Billabong Sanctuary

Hold a Koala, pet a Wombat, have a Kangaroo eat out of your hand and see huge crocodiles jump for food; is that something I could interest you in?

Then Billabong Sanctuary is just your place. We spent Thanksgiving 2010 at the Billabong in Townsville with Melita and her daughter Jordy. I have a feeling this post is going to be picture intensive. We arrived at 10:30, just in time for the Koala show. Basically Koala’s are very lazy animals. They sleep around 20 hours a day and mostly just hang out in Eucalyptus trees all day. This pic is a mom and baby in the main tree where 4 koalas live.


For a little extra money you were able to hold a koala and get a professional photo printed in a frame. It was $33 for three photos. We were able to take additional photos with our camera as well.


Each Koala had a name, this was Ray Charles. He is basically blind, but the offshoot is he is super comfortable being pet. So while we were only able to hold Annie above for a few minutes, we pet Ray Charles as much as we wanted.

Paty is thinking of leaving me, for Ray:

Next up was the Wombats. This is Tonka:

And Cloe:

This wasn’t a zoo like in the States with a lot of rules. It was more of a ‘no worries mate’ situation with everything. There were geese everywhere in the sanctuary wandering around. And since it was maiting season, they were pretty aggressive. At one point both Paty and I were bit by a pissed off goose while trying to walk by. Instead of freaking out and having a lawsuit if this happened at Woodland Park Zoo, we pretty much just laughed it off.

Next up was the reptile show, not my favorite. Paty tried to volunteer me to participate in ‘What’s in the Bag’ time. I refused, but was able to channel her natural tendency for attention and convinced her to do it:


Four year old salt water crocodile:


Eight year old Ginger, as dangerous as the croc she is holding:

Strange reptile, maybe called a Shingleback:

Forty Four year old salt water crocodile:

There is a reason I am not in this picture, Paty and Melita:

Then it was off to feed the turtles:

Followed by a turtle race:

Suprisingly, the turtles could really move. The one on the right made a straight line to the water and won easily in the 'race'.

Watch out for the eel:


Next it was off to the big daddy’s of the show. The Australian Salt Water Crocs. Apparently, you need to ‘jump’ them or they won’t get any exercise.

Some jump better than others. It was about a 50% success rate on getting the crocs to do anything. This one basically just sat there until he put the chicken on his snout and wiggled it around for a bit. Then it barely leaned up to feign an attempt to devour, still intimidating:


That was the end of the formal show, but that was only about 1/3 of the animals in the sanctuary. The rest was a self guided walk around tour with some animals caged for show, quite a bit out and about and some exceptionally beautiful birds flying around (not including the evil geese):
Red Tailed Black Cockatoo:

And Kookaburras:

Dig I mention Kangaroos?




Huddle up fellas:

The aforementioned evil geese:

At the end of the day, Paty was debating between me and staying with the Joey’s:


All in all, it was a wonderful experience. Nothing against the more loyal readers of this space who missed us on the holiday, but this was a great way to spend Thanksgiving.
(Chris's Note: I'm not able to upload pictures yet to this computer. I know that img 3067 is a holder for a pic on my computer and not a mistake. I'll get it uploaded as soon as I can figure it out from Down Under. Right now I am using a zip drive to transfer things from the laptop to Melita's computer.) And done.