Today we marked off another of Jenna’s Big Bucket List items, and headed over to Australia Zoo. She, like many her age, was raised watching Steve Irwin’s The Crocodile Hunter, so we’ve been invested in him and later his family’s Australia Zoo projects for many years. It was a real pleasure to see that their zoo really lived up to the hype, and they created a beautiful place for animals and to educate future generations. The zoo is in Beerwah where Steve Irwin grew up.

It was another early start for us, as we had tickets for Jenna and Connor to participate in the 9:30 “Wombat Encounter.” We started with a to-go breakfast at a cafe by our condo, and then headed out for the hour drive to the zoo.

Wombats

We arrived just in time for Jenna and Connor’s Wombat Encounter. With a small group, the wombat keeper took them out to a field, educated them about wombats, and gave each person in the group a chance to pet and take pictures with the wombat. Jenna and Connor learned that wombats have a rear facing pouch, have a 35 day gestation period, and that predators leave them alone because they have powerful butts that they smush things with. 😂 They call them “battle butts”!

The Family Legacy

This zoo is absolutely amazing. The habitats are large and well thought out, everything was clean and well organized, and there seemed to be plenty of staff everywhere. As an organization, this zoo focuses a lot on being good stewards of the earth. Pretty cool. There is naturally also a lot of focus on the Irwin family, including pictures, back stories on all the family members, etc. We enjoyed learning more about Steve and his parents (also conservationists), his wife Terri, daughter and son Bindi and Robert, and granddaughter Grace. Each family member has a part of the park named for him or her. 😁

Leapin’ Lizards (and other reptiles)

As one might imagine, being founded by the man called The Crocodile Hunter meant that the park was full of alligators and crocodiles, plus many other reptiles. These little water dragons (first picture below) were free roaming in the park and we saw them everywhere!!

Lunch at Warrior

The Irwin family built a beautiful lodge and restaurant near the zoo just a few years ago, and we decided to go there for lunch. The Warrior restaurant overlooks a huge animal habitat with koalas, kangaroos, and more. The food was fantastic, and the view was, too. The zoo provides a few shuttle to and from the park to the lodge.

Enchanting Echidnas

After lunch Rob and I had our animal encounter selection with the tiny little echidna. Ours was named “Three Feet” for obvious reasons, having been found and rescued from a pool drain and requiring an amputation of one of his legs. After his leg was rehabbed, Three Feet was going to be released back into the wild when his keepers found out that he was allergic to ants, one of the main staple foods of an echidna’s diet! Poor little guy! So, he has stayed at the zoo. We learned soooo much about these funky little egg-laying marsupials! Plus we got to pet Three Feet, who had spiky quills that felt like waxy plants. He was so cute! We also met his friend Prickle.

For the Birds

As we’ve already seen with the rest of our Australia travels, Australia is for the birds! We saw so many cool bird species today around the park and in “Grace’s Bird Garden.” Sound up to hear the talking cockatoo!

Around the Park

We spent literally all day exploring this huge and beautiful zoo. They have free roaming ring tailed lemurs, kangaroos that you can feed, and a bunch of shows that we didn’t make it too because there was too much to see.

Animal Hospital

Our last stop at the end of the zoo day was the Animal Hospital located on the zoo grounds where they see and treat wildlife on daily and emergency basis. Being a vet tech, Jenna was especially interested in this aspect of the animal care. The zoo will pick up animals for rescue as needed, and have had up to 80 koalas in the hospital at a time!

Back to Brisbane

After our long zoo day, we headed back to Brisbane. It was a little too chilly for our condo’s cool pool, so we ended up getting a pizza from a place near by and just having an early night. Tomorrow Jenna and Connor leave us 😭😭😭, so as long as their flights run smoothly (despite the many cancellations due to air traffic shutdowns back in the US), they will be back home Sunday night. We are going to miss them terribly, but are so grateful for the memories made.

Thanks for adventuring with us!