Perth Zoo, Perth

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Just been to the zoo with an English visitor and pleasantly surprised!! Lots of it has been updated with the animals in much more conducive environments and it seems very much friendlier for the tourist!!

We only had a couple of hours to spare so we confined ourselves to the Australian section appropriately named "Australian walkabout". This took us through a number of enclosures specific to Australia including reptiles , birds, kangeroos, emus, numbats, wombats, dingoes and koalas. All very pleasant and especially good for our visitor when a kangeroo wandered onto the footpath and I was able to take a photo while it sniffed his leg. It could not have been any closer for him if we had planned it!!
I have included two short videos: one of a Koala Bear up close and a little Devil!!
The coffee shop was OK too. $3.50 for a coffee so reasonable.
Parking is either off Mill Point Road or Labochere? Road. $1.00 an hour.

The only down side the cost!! $19.00 for an adult!! $15.00 seniors and concession holders.

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The zoo created landscapes to show animals in their natural habitat - wetlands, bush, deserts, jungle. The roomy cages, some of them walkable, are integrated in those landscapes. The dense vegetation offers lots of hiding spots, which is great for the animals but less fortunate for visitors. The beautiful trees should not be overlooked.

They divided the zoo into three main areas: Australian Walkabout, African Savannah, Asian Rainforest. As non-Aussies, we focused mostly on the Australian animals.

Background explanations are given on the animals, plants, landscapes to make visitors aware of ecology and its complex problems.

A special attraction is the Nocturnal House - unfortunately we didn't see too many of the animals in there, was it due to our lack of patience and short-sightedness or the animals' camouflage and opportunities to hide?

Still, this was a great way to spend our jet-lagged first day.

Entrance fee: Adults $ 18,-

...and his new little half-brother, Nyaru , the newest additions to Perth Zoo's orang utan family. Their father is a hunky young male named Dinar who camed from Canada just 3 years ago, setting the lady orang's hearts aflutter and promptly getting down to the serious business of breeding. Hopefully, there'll be more babies to come but meantime these two little fellows are delighting the visitors and their proud mums alike.

Nyaru's the most recent birth at the zoo (October 20, '07) and he's still clinging very close to his mother but there are silvery and white-cheeked gibbon young who are putting on a fine show for visitors. You'll find them all in the Asian Rainforest section of the zoo.

Meanwhile, down in the African Savannah, Bakari, the young rhino calf is growing fast and in the Australian Bushwalk the Tasmanian Devils are doing their darndest to find an escape route out of their enclosure.

There is always something new to see at the Zoo. It's open every day of the year from 9-5. Admission is $16 and once in you need not spend any more money, though a map will cost you a dollar (there is good signage and several big general maps around the place so you can manage quite well without one). There are cafes but there are also plenty of picnic spots and even free barbecues if you fancy a sausage sizzle.

Ask at the visitor's centre about keepers' talks that take place at different locations all through the day. There are free docent-led guided walks each day and docents are on duty from 9.30 -3 to answer any questions.

Cool days are best for animal spotting -well -you'd find the coolest, quietest spot for a snooze on a hot day if you could too, wouldn't you? Late afternoon in summer will certainly be a better time for your visit than the heat of midday. Humans need to keep cool too - if you're driving, parking under the pines in the free Labouchere Road carpark means your car will be in shade when you leave in the afternoon.

The Perth Zoo is 108 years old and the amazing thing about it is how close it is to the city. There are a large number of animals to view with a great emphasis on Australian animals & birds. The zoo makes sure there is a number of activities throughout the day to keep the public interested. The exhibition my children like is the lions & tigers plus the feeding of the otters. My favourite is the giraffe enclosure. It is set in the African Savannah but somehow as you round the corner you never expect too see a tall and very graceful creature such as the Giraffes of the Perth Zoo. Of course we cannot ignore the wonderful efforts in the Oragutan enclosure or the scary feeling when visiting the Nocturnal House

Perth Zoo is a great place to spend the day when you are in Perth. There is plenty to see and do at Perth Zoo, some of which would be the native animals that are found in WA.
There are also plenty of other animals to see, such as the big cats, elephants and giraffe's.
The Entry Fee for Adults is A$16 and children are A$8.
Why not stay and have a picnic while you are there as there are plenty of places to sit in the sun and take a break from the excitement.

One of the wildlife species you will see is the Plumed Whistling-duck which is normally found in Northern and Eastern Australia all the way down to Victoria. The bird feeds on plant material and lives mainly in dams, water holes, lagoons and grasslands. It is also known as the Grass Whistling Duck.

In the Australian Walkabout area you will find the Tasmanian Devils. These are Australia's largest carnivorous (meat-eating) marsupial, roughly about the same size as a large domestic cat. They are black with a white bank on the chest and hindquarters and have powerful jaws and teeth which can crush something around 4 times their size . The Tasmanian Devils are nocturnal and usually spend their daytime sleeping in dens which they make in hollow logs, caves or even old wombat burrows. Mating time is between February and September.

The Old Mill Theatre is housed in the old Mechanics Institute Hall which was built in 1899. Later it became Miss Bumet’s School, Neeamarra School, South Perth High School, Mends Street Hall, Raith Girls Grammar School, St Anne’s College – quite a lot of occupants during the years.

Today the building is home to the Old Mill Theatre Company. The community based theatre company presents six productions a year.