Australia Zoo

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Today we headed up the Bruce Highway to the Sunshine Coast and one of Australia's top tourist attractions - Australia Zoo. Started in the 1970's the Park really came to prominence when the son of the original owners Steve Irwin hit the big time with his crazy animal conservation antics. Known as the Crocodile Hunter he was tragically killed when 'speared' by the barb of a Stingray.

Despite the loss the Zoo has gone from strength to strength and it is an amazing experience! We arrived just as the Park opened, the weather was a bit cooler and the school holiday crowds hadn't yet turned up - perfect combination. We took the Shuttle to the far end of the Zoo and started our experience at the Africa exhibition. This was especially exciting as the Zoos new baby Rhino was on public display for the first time. She was running around and loving every minute of it.

When we arrived we were greeted by a group of majestic giraffes. As we walked back through the Zoo we watched Elephants being fed, Tigers lounging around, patted Kangaroos and Koalas, saw Wombats, Red Pandas, Tasmanian Devils to name a few, plus a huge range of birds and reptiles - the snakes were especially interesting for us as we don't have any back home.

The highlight of the day was the Wildlife Warriors Show held in the Crocoseum - effectively a medium sized sports area but with a croc pool in as the centrepiece! In the half hour before the show Bindi Irwin (Steve's daughter) and a troupe of dancers 'entertained' the crowd with some animal themed song and dance routines - more for the little kids I think. The main show was amazing - a variety of birds flying in sync and on queue - flying above into and around the Stadium. whistling past in touching distance of the crowd provided the ideal curtain raiser. The star of the show was a 14ft man eating croc who cruised the central pool, stalked the Croc Keeper and fed 'out of the hand' of the staff. The commentary was informative and had a strong conservation theme. It was a great day, we took about four hours to get around - that was comfortable, there's so much to see and do that's a good amount of time to allow.

The surrounding within the Zoo are as natural as possible, its about as close as you could get o interacting with animals without being in the wild.

From there it was home for a relaxing evening, gearing up for the HUGE day tomorrow - State of Origin is almost here!

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Photos

Australia Zoo
A larger than life Steve Irwin greets visitors at the entrance to Australia Zoo.

Mixing with the Irwins
Jeanette and I at Australia Zoo. A brilliant must see tourist attraction.

Croc Antics
A 14 ft monster eying up dinner - it all made for great entertainment.

Koala Capers
Plenty of these cute little fella's were hanging around.