and spent a lot of time in lazing in the sun with the kangaroos which was really realaxing and slightly surreal as they quite happily lie beside without any fear. There is a

Cute

Emma wanted to take him home!!

'Kids Zoo' section where children can feed and touch a number of smaller animals including piglets, 2 week old lambs, goats and calves. It was here that we picked up the kangaroo feed, which surprisingly lasted us most of the day and didnt cost that much.

Around midday we headed to the Crocoseum where we were entertained by some of the workers and a number of beautiful birds, slinkly snakes, elephants and a crocodile!! This was more that just a chance to show off the animals to the crowd, we were given a number of facts about each of the animals as well as what to do if we were bitten by a snake or where we would encounter crocodiles within australia.

We managed to head back to the photo studio in time for the alligator encounter where Gary and myself got our photo taken holding a two year old alligator. It was much softer than I expected and it really wasnt that scary or viscious as you would think. Mind you, it was only two years old which is nothing considereding that they can live 70+ years.

After a long day we headed back to Brisbane