Australia Zoo is a short drive north of Brisbane near the beautiful Glass House Mountains and the Sunshine Coast. It had been a long time since I had last been there (about 15 years) and I remembered it as being not that great, but I wanted to take Jihyeon there so she could see and touch Kangaroos and Koalas. Well, I'm happy to say that a lot has changed at Australia Zoo in the last 15 years and for both Australians and international visitors I can't recommend it highly enough. As they say in the TV advertisement, "It's one hell of a day out".
It is a little expensive (around $100 per adult), but if you are an RACQ member you can get a small discount. I was expecting to only spend a couple of hours at the zoo, but we ended up spending most of the day there. I recommend taking your own snack with you because the food is expensive and the queues can be long.
After walking through the gate, we started wandering around the zoo with no precise plan other than to go to the main stadium (or crocoseum as they call it) to see the lunch time crocodile show. First animal we saw was this giant 100 year old tortoise.
This crocodile is plastic, but was cast to the size of an actual crocodile that was captured in far north Queensland. Far out. Stay out of the water!
All around the crocodile enclosures these little water dragons were on the footpaths, enjoying the warmth of the concrete.
An endangered cassowary from far north Queensland.
Koalas!
There was an shed filled with baby farm animals. For $1 you could buy some pellets to feed the animals. The kids were going nuts. lol.
Bahahaha, feed me!
Before we knew it lunch time rolled around, so we made our way to the crocoseum to enjoy the show.
More Koalas.
An Echidna.
And, some Kangaroos.
Make sure you see the Kangaroos in the morning. By the afternoon they are full of pellets and not particularly hungry (and therefore friendly).
Emu.
Australia Zoo also has an Africa exhibit. It is still fairly new, but they are off to a good start.
You can feed the elephants too.
More Koalas.
And one last feeding of the Kangaroos before we go home.
There are a lot more animals that what is pictured in my blog. I highly recommend checking out Australia Zoo next time you are in South East Queensland.
