Zoo

Crikey!* We've spent the day in Australia Zoo at Beerwah. It was set up as a reptile house by the parents of Steve Irwin, Crocodile Hunter** and has expanded under Steve and his wife's ownership to become a pretty good zoo. It doesn't try to be comprehensive in its scope, but it has a good range of local wildlife (heavy on the crocodiles, many of which Irwin caught at the request of people who didn't want crocodiles on their patch), plus a few big hitters like tigers and elephants. So we got to see animals we've never seen before, like Tasmanian Devils; and rarities like a Komodo Dragon, both Common and Southern Hairy-Nosed Wombats, and red pandas. And it has a nice, spacious feel to its habitats; and lots of water dragons and other lizards wandering around as if they own the place, plus some turkeys (?) that seem to go wherever they choose, even into crocodile enclosures; and a fun line in 'Would you believe...?' type captions.

* How this became the catchphrase of Steve Irwin I do not know - he's clearly stolen it from Penfold.
** I'd never seen his TV show before. We watched a bit of it here. He appeared to spend his entire life expressing his over the top love of and amazement for nature. I can't take him seriously - and the zoo is very Irwin-branded, especially the shop - but he clearly cared about his wildlife, so I guess the zoo makes for a good legacy, right down to the cheesy memorial of Steve wrestling a small crocodile alongside his family and dog.

The other major feature is the Crocoseum - where they put on a twice-daily show of animals, birds and the inevitable huge crocodile. It's a good show, despite an over-egged script, with some impressive birds (pick your own combination of large, fast and colourful), and the croc is also impressive as it leaps vertically and lunges at dead birds dropped just-in-time by the handlers. You clearly can't train crocs - you can just rely on them to go for food!

There was also a moment of high comedy with a woman who was auditioning and had been training her birds for 3 months to land on people in the audience. She opened her cage and all the birds flew straight out of the auditorium. As we wondered if this was deliberate, she grabbed her cage and ran after them. A couple of minutes later they flew back over the stadium, and then we saw their trainer again, running after them, cage in hand. Poor girl. (Alternatively, the whole thing may have been a joke...?)

 Lots of lizards get free run of the place

Finally, you can visit their animal hospital for an extra couple of dollars. You probably won't see much, apart from an enviable operating theatre.

Both types of wombat, for Chris

So, a pretty good zoo. It's in the middle of nowhere but plenty of coaches run here - we got a Greyhound here and then another on to Hervey Bay in the afternoon, and they have (expensive) lockers for your luggage, which makes it an easy stop-off on your way up or down the coast.