Today we visited Australia Zoo, strangely a place we'd not visited before despite its proximity to Caloundra. Famous because it is the legacy of Steve Irwin - The Crocodile Hunter - it was interesting to read that it all began when Steve's parents moved from Upper Ferntree Gully, Victoria to Beerwah, Queensland, where they opened the Beerwah Reptile Park in 1970. By the 1980s, the wildlife park had expanded to four acres and was re-branded as the Queensland Reptile and Fauna Park. The 1990s brought many changes with Steve taking over management after his parents retired and the name of the growing wildlife park was changed to Australia Zoo. Steve's death on 4 September 2006 in an accident while he was snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef was world news due to the popularity of "The Crocodile Hunter" series, but through the continuing commitment of his wife Terri and children Bindi and Robert, Steve's legacy lives on at Australia Zoo.

Our visit consisted of viewing the various animal exhibits and taking in a variety of the ranger demonstrations with specific animals, plus of course watching the Wildlife Warriors Show which showcased giant snakes, colourful soaring birds and the impressive saltwater crocodile in the Crocoseum.

 

 

 

 

This had taken us over 5 ¹/₂ hours to see all of the exhibits and goodness knows how far we'd walked, but we though walking back after viewing the Meerkats in the African area might be the straw which broke the camel's back and so we caught the shuttle bus back to the park entry.

Just around the corner from the caravan park entrance is the Caloundra Seafood Market and given how good their marinara mix was as a topping on Sunday night's pizza, we decided to try the fish and chips for dinner. We had the "Couples Pack" which included two pieces of cod (battered, crumbed or grilled), 10 calamari rings and chips. We made the decision to have one battered and one crumbed so we could have the taste of having the cod cooked two different ways. It made for a delicious meal.