Cohunu Koala Park Review

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Just down the road from the Armadale Reptile and Wildlife Centre is another small zoo, the Cohunu Koala Park. This is a very strange zoo and different to all of the other zoos that I have written about in this thread in that I thought it was terrible and it's really not worth visiting unless you want to see its weirdness in person or have a spare $15 dollars that you need to get rid of.

The zoo has quite a large car park and from the car park you go through a gate in a fence which I assume is to keep the free-roaming animals from going onto the road. From here there is then quite a large area of empty land with nothing in it – not even plants – except the track for the train that goes around the zoo which goes through here. There are several random national flags along the path leading up to the main entrance/exit building which looks to be quite modern and also holds the Koala enclosure (that I would look at at the end). Inside this is a small gift shop and a few snack machines as well as a small cage containing a pet Long-billed Corella, similar to that at the entrance to the Armadale Reptile and Wildlife Park. Also sold at the entrance building are little bags of popcorn that are sold to be fed to the animals.

There is no particular order to the zoo, and no map as far as I know, and it seems to be random enclosures dotted around all over the place so I just went into the zoo and wandered around in as logical an order as possible in this very illogical zoo to make sure I saw everything. I started with the area right next to the entrance where the first thing I noticed were loads of free-roaming peafowl and this continued throughout the zoo with more peafowl and lots of free-roaming animals in general. In front of the Koala area (the entrance to which was out of a different door in the gift shop) was a row of bird enclosures that can only be described as wire boxes as they were basically a row of metal-framed cubes with the sides made entirely out of wire, and a corrugated iron roof on top. Though the cages looked awful, they weren’t so tiny, and each had some branches arranged in perches, and nest boxes for the smaller birds. In these enclosures were Budgies (blue and green ones) Princess Parrots (again normal and blue) mixed with a superb parrot, cockatiel, zebra finches, and the main row of cages that were joined up were Sulphur-crested Cockatoo, Galah, and Major Mitchell Cockatoo. All of these, even the larger parrots were kept in small groups rather than singularly.

Opposite the bird cages are the enclosures for Rabbits and Guinea Pigs. One of these was an open-topped low walled enclosure (with a crumbling wall) that as well as having Rabbits and Guinea Pigs also had loads of Peafowl and several small children. I have no idea if the small children were supposed to be in there or not because I didn’t see a single member of staff around the zoo at all apart from the person driving the train, the person at the till at the entrance, and the person with the Koalas for the cuddle/photo with the Koala. The lack of keepers being around hadn’t dawned on me at this point and I started to notice the odd lack of anyone official being around about halfway through my visit.
In addition to the open-topped enclosure for Rabbits and Guinea Pigs, there were also two small mesh enclosures that contained the individuals that were for sale to visitors.

Also around this same area was the enclosure for Echidnas and Bobtail Skinks with a some quite nice big wattle trees around. This wasn’t a particularly bad enclosure. It wasn’t brilliant, but it had some logs and things, a sandy substrate, and a reasonable amount of space with two very active echidnas and a not-so-active Bobtail Skink. What was bad about this enclosure though was that the ground was covered in popcorn, as sold by the zoo to feed to the animals. It wasn’t just the ground that was covered in popcorn, the echidnas also had popcorn stuck firmly onto themselves!

The other thing worth mentioning from around this area was that, like everywhere else in the zoo, there were several very big and very ugly looking models of dinosaurs and other things. As well as just being inherently ugly things, what made them worse was that a significant number of them were partially broken and had paint coming off. Around this area the models that could be seen included a Pterosaur leaning over into the rabbit enclosure, a group of Velociraptors, Humpty Dumpty, a family of cartoon koalas, and an odd blue dragon.

I then continued to a circular aviary that was divided into two halves, one for Laughing Kookaburras, and the other for Boobook Owls and Tawny Frogmouths. The enclosures weren’t bad being large enough with some perches, and this was one of only three enclosures (or places in the zoo in general) with a ground cover of plants, and having greenery around is not something that you tend to notice but it really makes a big difference, particularly considering the huge areas of bare red-brown ground that this zoo had. There was a horrible dinosaur too of course, this time a blue Stegosaurus nearby.

