Close Encounters at Great Ocean Road Wildlife Park
Let’s be honest: just because adults like to look at the spectacular coastal scenery it doesn’t mean that kids will have just as much fun as the grown-ups.
Kids don’t particularly care about stone stacks that are slowly eaten away by the forces of nature. But what they do care about are animals. Ideally, animals that are tame and that you can hand feed and maybe even pet.
To be clear, Great Ocean Road Wildlife Park is not a zoo. It is a 39 acre family farm that happens to life in harmony with nature.
Sustainability is key here, a goal that the family is keen to achieve in the near future, with areas for growing food currently being established all over the property.
This makes Great Ocean Road Wildlife Park a multi-faceted experience filled with simple fun activities and educational lessons about the environment and the featured animals.
From our own first-hand experience I can assure you that kids will love the close animal encounters that are located right next to the visitor centre — you really don’t have to walk far to bump into your first peacock, an incredibly vain creature which continued to impress us with its bright display of colours and charming dance routine, ruffled feathers and all.
Petting Zoo
The petting zoo is a small enclosure with a variety of animals that can be easily fed with the feed provided. Not just Australian animals, mind you, like wallabies, wombats, emus and kangaroos, but there are also fluffy alpacas with soft fur that the kids loved to touch.
The close encounters do not end here. For a small fee you can even get extremely close to one of the resident dingoes. Wait… you may think. Isn’t this dangerous? And, aren’t these creatures kept in separate enclosures behind strong wire mesh and enforced fences for a reason?
Well, yes. But getting close to these wild beasts for a cuddle session is actually not that far-fetched. The operators of the wildlife park are strong believers that the dingo is getting a bad reputation for all the wrong reasons. They want to show the world that the dingo is in fact not an aggressive animal, that you can safely interact with it as long as you don’t threaten it.
Animal Sanctuary
There’s plenty of signage around the park, such as information on the animals, the aboriginal heritage of the land, the owners’ ideas on their connection with the land and the role we all play in our natural environment.
To round off the experience, indulge in an all-organic vegetarian/vegan meal, plus desserts, snacks, coffees and teas in the newly established Clean Cravings Eatery.
