Brisbane & The Australia Zoo

 

The first stop on our East Coast trip was Brisbane and the Australia Zoo. It was a quick flight from Melbourne and we ended up in a great hostel on the edge of the city centre – Brisbane City YHA. Brisbane has a river running through the city centre with a great pathway system that allowed us easy access to the city and the recreational lagoon area.

The rooftop view from our hostel & the main elevator.

Along the way we stopped in the art museum (GOMA), and checked out a market near the lagoon. There were some affordable restaurants in nearby places that our hostel guide recommended, namely Caxton Street and the Barracks. They were pretty lively the nights we were there due to footie matches going on.

One of the days we booked a tour to visit the Australia Zoo, home of the Crocodile Hunter. It started as a Crocodile sanctuary that the Irwin family has expanded to include more traditional zoo exhibits.

 

It was a very interactive Zoo where you could pet Koalas and Kangaroos. Jess, as usual, was in love with the Koalas. The Kangaroos, despite being cute, are always a little scary as they look like they are always on the brink of losing it and tearing you up. The highlight of the Zoo was the “Crocodile Show” that ran for around an hour. It is in a mini Gladiator arena where they entertain the crowd with birds and eventually have the Crocs come out and hand feed them. It was pretty jaw dropping to see how fast they could attack and how far they could get out of the water to snap something up. If you visit the Zoo and do not see the show, chances are you will be a little disappointed with the Croc area alone because it is hard to see them in the enclosures and they more or less do a log impersonation the whole time.

 A Cassowary - a large flightless bird from the rainforest

We enjoyed Brisbane and the Australia Zoo – next stop Noosa!