I then continued past the end of the Dingo enclosure that I would come back to later to the 'Crocodile Station' which is where you can pay to have a train ride around the zoo. On either side of the station were two pit-style enclosures, one with the word 'wombats' written in a funny font next to the enclosure, and the other with 'crocodiles'. Both were empty, and both would probably not have been great for the named inhabitants anyway. My guess is that they once held them and they no longer do. I then continued around to the Dingo enclosure itself, passing a feeding area for free-roaming Emus. I had already seen a couple walking around, but there were several gathered around here and there was nothing to stop, or discourage people from walking up to them.

I then continued down a path running between the farm area and the dingo enclosure. The farm area was comprised of an enclosure for pigs, and a larger walkthrough enclosure with some small ponies, goats, and donkeys. As well as people being able to enter the enclosure, the animals themselves were actually able to walk out of it because the gate was left open. This seemed to be intentional because there was a sign saying that if the inhabitants of the enclosure were not there, they would be out grazing around the park. I imagine this is a bit difficult for them though because there is no grass, so most of them stayed in their enclosure where there is hay. The ones that did come out of the enclosure and approach visitors did get popcorn though.

Opposite this was the Dingo enclosure in which the Dingoes were, thankfully, securely contained, and it would not be easy for anyone to climb into the enclosure which was good because it was at around this point that I started to notice that if anyone tried to climb into the enclosure, there was no staff member around to stop them. The Dingo enclosure actually wasn’t bad though. It was fairly large and well vegetated, particularly compared to the standards of the rest of the zoo, with grass and big trees. There was also a large mound of dirt that the Dingoes could go on top of with a large pipe underneath for the Dingoes to go in.

Continuing past the Dingo enclosure, I came to a pond, complete with a hideous sea monster thing. There were a few bushes around here though, and a bit of vegetation on an island in the middle. This pond wasn’t enclosed within any fences, but most of the waterfowl that was free-roaming around the zoo stayed around here which were a pair of Black Swans, a Muscovy Duck, a group of Domestic Geese, and a fairly large group of Australian Pelicans. Both the pelicans and the geese actually tried to attack me when I got close, which was difficult to avoid because they were sitting on the path. The other thing that I particularly criticise about this area was how terribly dirty the pond and the surrounding paths were.

In area around the pond was another animal exhibit that was a row of tiny mesh aviaries, each holding a single talking parrot with Major Mitchell Cockatoos, Galahs, Little and Long-billed Corellas, and Sulphur-crested Cockatoos being the species held.

Each aviary had a water and food dish, a perch, and a tin can for the bird to play with, but otherwise they were just bare mesh aviaries. Having a single aviary could maybe be justified as having a pet parrot, particularly if the parrot regularly came out of the aviary to be handled, but it looked like this row of aviaries had parrots living in them permanently. They did seem to be quite friendly though, coming up to the bars and sticking their heads out through them to be stroked, though one parrot decided that when it had had enough of being stroked, it would bite a child that came up to it to try and stroke it. This picture of the back of the aviaries gives an idea of how big this row was.

There were also a few odd things around here that weren’t living animals. The train track ran nearby to here and beyond that, behind some trees, was an area where huge broken dinosaurs had just been dumped. There were some non-broken models in the area too including a Triceratops, a Sabre-toothed Tiger, several giant scorpions and an absolutely huge model of a Quokka. There was also a seating area and, rather oddly, a deep-space observatory located above the toilet block with a sign saying it was being developed as funds became available. I couldn’t help think that they’d be better off developing the zoo than the observatory! I don’t know if I was supposed to go up onto the platform of the observatory or not, but there were no signs saying I shouldn’t so I did, which gave a view over the whole zoo.



After looking at the view from the platform of the deep space observatory, I continued on to the kangaroo/deer walkthrough which holds Red, and Western Grey Kangaroos, as well as Swamp Wallabies, Red, and Fallow Deer, as well as lots of Peafowl. The enclosure wasn’t actually that bad, it seemed large enough and there was a sheltered barn area for the animals.

