Australia Zoo

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[youtube=0RkSbV4ayZc][youtube=S6kkAWuubbE]

Day 80 Australia Zoo

This zoo is famous mainly due to the late Steve Irwin and family. It is located about 100km north of Brisbane and is home to many animals who live in their natural surroundings. We arrived at 9am ready for the opening as did lots of families as it still the Easter holidays. We spent a couple of hours walking around seeing many native animals including, cuddly koalas, relaxing kangaroos, cute looking dingos, huge cassowary's, hippocrocapigs and of course crocodiles!

After seeing the animals that we have tried to see in the wild several times we were very grateful how unsuccessful we have been as the all looked much bigger and scarier than we imagined.

At 11am everyone took their seats in the crocoseam to watch the famous wildlife show. Today it started with Bindi and Crocmen doing a live performance which the kids loved. This was followed by a wonderful display of elephants, snakes and birds around the arena. Then the Irwin family, Terri, Bindi and little Robert came out along with Wes (the croc man) and Norman (the crocodile).

The huge crocodile swam into the centre of the arena looking for a feed. Terri and Wes performed with Norman showing us how they hunt for food in their natural habitat before Bindi had a go as she is in training! They would stamp their feet at the waters edge while dangling a piece of meat at arms length to get the crocs attention. As the crocodile approaches they jumped back away from the edge to make the croc come out of the water and reach for the meat. As the croc lunged towards their hand they would throw the meat straight into the large teeth filled jaws. It was a great interesting show and a highlight to the day.

We spent a few more hours seeing more of the zoo, it did not feel like a traditional zoo, in fact it felt like you were part of the place and nothing was behind closed doors. It was very well laid out and seems to be developing and expanding all the time. Steve Irwin died in 2006 when a stingray punctured his heart with its barb. It was a shame as he was Australia Zoo and you feel that he is extremely missed here by everyone. His picture is everywhere and everything is still branded that this is the home of the crocodile hunter, at least his family are still here continuing his legend.

After a very enjoyable day we got on the motorway (the M1!) and arrived at the North of Brisbane, Redcliffe at Moreton Bay just as it was getting dark.

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