Healesville Sanctuary

Healesville is about an hour and a half out of the city. Healesville Sanctuary is one of the three animal parks you can visit in Melbourne. The first is the Melbourne Zoo, which is close to the city. The second is the open-range zoo in Werribee, and the third is Healesville Sanctuary.

Healesville Sanctuary could probably do with being re-named Melbourne Bird Park, purely because the park holds only a handful of mammals and reptiles, but about fifty thousand bird species. (I'm exaggerating, don't get too excited! My point is, there are a lot of birds.)

But all the species at Healesville Sanctuary have in something in common: the fact that most of them are unique to Australia. You won't find giraffes, flamingoes or water buffaloes here. If you want the quintessential Australian native species experience, Healesville is the place to visit.

Here, you can pat koalas, hold baby wombats, have lunch with kangaroos and witness the eccentricity of the platypus. The Birds of Prey show is well worth seeing; it's a chance to see raptors up close, and to watch as they exhibit distinctive species behaviour.

The enclosures at Healesville Sanctuary are predominantly walk-in enclosures and aviaries. As such, it's a great place to build on your Australian wildlife encounters.