When I woke up in the morning, I was psyched to go to the Australia Zoo. It didn’t open until 10am and it was a 90 minute drive. So when we woke up at 7am, I felt like we had plenty of time to walk down to the Kangaroo Cliffs and back, then still be able to walk in the door of the zoo, when it opened.
Along the way, we stopped at a little coffee shop, then an open air cafe for a quick cannoli, before arriving at the steep staircase down the cliffside to the river bank. Once we arrived at the river level, we started walking down a paved path, where people were walking, running, and biking for some morning exercise. This really gave me a connected feeling, like I would be doing similar activities, if I happened to live in the area. The cliffs themselves were a very beautiful orange rock, which looked out of place based on the look of the surrounding space.
We walked over to the river bank and climbed out on some rocks to take some photos with the city skyline in the background. Then Elizabeth began talking to some locals about some of the best things to do in Brisbane for tourists. One of the women felt like we needed to drop everything and hop on a ferry to Stradbroke Island. The way that they described the island as sort of a forgotten, isolated, wilderness, with animals free roaming, sounded amazing and exciting. However, we had such limited time in the area, that we decided to stick to our agenda and continue to the Australia Zoo. After we wrapped up our conversation, we walked back to our car, that was parked at the AirBnb. Then, we started driving from Brisbane, to what was called the Sunshine Coast.
Growing up, there were two people that brought on my love of Australia, Paul Hogan as Crocodile Dundee, and Steve Irwin, the Crocodile Hunter. Every episode that I can remember, brought up the Australia Zoo in some way, so the zoo became sort of an over the top presenter Mecca. The Australia Zoo WAS Australia, so until we arrived, we hadn’t seen Australia in my heart.
The drive on the highway from the city was smooth and traffic-less. The slight change in landscape from urban to rural gave us a real road trip type of feel and the feeling like we were really on a journey to an exotic place. The final stretch of drive off the main highway was a two lane road with trees on either side, and the occasional road side stand. My anticipation made this part of the drive seem longer than the journey before it. When we saw the sign with Steve Irwin’s face on it, it was like I had arrived at MY Disneyland.
We would come to find that in the same way that Mickey Mouse was the timeless face of Disneyland, the deceased Steve Irwin would be forever the youthful and enthusiastic icon of the Australia Zoo. His wife and kids have grown without him, and while their family feels like it becomes an extension of your family while you are there, you still feel haunted by Steve presence.
As soon as you enter the zoo, through the admissions area, you are greeted by the Irwin family, including their dog enshrined in bronzed, while holding up a crocodile. If this doesn’t represent the legacy of the family, I don’t know what does.
In all of my various trips to zoos and amusement parks, including Dreamworld the previous day, I have never been to a place where every animal enclosure seems to bring you closer to the animals than ever before. Around the corner from the entrance, they had the crocodiles and alligators on both sides of the covered walkway. This attraction almost gave you the sensation that you were looking over the side of a bridge at these giant retiles bathing below. As you continued through the open walkways of the park, you are drawn to the Crocoseum. This area of the park is essentially the heart of the zoo, where the large gift shops are located along with animal encounter photos, and a food court on the second floor.
Going through the walkway to the Crocoseum, you are shown a photographic history of Steve as the Crocodile Hunter and sort of the evolution of the zoo. Then you are brought to the arena-style outdoor seating, which surrounds a center stage, where you know that Steve Irwin, himself, started the gimmick that put him on the map. Thousands of shows have probably take place since his death, but I still remember seeing this stage on the Discovery Channel when I was a teenager.
We found some seats a few rows up the bleachers, that gave us a great view of the action. You could see the whole stage area perfectly. It did feel like we were a little far back to really be frightened by the encounter, but perhaps the illusion of safety would be used in the show. I just hooked up my zoom lens to get some good footage.
When the show started, two young ladies came out on stage and that old crocodile hunter charisma oozed throughout the stadium and you really felt like you were seeing something special take place. The trainers performed their parts with perfect energy, and the right amount of humor and education to keep us entertained in our device obsessed culture.
