Tonight, we acknowledge that we’ve spent the day on the land of the Gubbi Gubbi people – the lands where Australia Zoo now sits, and where the town of Landsborough now sits. We pay our respects to their elders past, present and emerging.
Today was a day of Australia Zoo! My mum had bought the kids tickets to Australia Zoo for Christmas a few years ago, and we decided we’d use them as part of this holiday. And as a bonus, Mum was able to come down for the visit with us from Hervey Bay.
Before we got there though, we had the 2.5 hour drive down from Hervey Bay to Beerwah on the Sunshine Coast – and we had a couple of big things to tick off our list! The first was Matilda – a big kangaroo. She was the mascot for the 1982 Commonwealth Games in Brisbane, before living near Wet’n’Wild on the Gold Coast. And she has then lived at a couple of service stations up near Kybong and Traveston, just south of Gympie. Our second big thing was, of course, the Big Pineapple! Amazing to think this has been around since 1971. It was just a quick stop at both, because Australia Zoo was still a little bit further down the road.
We arrived at Australia Zoo a bit after 11 – a bit later than we probably would’ve liked, but still with plenty of time to see everything! We wandered through some of the animals in the main area of the Zoo (right in front of the entrance) for the first hour and a bit, and it really was quite incredible. You can see the effort and time and money that has gone into making this a really spectacular zoo – and one where the animals definitely have nice enclosures.
We made our way to the main outdoor auditorium – the Crocoseum – for the Wildlife Warriors show at 1:15pm. Essentially, their main show where they talk about a bunch of different animals, and do some croc feeding. They had a few different staff members come out and talk through some of the animals, including quite a few different birds which just flew around the outdoor stadium, which was amazing to see! And then when it came time for the croc feeding, out came the Irwin family – Terri, Robert, Bindi and her husband Chandler. It was everything I expected from the Irwin family (and from the whole show) – loud and energetic, over-acted, mostly scripted, very polished… but we loved it! Of course it was hugely different to a bunch of other shows we’ve seen at different wildlife parks over the past 3 months – but it had to be. People would come here specifically to see that style of show. It’s (part of) what the Irwin family has built their incredible brand on. But what was also very clearly talked about was how passionate they are about animal and wildlife conservation, and that these shows are designed to make us love, admire, and respect these amazing animals so that we’ll want to do more about protecting and conserving them too. It was actually that part that I don’t think I’ve heard spoken quite as clearly anywhere else we’ve been on this trip.
From there we headed through the other sections of the Zoo – the wetlands, a few different bird enclosures, some beautiful wombats, and a wonderful Koala walk-through section, where you actually get to be really close to the koalas and have an opportunity to pat one as well. After a quick visit to the otters for their live show, we jumped on the shuttle bus to head down to the Africa section, which was just huge. It was great to see the giraffes, zebras, rhinos and plenty of other animals with such vast spaces to roam in. As we wandered around the Africa section, it was pushing 4pm, and we realised it was really time to start walking back towards the entrance from essentially what was the bottom corner of the Zoo! We ended up heading out close to 5pm. The kids picked up a couple of soft toys in the gift shop, as they each spent almost the last of their holiday money. It really was a wonderful day out, and it’s a beautiful and really well run zoo.
When we arrived, the carpark was absolutely packed, and we thought we’d be in for a day surrounded by lots of people. But the only time it really felt busy was in the main auditorium for the show at lunch time (and even then, it wasn’t full). There was plenty of space to wander, and there was no real feeling of “busy” anywhere. It’s such a well laid out Zoo. It’s obviously an incredibly well run place, and it looks incredibly polished – but it’s also wonderful to see so much effort has gone into providing some beautiful and clean and big enclosures for the animals.
After finishing up right on 5pm, it was great that our place for tonight was just 5 minutes down the road in Landsborough. Another lovely little Airbnb that we’re all sharing tonight. Tomorrow morning thankfully won’t be as rushed – but we’ll be on the road by mid morning, making our way down to Tambourine Mountain.
