Australia Zoo, Beerwah

Today we're going to head to Australia Zoo using the Francey mobile - so I had better be careful! I have visited the local car park that is used for parents taking teens to learn to familiarise myself with an automatic! All I have to remember is the indicators are on the Right hand side otherwise I will be indicating with windscreen wipers!!
Ken has explained the route which is very straight forward and about an hours drive up into the Glass Mountain area towards the Sunshine coast. The drive up was really easy and the mountains were stunning. The Zoo itself started as a wildlife park and as the park got bigger it became Australia Zoo which was the brainchild of Steve Irwin - The Crocodile Hunter. Steve and Terri Irwin's vision has always been to make Australia Zoo the biggest and best wildlife conservation facility in the entire world! We arrived around 10.30 am after about 1 hrs drive. The park is divided into sections - we investigated the Australian Lizards and turtles, Komodo dragon and Aldabran tortoises, before having coffee at the food court. In this area is the Crocoseum where the zoo does their main show. As there were large numbers of families we gave the show a miss and were able to get a near empty shuttle up to the top of the park and we could then make our way downhill through all the other areas.
So we started in Africa - giraffe, zebra, rhinos and meerkats; headed to Bindi's Island (named after Steve's daughter) which has a tree house to see the free roaming Lemurs, a macaw and snapping turtles; next was Asia with Camel rides, a Red Panda and Tigers (sleeping) The zoo has a tiger base where they have around 13 tigers. As tigers get older they become more solitary so they have an enclosure for each tiger with different activities in each one. The tigers are moved around each enclosure so they get different experiences. The tigers only spend a certain amount of time in the zoo enclosure and they are rotated. As we had seen a lot of Australian animals we gave most of this area a miss, but did see Cockatoos and I stroked a koala. We walked through a kangaroo enclosure where you could stroke or feed the animals. One largish kangaroo had a keeper looking after her who explained that this Kangaroo was an old lady who could get a bit grouchy and snap at visitors, so she was there to look after her and move visitors on - Kangaroos can live up to 18 yrs and this one was 15. At the end of this enclosure we also saw Echidnas. After lunch we had a look at the Wombats, Snakes, Crocodiles, Alligators and Rhinoceros Iguanas.
The Zoo also has a 24 hr Wildlife Rescue service and wildlife hospital where they treat wild animals brought in to them or animals injured at the zoo. On the way back to the car we were able to have a 'sneak peek' in the hospital to see behind the scenes. On our way home we also got good views again of the Glass House Mountains. The drive home was fine until we got to the Sandgate turn off which is a little muddled due to roadworks but we got home ok.Read more