History of the Animal Park
The Australia Zoo is probably the most popular zoo in Australia and that is due to just one person: Steve Irwin. The Crocodile Hunter himself made the zoo famous. The animal park itself has its roots back in 1970 when it opened as the Beerwah Reptile and Fauna Park. Its main attractions back in the days and even today are the large numbers of reptiles, especially crocodiles which can be found in the front section of the back. The large Crocoseum stadium houses a world-class animal show and can hold up to 5000 visitors.
Tour of the park
If you follow the paths next to the Crocoseum you will end up in a large Kangaroo and Wallaby enclosure, where you can pet all your favourite Australian animals or have a look at Echidnas. Right behind the enclosure there is a small Dinosaur path and a wetland area, where you can find many wetland birds, Jabirus, Brolga and Emus.
From here you can go either through a koala walk-through and have a look at red kangaroos as well as many colourful birds in the rainforest aviary before looking at birds of prey or a lot of wombats or continue your way straight ahead into an Asian themed area. Here you can find red pandas, as well as a beautiful tiger enclosure.
The path then continues onto Bindi’s Island, where you can find lemurs, parrots, and tortoises or directly into Africa. The large savanna houses Giraffes, zebras and rhinoceroses and reminded me a lot of the heart of africa savanna at Columbus Zoo and Aquarium. It is a genuinely nice area and probably the one, where you can spend the most time at. At the end of the cul-de-sac there is a small meerkat enclosure.
As we did not have that much time at the Australia Zoo our day ended in the African section of the park. Shortly before closure all remaining guests are collected by the tram and brought back to the entrance of the park.
Pictures Australia Zoo
Conclusion Australia Zoo
The Australia Zoo is a nice animal park, which surely did profit a lot of the Crocodile Hunter show back in the days. 13 years after the death of Steve, it is nice to see the zoo growing, although I find it kind of questionable to offer a lot of upcharge experiences and still try to hold on the Crocodile Hunter’s legacy to sell more merch. At least there is a new show now called Crikey! It’s the Irwins, yet it’s nothing more than a scripted image movie for the zoo. If you have some time to spend, the Australia Zoo sure is a nice place to visit; yet it is not the world-class zoo you might expect.
What do you think about Australia Zoo? Just write it in the comments section below the review or visit our social media channels:
Click here for the next report of the Hell Yeah, Schabelteah! Tour