On our last day on the Gold Coast, we decided to do a long drive north to Beerwah and visit the famous Australia Zoo. It took us just over 2 hours to get there from Tweed, through Brisbane and north towards the Sunshine Coast. The highway to Beerwah has been re-named as the Steve Irwin Highway and there are billboards every few kilometers giving the distance to Australia Zoo.
We parked up and went in, this place is massive and caters for just about everyone. There are buggys for children, vehicles for elderly and disabled, smoking areas, plentiful cafes and toilet facilities. We were given a map and brochure detailing the times of all of the shows, and off we went. After a hearty breakfast at a reasonable price (well, we needed time to figure out which stuff to see first)
We headed for the Crocoseum to watch the famous croc show.
The Crocoseum is an arena which seats 5,000 people and hosts daily snake, bird and croc shows..... we saw all 3 shows and they were fantastic. The hosts of the shows warm up the audience with a tribute to Steve and they have various parts of the audience shouting 'CRIKEY' at different intervals. All of the shows are educational and contain information about how to deal with some of Australia's poisonous or toothy creatures, how to deal with a snake bite, how to avoid croc attack and why some of these animals attack. It was a brilliant show and taught us a lot.
We wandered at will around the zoo, visiting different animals in their specially designed homes. The animals here look really happy, they are all well fed and obviously cared for. We walked through the Roo enclosure where you can hand feed the Roos. They weren't at all timid and responded well to the plethora of visitors. I was in animal heaven when I got to stroke and hand feed a Kangaroo, they are surprisingly soft to stroke. We then went to the Elephant house and watched it's residents taking their bath.
There were many areas to this zoo, tigers, birds, otters, dingos, wombats, Tasmanian devils, koalas, lizards galore and many many more. The staff here are really helpful and will often take some of the animals for walks around the park and give visitors the opportunity to touch them and ask questions. All of the animals have names and as I said, they all looked relaxed, happy and comfortable.
There is a big visitor information section with a massive picture wall detailing the history of the zoo, there is also a tribute area to Steve Irwin where people have sent stuff to the zoo, cards, khaki shirts with messages on them, model crocs etc. It is very poignant to walk through and read the tributes. It was a full day of a job visiting this place but all I can say is that it was worth the drive. The zoo is full of smiling faces, loved animals and is a fantastic legacy to Steve Irwin who, although sometimes seen as a little mad, has obviously worked so hard to achieve this fabulous place.
After we left, we drove south to Glasshouse Mountains villiage and had a bite to eat before hiking up to one of the viewpoints. It was getting a bit dusky by then and we could hear things rustling in the bush on our walk to the view point. I was constantly aware of the things that live in the grass here
and wondered why Australia's wildlife has evolved to be so dangerously venomous..
After a brilliant view of the mountains we walked back downhill to our car for the long drive to Tweed. Neither of us were accosted by the things which live in the bush but.........If we had have been, we would have known how to avoid or deal with it..
Here are some pics from Australia Zoo. The lovely Roos, Bath Time, Ancient Creatures, Cassowary (these can be vicious, hence the fencing), Glasshouse Mts, and the welcome sign at Australia Zoo.