We visited the Australia Zoo in July 2024 and had a terrific time.
There were five of us: two old people, one young woman, and two teenage girls.
At the end of our trip, other than seeing friends, the Australia Zoo visit was our favorite experience.
(Closely followed by the Great Barrier Reef trip!)
Why?
- The young woman loved the Crocodile Hunter TV show as a child. (“It was the only show you let me watch,” she said. Not true. But close.)
- My husband and I liked the show, too.
- The teenagers didn’t care where they went in Australia but loved learning about crocodiles.
- We all felt -a little–better prepared before visiting Queensland’s “Croc Country.”
What made the Australia Zoo visit so good?
It’s a superb zoo.
We’ve visited several classic zoos: San Diego, San Francisco, the Bronx, and London.
We’ve also visited lesser zoos that showed us native animals, or wild beasts in a more “natural” environment.
That included a stop at the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary in Brisbane the day before. (Also worth a trip).
With the Australia Zoo, the Irwin family apparently took the money the TV show earned and turned it into an organized, efficient, well-laid-out experience.
Animal “docents” willingly answer any questions. They’re easy to find through the park.
There we stood beside a cage looking at a giant tortoise. While this was not the same tortoise owned by both Steve Irwin and Charles Darwin (the tortoise lived that long), it was still really big!
The colorful zoo map made it simple to find ourselves and follow the daily guide to whatever was happening that day.
Then there’s the “Crocoseum.”
No surprise, crocodiles are big at this zoo.
We arrived early for the day’s big event–which was Robert Irwin feeding crocodiles.
But it wasn’t just an exhibition of a giant crocodile leaping out of the water to eat a chicken carcass.
The Australia Zoo used the time before “lunch” to teach us lessons about crocodiles.
Who knew?
Certainly not us Californians.
For the rest of the trip, the teenagers watched for creeks and streams which, “might have crocodiles in them.”
(Since we left two days later for “croc country” Queensland, this information turned out to be important).
Most fascinating to me is that crocodiles make no ripples on the water surface as they cruise underwater.
That’s why they can sneak up on folks standing beside even the smallest creeks.
Too often, people never knew what was coming.
More animals at the Australia Zoo
While it calls itself the Australia Zoo, it doesn’t limit itself to animals from down under.
The cheetah exhibit is large enough that we watched the big spotted cat run!
The meerkats were adorable, practically posing on top of rocks!
We glimpsed zebras, giraffes, and two rhinoceros in a large field, not to mention tiger and elephant exhibits.
The zoo also had interactive events for kids. We laughed as the teenagers attempted to “beat the clock” against a cheetah.
The cheetah’s time always won.
Here are several highlights:
Engaging tigers behind a thick glass!
Two tired elephants.
And a last-minute laugh on our way out.
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Tigers, elephants, & crocs–oh my–at the Australia Zoo. Click to Tweet
More than just Down Under animals at the Australia Zoo. Click to Tweet
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