Ballarat Wildlife Park

Since Shaina et al arrived, the only Australian wildlife they’ve seen has been either avian or roadkill. It’s incredible, we’ve been dodging kangaroos every highway trip all spring/summer and the Americans turn up and they all vanish. We even took Jeremy to the Horsham Police Paddock to walk the dog, and not a wallaby to be seen! Shaina and Flip did see a small mob during one of their runs on the river, but they were very far away in a paddock.

So fuck it, up really early to go in to the Ballarat Wildlife park where the wildlife can’t hide from you. It was a surprise for the kids, they didn’t know where we were going (well Duncan did, but he kept a lid on it). Immediately when you go in there’s Kangaroos and Wallabies just lounging around and you can interact with them, including feeding them bags of pellets you can buy in the entry. The weather was, well, Ballarat, which meant in the middle of summer it was inexplicably cold and rainy, because it wasn’t 800 degrees in the shade.

We got to see all the usual local favourites, except an Echidna which was nowhere to be seen. The wombats were asleep, and we only caught a fleeting glimpse of the Tasmanian Devils, who as usual were not rotating in the slightest and didn’t blow a single raspberry. Shaina ended up doing the “koala experience” with Ollie, and they both had a great time, before we were followed around by Emus. We also saw Little Penguins (which I really wanted to find time to go down to Phillip Island and see the penguin parade, but it’s really the wrong time of year and they weren’t staying with us long enough to make it happen).

After exhausting everything we could see, we headed off to find somewhere to get lunch - opting for the Boatshed Restaurant, which was pretty excellent. We then headed home where everyone collapsed.

I half expected to be dodging kangaroos coming out of the woodwork on the way home, but alas.