Healesville Animal Sanctuary, Melbourne, Australia
Fancy draping a deadly poisonous snake across your shoulders? Visiting Melbourne for a few days, and wondering where to go for a day trip? Then Healesville Animal Sanctuary-just a one hour drive from the city- could be what you are looking for.
If you are keen to see Australia’s wildlife, and are not the type to go hiking through wild bush, then Healesville is an ideal opportunity to see all the continent’s weird and wonderful creatures in one go.
There you can get up close and personal with most of the creatures of Steve Irwin’s native land, the adventurous naturalist, who died when he got stung by a fatal sting ray last year.
Except you will not have to put yourself in the same sticky situations that Irwin frequently did.
And unlike the zoo, where the animals are stuck behind bars in an artificial environment, the sanctuary has a more natural setting, as it is set in native bushland. You can see kangaroos, wombats, wallabies, koalas, emus and all sorts of interesting creatures that you will never see in the Northern Hemisphere.
The scariest animals by far in the reserve are the deadly poisonous snakes. Have you ever wondered what it feels like to get right up close to a black headed python and pat it on its head?
Well, that was my outstanding memory of Healesville. We were inside the ‘Reptiles Hall’ when a ranger emerged carrying a wooden box. Inside was a black headed python, a snake native to Australia whose poisonous bite can kill a human being.
The man spoke to the crowd of how in Australia dealing with snakes is part of everyday life, of how 95 per cent of people who die of snakebite do so after interfering with a snake.
“Snakes would prefer to be left alone,” he explains in a bid to reduce the fears of the onlookers.
“Never handle a snake yourself if you find one in your house. Call a snakecatcher instead,” he advised.
One person in Australia dies each year from snakebite, he told the crowd as he casually removed the beast from its box. It was at that point you realised just how dangerous Australia is in terms of wild animals..The continent has the most poisonous snakes, the most poisonous spiders and the most poisonous creature in the entire world-the box jellyfish.
There were gasps from the crowd, and half of the people in the room suddenly left in panic. The rest of us looked on, petrified and terrified all at once. He was very long, over one and a half metres long, pretty thick, and his coat was a tan colour with criss cross patterns on it. His head was black; his darting tongue was long and slithery. He feeds himself by crushing small mammals, reptiles and birds.
My stomach felt sick and constricted with fear as I observed him. Its the slitheriness that gets you. In the flesh it was seriously glossy and slimy.
The ranger, who was holding it in his arms, invited us to come closer. One brave soul ventured forward, and allowed the ranger to wrap it around her shoulders while her friend took her picture.
In the interests of research I forced myself to touch its skin. It felt surprisingly warm; it was ever so smooth and velvety, not as slithery as I expected, and soft. Then when I got braver I placed my whole palm flat on its skin, and suddenly I felt the muscle of the snake spasm, as it moved. Lets just say, it did not feel pleasant. It reminded me of how powerful the animal actually was, aside from its poisonous venom.
I was glad to escape the reptiles house alive, and take a look at something a little less menacing-the kangaroos.
Expecting them to be endearing creatures I was taken aback to discover how frumpy and oddly shaped they were. Thy did not in any way correspond to the cutesy ‘Skippy’ image I had of them.
It was raining when I saw them, so they were not in energetic form- they were hunched over, with their heads bent, and their odd square legs on either side of them.
Their fur was dark and unappealing and their faces were donkey like, and they looked pretty depressed.
It was only when one of them awoke from its slumbers, and took a few hops in that trademark skip, that I felt in any way endeared towards them.
The wombat was also a very strange looking creature, or “an odd looking yoke”, as my companion, my brother Eoghan, commented.
The echidna is an animal akin to a giant hedgehog with a long beak, who we saw burrowing away in the earth in search of ants and termite nests with its powerful claws.
The platypus, a duck like freshwater mammal, topped them all for weirdness with its distinctive bird like beak. Is it a bird, a duck, an otter or what?
The bilby is a rare, endangered marsupial. It looks like a hare, and has mouse like ears. Interesting combinations!
You can also see any number of burrowing, scurrying rat like creatures, which I have to warn you are not to everyone’s liking.
As I peered in through the glass cabinets in the Creatures of the Night section many women by passed the exhibits with looks of disgust on their faces. They were grossed out.
You could also see, or rather hear the raucous red flame feathered cockatoos, see a lizard with a dramatic Victorian cape-like feature on its neck- the 'frilled' lizard, or the other master of disguise-the geckos.
You can give a koala bear a hug, although on my visit to the sanctuary they were glued stone like to the branches of gum trees so there was not much hope of that.
Some animals were stuck in their holes so you could not see them at all. For example the Tasmanian devil, was not budging from his warm, soft den and was unfazed by the tourists outside his home eagerly waiting for him to show his face.
The wallabies, basically a cuter and smaller version of a kangaroo, are popular with the kids, and tame enough that you can approach them and nuzzle them. Personally, I found the wallabies to be the cutest of all.
So, living in Ireland as we do, and with the proverbial snakes banished by St Patrick, we do not have to deal with such matters.
The most dangerous animal in Ireland is probably the cow or the bull.
Friends in Melbourne also recommended the Birds of Prey show, which I did not get to see myself. But you can get to see eagles diving right above your head, and owls catching mice in mid air. The aerial display is supposed to show the flight and hunting skills of the birds.
Other impressive species you can see are the emus, the second largest bird in the world after the ostrich. And it really is huge. It is nearly two metres tall, and 60 kilos in weight and they can run up to 50 km an hour!
The emu I saw had beady, amber coloured eyes, and it was strange to witness a bird so huge and imposing that it was intimidating when you got up close to it.This flightless bird, is truly enormous as birds go, and shaggy feathered and and rather inquisitive to the point of being intimidating!
As part of the park there is a wildlife health centre, where you can actually see vets in action working to save animals lives.
The hospital is purpose built with glass doors everywhere so you can see right in to an animal operating theatre, research labs and rehabilitation areas. If you are so inclined you can investigate animal post mortems on a touch screen computer, with no gory details withheld. Or you can watch an audio visual show on the work of the sanctuary. However, there was nothing much of interest happening in the health centre when I visited.
The attraction is a great place for animal lovers, but not ideal for anyone with phobias against rats or snakes.If you are going to visit check ahead for the times of the birds of prey exhibition. Usually it takes place at noon. For more information check out www.awhc.zoo.org.au.
Healesville Sanctuary on Badger Creek Road is approximately one hours drive from Melbourne.
Martyr’s bus company operate buses to Healsville from
Southern Cross Station and Lilydale train station. If you are taking day trips from Melbo be warned-in spring and autumn the weather conditions can fluctuate wildly. So bring an extra sweater, and an umbrella.
If you still have time after a visit to the sanctuary you can stop by for a wine tasting or tour of one of the nearby vineyards. The area, the Yarra valley, is a renowned wine producing region, and there are many wineries in the vicinity. Check out www.yarravalleywine.com for more details.
Most close by 5pm, so do get there early though if you are hoping for a tour.
