Australia Zoo is just a popular choice
Australia Zoo, home of The Crocodile Hunter, Steve Irwin, is generally considered worth a visit. There is relatively good range of animals and we agree that what stood out is their spacious and well-kept enclosures. It is clean and doesn’t smell. The animals look like they are well looked after.
The area is divided into numerous theme-liked sectors ; Wildlife Warriors Show, Roo Heaven, Koala Walk Through, Croc School, Bindi's Island etc and there are substantial number of pictures dedicated to Steve Irwin, as you walk along the zoo. It’s cool to see his legacy evident in the place where he spent years building. There are areas where kangaroos/wallabies are free to roam and free to touch - a place where the boys happily took wefies and interact for hours. For me , I am planning to just observe/take photos of the animals. The boys also love the animal encounters and being the zoo keeper for a day program too, unfortunately the Koala encounter is very pricey - most expensive among the lots.
Prior, we read up on a family doing a meerkat experience, about having maximum 2 pax over 15 mins and all it involved was entering the enclosures and sitting down, while the keeper used treats to get the meerkats to interact and climb over them. There would be a photographer that would take pictures of them which they can eventually purchase. I thought it was tad rough to pull the "you have to buy encounters for everyone in the group to attend" line, especially if we have a family of 3 or 4. Mum and dad or a single parent and child would be able to do it, while the others would watch. We had late lunch before the boys eagerly waited to watch the massive croc launch a strike from the water's edge, led by Robert Irwin. I must say that It was a neat presentation, nothing too wow.
Their Conservation-Focused #australiazoo is commendable and apart from being a popular choice, I supposed the other well-travelled individuals/families would agree that other wildlife parks in Southeast Asia offer a more affordable and impressive wildlife experience.