Werribee Zoo

I feel like I keep starting all of my blog posts with “we had a great time....” and it is totally true for Werribee Zoo as well (but I'll try to think up new ways to start my posts in future). The Zoo is fantastic for kids. It is not as heavily populated with animals as some zoos, in part because it is an open range zoo and in part because they just don't have the variety of animals. What they do have is a couple of “extras” that I thought made it very worthwhile.

At the entrance are a bunch of mosaic African animal statues, which keep it interesting for the kids while you wait in the queue.

Another is the safari train. Because it is open plain and many of the largest animals roam, in order to see them you need to take a ride on the free (included in admission) safari train to the open areas behind the exhibits. Here you can see giraffes, Texas Longhorn Cows, Camels, Ostrich, Zebras and more, all roaming freely in an open grassland. Some of the animals came up quite close to the train which was fun for all of us.

The other thing that I think made it a great zoo for kids is that they have these extra “walk out” bits where kids can roam along a windy path next to the main path, which is full of long grass and interesting things where they can pretend to be lions. Another one is where they an walk through a patch of plants on a log walk and a rope walk etc, that loops from one path to another. And finally, they also have themed playgrounds, like the hippo playground. I like how they have taken the time to make these extra activities for kids that are fun just for them.

Some of the other animals we saw

The only negative of this zoo, I think, is that the Australian animal section is very light on and not very well done. For anyone wanting to interact or observe Australian animals then I think there are probably a lot of better zoos or places to visit.

The endangered Eastern Barred Bandicoot (trying to spot the little blighters in their enclosure was worse than finding Wally in "Where's Wally")