The first act had the two performers re-enacting a poisonous snake getting lost. Then a third performer came out holding a fake snake, not knowing that it was poisonous. Then she pretended that she got bit by the snake. Apparently, in Australia when this happens, most people don’t know what to do, so they provided the audience with a PSA. Essentially, if you get bit by a poisonous snake, if you move quickly the venom spreads quickly through your body, but if you move slowly, then the venom stays near the bit. The screen in the stadium displayed the following steps. 1. Keep calm. 2. Apply compression. and 3. Call an ambulance.
The second act featured the same two female performers, who would be showing a birds in flight demonstration. They had a quick contest to pick out winners in the audience, who would then have birds flown out to their outstretched arms. In three of the four sides of the arena the bird would fly out to the individual volunteers. It was fun to wonder how the birds learned to fly to different people at different times, but they were always rewarded with treats when they came back to the trainers.
The final act of the show was, of course, the huge crocodile. This creature was why you came to the Australia Zoo, because you knew that these crocodile encounters were going to look good. Even from our seats, the jaws and teeth looked menacing. We knew that these animals were trained and conditioned to make their marks for fish and other meat, but it was still scary to watch them hop out of the water. The two male performers did a great job showing off the beauty and the power of the crocodile, which gave you a real feeling of respect for the animal.
After the show we walked back to the wildlife photo line. There were three options for the meet and greet photo. A photo with a koala, one with a snake, and one with a baby crocodile. While a photo with a massive adult crocodile would have blown them all away, these crocs were only about 18 inches long and might as well have been in a terrarium in someone’s home. The koala, which was a little bigger than a human baby, would basically give you a big hug, on top of the fact that you would have a timeless photo op. The photo print was a mere $49.99 AUD, which it basically nothing for the priceless opportunity.
After such an extraordinary hour of awesome, it was hard to know what to do next. We looked around the area and felt like even though we just hand an amazing encounter with a koala, maybe we could get a few fun shots with a sheep or goat in the petting zoo.
The footprint of the zoo was massive and combined with the heat and humidity, it made us feel like we were really covering some ground. We continued through the wetlands and passed Bindy’s Pony Trails, until we began walking through the East Asian section of the zoo. It is here that we stopped to watch a tiger show.
We had seen a tiger show at Dreamworld the day before, so we were going to be comparing the two. While the Dreamworld stage was wide open and had no obstructions, you sat further back from the animals. On the other hand, the zoo had a much smaller bleacher section, but was blocked by large pillars in the middle of the enclosure. It was possible to see the center area where the tigers were going to be performing, so it did work out in the end. The thing that was turning out to be incredible about this show was that the tiger performing was blind, but was able to be lead by sound and smell. He hit all of his marks and the show was a hit.
After the show, we continued down the path passed Bindy’s Island and following the river out to the Africa section of the zoo. Most zoos that I have been to have their giraffes and zebras in relatively small enclosures, where they aren’t able to run around. But at the Australia Zoo, these animals are able to migrate across a fairly large space. It was feeding time and the giraffes were crowded around their fake tree feeders, while the zebras were munching on some grass, but I really wanted to see these animals take off and really utilize their space.
Always a rambunctious bunch, the meerkats were walking quickly around their enclosure and staying active. There is always a lookout making little noises to alert the others about what’s going on. Just beyond the fence behind them was the rhino enclosure, which felt like it was about the same amount of space as the giraffes. And they don’t even have long legs that need stretching.
The amount of land that is owned by the zoo is definitely impressive. As we were making our way around the zoo, we never got the feeling that the animals were “trapped in cages” or weren’t given enough space to stretch.
We stopped off at a refreshment stand for a quick ice cream treat, to beat the heat, before following the path back to the rest of the zoo. While we were walking back we saw a large carved elephant statue and noticed that there was an empty enclosure where elephants probably had once roamed. We walked into a gift shop, next to Bindy’s Original Treehouse, and decided to talk to the clerk about the absence of elephants. The woman plainly explained that the zoo had elephants before, but they died. She didn’t explain why they weren’t replaced or they they still had a gift show selling elephant souvenirs along side their Buddha statues. I started to have a bit of false nostalgia about the elephants and felt a little melancholy at the loss. Only the statues were left to hold their legacy.
