Australian Reptile Park

(written by: Stefan, 12.10.18, Newcastle)

Organized by UNESN, a trip to a zoo near Central Coast took place on 01.09. The name “Australian Reptile Park” is somewhat misleading as there was more to see than just reptiles. The park has been in existence since 1948 and is famous not only for its animals but also for regularly milking venomous animals to produce antivenoms.

The trip started for us directly at the University of Newcastle. From there, we traveled to the park in two buses along with other international students.

On site, the first thing was a demonstration of various reptiles that was specially planned for us students. Some of the students saw different lizards, snakes, a small alligator, and not to forget a very relaxed and friendly bird up close for the first time. But that's not all, we were even allowed to touch these animals, hold them on our hand or arm, and take pictures.

The large snake was particularly interested in Britta and tried to coil around her, which ended in a picture together. By the way, Britta was the only one who could take a picture with the snake on her arm.

After the demonstration, we took a tour of the park, where we could get to know the other residents. In the enclosures, there were turtles, emus, dingoes, Tasmanian devils, and also koalas.

However, we were not allowed to hold the koalas ourselves. According to the law in New South Wales, it is strictly prohibited for anyone other than the caretakers to hold them. However, we were allowed to touch the animals and take pictures with them.

Next, we went to the picnic area of the park for a small lunch. This was a segregated area that had a special feature: there were different types of freely hopping kangaroos that were very friendly.
We were allowed to feed and touch them. We had received appropriate food upon entering the area.

The lunch itself was a bit challenging. The reason for this was that the kangaroos repeatedly tried to steal our food from the table. Nevertheless, we came out full and unharmed and were able to continue exploring the park.

The next highlight was feeding an adult, large crocodile named Elvis. We recorded the most exciting part of the feeding and it can be viewed in the following video.

After the feeding, we explored the other areas of the park.
For example, there was a large pool with alligators that were relaxing in the sun and were not bothered by us. Right after that, we explored several theme houses with different Australian animals. The first house had various Australian spiders. In the next one, there were diverse amphibians, and in the last one, there were lizards and snakes.

The day ended with another small show by a caretaker. He presented various animals and facts about them in a very humorous way and shared his personal experiences with them.

We then traveled back to the university together and thus ended this very interesting day.