Healesville Animal Sanctuary

On Sunday we went to Healesville Animal Sanctuary. It is a sanctuary for Australian animals, outside of the city. It was in a very natural setting, even down to the all dirt paths. The brochure says that it is an easy train ride out, then you hop on a bus to the sanctuary. It failed to mention that every day except Sunday, the bus runs every hour, but on Sunday it runs only every three hours. We, of course, had just missed it, so we had to shell out the money for a taxi.

C in the train station- he loves these newspaper stands, he climbs into every one he sees.

C on the train...

R on the train...


A sign on the train as a warning to fare evaders. Australians do have a sense of humor.
It says, "If you're not paying for your ride then someone else is. Maybe you should find them, apologise(Australian spelling, not a typo), and take them out for a nice dinner."

At the sanctuary, the first thing we saw was the Birds of Prey show. The zookeepers brought out four different large hunting birds, one at a time. The keeper would walk around the arena talking about the bird as the bird flew around. It kept coming back to the keeper, so it would fly right over the audience. One of them, an owl, was a low flying bird who barely cleared the heads of the audience.

An Eagle

The low flying owl.

We then walked around the Sanctuary to see the other animals.

Pelicans

Dingoes

Tasmanian Devil

More wallabies!

R loved this wallaby and was talking to it like it was a dog.


C's favorite- the echidna. He was so excited to see this guy.

And, of course, a Koala

They have an animal hospital at the Sanctuary. This past summer there were bush fires in Victoria (the Australian state we are in). A lot of animals (and people) were hurt or killed in the fires. The animal hospital at the Sanctuary helped a lot of the animals. They had a neat program for the kids, they were able to pick out a stuffed animal and pretend it was hurt. Their animal had to be wrapped in a blanket and put in a box before being transported to the vet. At the vet's office they had to check their animal and give it medicine or wrap its wounds. C loved this game and we have had to play it several times at home.

R taking care of his wombat.


C and his kookabura.

We did make sure to catch the bus on the way back to the train station. We planned the rest of our day around the bus schedule. The kids loved the Sanctuary though, so it was worth the taxi ride.

Thanks for checking on us!