Driving up north from Brisbane to Hervey Bay we stopped at the Steve Irwin Australia Zoo in Beerwah. You can easily follow the road signs and once you take the exit it will take you about 20 k to get to the zoo's entrance.

The Australia Zoo sure isn't your typical animal park and the memory of its founder Steve Irwin is still very much alive. Not only do you see posters of the world's most famous wildlife ranger throughout the whole park but you can also recognize his ideals when it comes to wildlife conservation in the way the keepers deal with the animals.

The animals for a start are not kept in cages but have their own naturally created habitat and some of the animals just walk through the park for you to touch and pet them. No animals are kept behind bars nor do they move around in little and crowded spaces. Every animal has its own little park with all things they need to feel at ease.

The Tazzie Tiger at..

The best wildlife encounter must be the Kangaroo Valley where you can walk through a park while kangaroo's and wallabies just hop alongside you or sit next to you waiting for some nibbles. The animals are really calm and are used to the presence of the visitors in a way that you can hand feed them or take some pictures right next to them.

From the Kangaroo Valley you can open the gate leading you to the Koala Walk and as soon as you open the gate you really feel like you're entering a different animal habitat. The Koala Walk is filed with eucalyptus trees and you can spot the koala's straight above your head while walking through. For a more personal experience you can pet and cuddle the koala's in the lower trees. There are no fences or lines you should keep behind.The rangers just ask you to respect the animals and explain you where and how to touch the animals so they feel comfortable as well. Picture taking is aloud and for free.

It's a short walk from the Koala Walk to the Elephants. This part of the park is absolutely gorgeous and the animals have so much space. You know in some zoos you kind of feel sorry for the animals being taken out of the wild but these elephants are just lucky. The Elephant park is in the open and visitors stand behind a wooden structure which doesn't block there sight nor can force them to stay on the other end. Again the rangers expect the visitors to respect the animals space and therefor don't feel the need to set up a high fence to keep the animals and the visitors seperated.

The Elephant feeding and bathing is too good and you shouldn't miss it when you're at the Australia Zoo. The area has it's own lagoon in which the elephants get their bath. The keepers really take their time with the elephants and they get a scrub down from head to toe. After their batch the keepers bring the elephant close to the public to teach them everything there is to know about these royal creatures and for a change the elephants seem to have all the fun here. All the signs around the park are very clear with great graphics and story telling for the kids.

Next to the elephants there's the mighty Tiger Temple. The tigers have their own space and again there are no fences. The publics can watch the tigers up close through some kind of aquarium. The thick glass allows you to take great photo's and get cheak to cheak with these amazing animals. The rangers actually get inside the Tiger Temple to play with the tigers, feed them and make sure they're ok. Not the most save job in the business but it sure keeps thing exciting! One of the tigers actually got the ranger in a head lock and it took him about 2 minutes to get his head out of the animals claws...

It does give you a really realistic picture of the natural animal behaviours and it's great to see how to have the space to run around and play.

The centre part of the Australia Zoo is all about the Crocoseum, a huge 5000 seat arena where animal shows and feedings are kept all day. Here the ozzie crocodiles come to get their meat! The shows are great for kids and even the adults got real enthusiastic when parrots started to fly accross the arena and snakes where making their way through the public. The big highlight of all was definitely the crocodile feeding. You can witness the feeding from your seat and have a perfect view of the animals behaviour. The rangers don't push the crocodiles into the arena nor are they placed into cages. Through the arena runs an artificial lagoon which is connected to the crocodile area and to get the crocs to swim over to the arena they simply use some fresh bate.Clapping on the water and stamping their feet on the grass the rangers try to provoke the animals hunting instinct. Once close to sure they move as closely to the animal as possible holding the meat in their hands untill the moment the crocodile strikes. Well, as long as you know when to let go off the bate you'll be fine..

Besides these animals the park has areas and parks for wombats, dingo's, cassowarries, tasmanian devils, birds, freshwater and saltwater crocodiles, echidna's and more.

It will cost you a little fortune to get in, 55 AUD pp, but it will surely take you on a wildlife safari you wont get to experience in any other zoo!