We circled back around to the koala area, which brought you so close to the koalas that you were actually allowed to touch one, without being supervised by a handler or paying $49.99. A nearby trainer did specify that you should touch them on the lower back, but didn’t specify a time period, so you could take your time. In our previous interactions with koalas at Dreamworld or the Koala Park near Sydney, the koalas were heavily protected behind a wall and were at least 6 feet away. This was a superior koala experience.
There were, of course, signs that were posted that said, “Don’t touch, we are having a break.” around some of the koalas. So I suppose that they just rotate who is touched when and the koalas don’t get over stimulated. It was freeing however that they allowed you so much trust with the animals, because that sort of freedom doesn’t seem to exist in the states. If someone is able to get close to a koala, they will do something stupid and ruin it for everyone. But in Australia, we didn’t see anyone running off with one, so I guess it was the right kind of crowd for an open koala exhibit. The thing that I thought was so cool about the koalas, was how chill and cute they are when they are sleeping, but surprisingly we saw some that were actually awake.
After the koalas, we walked through the adjacent kangaroo enclosure. Much like the other captive kangaroos that we saw throughout Australia, they seemed barely caged. You could walk right up to them and give them a little pet on the back or feed them some grain. The space that these animals were given was easily the size of a city park. There were lots of shady trees that a kangaroo could relax under on a hot humid day like today.
We continued through to the aviaries. There were quite a few birds that were easily spotted and there were signs that we could use to recognize them, but unfortunately, I wasn’t able to get any good footage of them.
The next animals on our journey were the wombats, but it seemed that we happened upon them when they were taking their afternoon nap. Nearby was a reptile house, where some animals were kept in temperature controlled cages. It was here that one animal stood out more than all the others, and that was the king brown snake. It was the same one that I happened upon in Lamington National Park a few days prior. The one behind the glass certainly seemed longer than the one in the forest, but who knows how much of him was hiding under the leaves of the forest floor.
Back outside we found a few more wombats, these ones were eating some dinner. We even saw a wombat walking on a leash, but I’m not sure if they make very good pets. For such small creatures, they seemed to be given a lot of space. We went to their different enclosures and it looked like they could run around quite easily.
It was getting near closing time and as we continued passed some of the tiny lizards that roamed freely around the zoo, we found ourselves around the corner from the Crikey Cafe, located on the second floor near the Crocoseum. It was a great spot to find a snack that would tide us over until we arrived back in Brisbane and could have a real meal. All of the food in the food court was prepackaged at this time of day, so we picked up a few boxes from the warmer and walked them to the register. There were also a large selection of sweets available at the coffee bar, but we decided to take a pass.
We sat at a bar overlooking a few of the animals below. I had picked up a delicious, vegetarian spinach and ricotta cheese roll, while Elizabeth picked up an asian noodle dish.
After dinner, we head down to the main gift shop. We decided to spare no expense, by making sure that we bought a ridiculous amount of merchandise, to support the park and also have a piece of the zoo. We bought t-shirts for us and the kids, tin cups, a keychain, a bull roarer, a plastic coffee mug, an Australian opal ring, and of course a Steve Irwin funko pop figure. It would be silly to think that we would leave empty-handed, but we easily doubled the price of admission in souvenirs.
We made our way towards the exit of the zoo, but not without stopping at a few more photo ops. There was a giant bronze crocodile that we pretended was eating us. Followed by a huge poster of Steve Irwin doing a jump shot, which I was trying to emulate. Elizabeth got a few takes of each shot, before we headed toward the parking lot.
We would come to find out that we had missed an entire section of the zoo, but we instead were able to go to the animal hospital that was located across the parking lot. There happened to be an owl and an opossum that were being treated in the clinic, but the building seemed to be more or less empty. On our way out, we saw a turtle, who was having some minor surgery done. Just at a quick glance at the staff and it seemed like he was in good hands.
Traveling back to Brisbane, saw the sunsetting behind the Tibrogargan, a hill that was created by cooled magma that was forced up into the vents of a volcano. We were able to take some interesting shots before we got back on the M1 to the AirBNB.