Healesville Animal Sanctuary

One rather chilly, drippy day in Southern Australia, the clan went to see some amazing things at Healesville Animal Sanctuary. WE love zoos (!), but this was a sanctuary, not a zoo. Only indigenous animals are here and they were in a very natural habitat!

Everyone here is so friendly and Robin at the ticket counter was no exception! She helped us choose what we wanted to do, got our schedule plugged in and helped us figure the most cost effective way to get it all done. She ROCKED!

To say the sanctuary was beautiful would be an understatement.  Unusual bushes, and up to 200 year old trees ...

And the animals we were able to see were also amazing… 

Koalas- cute but boring, just slept the whole day! 

Emu- they made a weird low grunting noise that sounds like a pig!

Tasmanian Devil- did you know they have developed a facial tumor disease that is threatening their entire population?

Dingos- wait till you see the upcoming dingo experience Essie, The Older and Beej had!

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Lots of amazing birds

An incredible bird show- and Essie had a special guest sit with her for part of the show. Many wild ibis roamed the sanctuary... they were pretty noisy, even during the bird show. 

And of course kangaroos! We were able to feed and pat the kangaroos- see Beej’s upcoming post for more Roo information.   We learned so much!!!  

Lunch was yummy (and very affordable) meat pies with chips!

We got a little wet and a little chillier as the day progressed, but the animals didn’t mind and we were able to hide from the rain in the platypus and reptile house. The Older will fill you in on the snake info in the next few days. The platypus house was totally dark, so sorry, no pictures. These little freaks of nature certainly verify that our creator has a sense of humor. It looks like there were a few spare parts at creation and God just stuck them all together. The Tall One is going to post a platypus exposé shortly. So stay tuned…. We had a great time this weekend, can’t wait to sort through all the pictures and get the posts ready to share with you. Please forgive us for the delay in posting and the odd stretchy look of some of the pictures.  We are having a few computer picture issues...

The Older wrote his own post on his blog www.theramblingstone11.blogspot.com  so check it out. I actually think it turned out better than our collaboration here... :)

Praying for you as you suffer through the hot dry weather there!