There were several joeys too that I assume were bred at the park, so that must be a good sign. The ground cover in the enclosure was an odd grey sand though, and there didn’t seem to be an area where the animals could get away from people going up to them, touching them, and giving them popcorn. I don’t know if it was intended that people stay on the paths, but they weren’t, and there were no signs or volunteers/keepers to tell them to do so. At the end of the kangaroo enclosure was an adjoining enclosure housing two male Common Ostrich. This did seem to be a pretty good enclosure though with lots of space, grass, and trees, though it was a bit odd that the viewing was from within the kangaroo walkthrough.

This was actually the last enclosure at the Cohunu Koala Park, apart from the Koala enclosure that I would look at on the way out. But because the enclosures were just randomly dotted around, I walked around a bit to make sure I had seen everything. The one bit that I hadn’t seen yet was a huge area of nothingness behind the train station that was only used as an area for the train to drive around.

However it did have lots of free-roaming animals, including lots of Alpacas, Llamas, Guinea Fowl, Turkeys, and Chickens. There were also two Western Grey Kangaroos that may or may not have been part of the zoo’s collection. This was a really ugly looking area though. Although there were lots of trees, there were no ground cover plants at all, and just bare ground with piles of rubble and bits of wire all over the place. There was also a really weird castle thing that the train went through that looked really odd where it was.

After seeing that, I was confident I had seen everything in the zoo apart from the exhibit I was leaving until last which was the Koala exhibit. There was a keeper here, the first keeper I had seen during my entire visit, who was looking after a baby Llama, and also doing the cuddle/photo with a Koala that is available for an additional cost ($30 on top of a $15 entry fee). I didn’t do it of course. The Koala enclosure itself was a wooden frame with Eucalyptus leaves in holders, the kind of thing that is quite common in Australian zoos, though I personally don’t like it and much prefer a more natural looking enclosure.

They had about half a dozen Koalas, of which two were Southern Koalas, and the rest Northern, and there was a big sign about the keeping of koalas at Cohunu Koala Park, one of precious few signs anywhere in the zoo. Also in the visitor area of the Koala exhibit was a row of small bird cages, each with a single Australian Ringneck Parrot or Rainbow Lorikeet.

I had then seen everything in the zoo so I headed out, stopping to note a sign showing the zoo’s rather odd logo. I also note on their website that as well as displaying the logo, they have the slogan "About as close to nature as you’ll ever get!" What rubbish. So it’s not difficult to work out that I didn’t like Cohunu Koala Park much at all. Some of it was so ridiculous that it’s almost comical. A few of the enclosures weren’t bad, but many were absolutely awful, particularly for the parrots. I may have been slightly less harsh about this zoo if it wasn’t in Australia, but generally the quality of Australian zoos that I have seen has been excellent, and I expected more. The zoo also seemed really, really neglected. Paths were dirty and covered in animal poo, many enclosures were dirty, there were empty enclosures that were simply abandoned, and broken stuff was just left out in the visitor area. The lack of planting also made the place seem abandoned, and of course the lack of keepers or volunteers anywhere made it seem neglected. Then there’s all the weird stuff around the zoo. Why is there a half-built deep space observatory on the toilet block? And there are so many horrible dinosaurs and other models all over the place. I understand that those are a big attraction to small children, but they could at least paint them, and properly dispose of old ones rather than leaving them in a big pile. The next thing is all the free-roaming animals, and the environment that they are wandering around in is surely not great for them, and there was serious overkill on the number of peafowl all over the place. It also seems to be a potential safety hazard with the potentially dangerous free-roaming animals completely unsupervised. Normally I would also complain about the near-complete lack of signage throughout the zoo, but there were bigger problems at the Cohunu Koala Park than that.

I think a big part of the problem is that the zoo doesn’t know whether it is a wildlife park or a petting zoo, and at the moment it seems to be trying to do both and failing at both. The basic infrastructure is there, but the zoo needs some care and attention and it has the potential to be a good small zoo. Or with a big injection of cash, it has the potential to be a great medium sized zoo. But at the moment it’s neither and is a very weird, neglected, and generally pretty awful zoo.

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