Australia 2010: Australia Zoo

This blog entry consists of wikipedia content and my pictures with some remarks.

Australia Zoo is located in the Australian state of Queensland on the Sunshine Coast near Beerwah/Glass House Mountains. It is owned by Terri Irwin, the widow of Steve Irwin, whose wildlife documentary series The Crocodile Hunter made the zoo a popular tourist attraction. Steve Irwin and nicknamed "The Crocodile Hunter", was an Australian television personality, wildlife expert, and conservationist.

Irwin achieved worldwide fame from the television series The Crocodile Hunter, an internationally broadcast wildlife documentary series co-hosted with his wife Terri (née Raines).

Irwin died on 4 September 2006 after being fatally pierced in the chest by a stingray barb while filming in Australia's Great Barrier Reef.

Australia Zoo was opened by Bob and Lyn Irwin on 3rd June 1970 under the name Beerwah Reptile Park. Bob Irwin is a world renowned herpetologist, who is regarded as a pioneer in the keeping and breeding of reptiles. His wife Lyn was one of the first to care for and rehabilitate sick and injured wildlife in southeast Queensland.

(The birds were part of the crocodile show at the Crocoseum - very impressive free flights!)

Bob and Lyn passed on their love and respect for wildlife to their children, Liam Stephen James but mainly to their other son Steve, who had helped his parents since childhood to care for crocodiles and reptiles and to maintain the growing number of animals in the zoo.

Over a decade later the park was renamed to the Queensland Reptile and Fauna Park and the area was doubled with the purchase of another 1.62 hectares. In 1987 the Crocodile Environmental Park was opened in an effort to aid saltwater crocodile protection.

By the 1990s the Crocodile Environmental Park had become very popular and was seen as unique for its display of crocodile feeding within the park.

In 1991 Steve Irwin overtook management of the zoo. In 1992 the park was renamed again, becoming Australia Zoo. Currently, the zoo maintains more than 2000 animals and over 600 staff.

Australia Zoo won the Australian Tourism Awards for 2003-2004 in the category Major Tourist Attraction. Australia Zoo Retail has also won the Tourism Retailing Award from Qantas Australian Tourism Awards.

On 16 March 2008 the Brisbane-based newspaper, The Sunday Mail, claimed there are plans to sell Australia Zoo to Animal Planet and create a $100-million Disney-style wildlife theme park. However, these claims appear to be unfounded with Terri publicly announcing she has no plans to sell the zoo and in fact is looking to expand the park from 28 hectares to over 400 hectares.

(Jonah feeding a kangaroo)

Zoo development

In the meantime, the zoo has encompassed a large area of 100 hectares, (this will be expanded to over 2 km2 - 202 hectares - in due course), in which many animals live. In order to reduce long walks, a 'modified trailered bus' has been utilised, named Steve's Safari Shuttle, which operates on a bitumen roadway circuit.

(Joshua feeding a kangaroo)

At the zoo there is also a stadium, named the 'Animal Planet Crocoseum', which has a capacity of approximately 5000. At the time of its construction, it was the first in the world where snake, bird and crocodile shows were conducted. Australia Zoo calls these shows 'Wildlife Warriors 101'. Visitors can also view a crocodile feeding and participate in an elephant feeding (the elephant feeding can be participated in during the mornings on the roadway circuit at the first crossover to the internal section of the zoo or in the afternoons at 'Elephantasia' (Australia's largest Elephant exhibit) around the back of the zoo near tiger temple).

There is a running space for kangaroos that visitors can feed, and there is often an opportunity to pet a koala.

The zoo's sponsored charity Wildlife Warriors also run a rescue operation and care station for any native wildlife who may be injured in accidents outside the zoo.

As of the end of 2008, the elephant enclosure and water pool has been completed and 'Elephantasia' officially opened on December 26, 2006. Furthermore, a construction of an artificial island (to represent the Island of Madagascar), began in 2006, which will accommodate African animals such as tortoises, lemurs and other species not yet represented, This section will open Mid 2009.

The South-East Asian Precinct will also be improved with the introduction of Orangutans, and transfer of the Komodo Dragons and Otters, which inhabit an enclosure near to the entrance to create a more complete Bio-Climatic Asian Region.

Construction on the Australia Zoo Safari Lodge began mid 2008 and was due to be finished and operational by the end of 2009. However due to the economic situation, Australia Zoo decided to put all of its expansion plans on hold, as well as terminate employment of 26 staff members (mostly guest services staff).