Grampians: Halls Gap Zoo

Before going for our holiday to the Grampians a friend suggested it was worth going to the Halls Gap Zoo.  I had passed it before and my city mind expected it could not impress me like our Melbourne zoo.  But it did.  The zoo was spacious with mountain views.  It was not like a city zoo when you knew that outside the high walls was the bustle and concrete of the big smoke.  It was a lovely zoo but we would have enjoyed it more if the weather had been cooler.

 It starts with a note of the effects of covid on the financial ability to improve the zoo.

Meerkats are so much fun to watch.  They always have a lookout.

As always we stayed to watch the giraffes for a bit.  They are such elegant animals.

In fact if I had read the signs when I paid I might have noticed that we were there at the same time they had a feed the giraffes time when you could pay $60 for the privilege.  I consoled myself that it seemed a busy session and that they could feed but not not stroke those velvety looking giraffes.  Surely they have enough neck for everyone!

There were quite a few birds but they are difficult to photograph.  And the cassowary scares me.  This kookaburra in the sculpture garden was pretty cute.

Hey there lonely lizard, plotting his escape!

The zoo had lots of areas where animals roamed free, especially the little wallabies that were so good at blending with their backgrounds.  But there were often pairs of gates to walk through to stop the animals following us out of their area.

It would be no surprise that the dingo was kept in his cage.  He looked fierce enough chewing on an old bone.

This deer wandered around for a bit with us. 

 I felt sorry for the rhino in the dry and dusty yard.

The ostrich reminded me of the pink Ozzy Ostrich puppet on Hey Hey It's Saturday.  Which probably means it is unusual for me to see an ostrich.  His flouncy ballerina skirt is so much bigger than the one on the one our native emus wear.

The Texas Longhorn would be used to this heat but the Hairy Coo from Scotland was huddled under a shady shelter.

I am not sure I have ever seen such long curly horns on a goat before.  I liked the pile of stones for the goats to climb.

I was less excited by the emu as we had already seen some at liberty around our holiday cottage.  We would have preferred to see more of the wombat who was sleeping in the shade with just a cute little snout sticking ou.

 

And no zoo is complete without a dinosaur!  This gave us a laugh at the end when we were tired from a long hot work around the zoo.  The air conditioned gif shop felt so good.

 These kids drawings that were made into hoardings along the path were also pretty cute.

I am sure we will return sometime when we are in the Grampians.  Maybe next time I will pay to spend more time with the giraffes.  I am sure there are animals we didn't see on our first visit as there is a lot to see.

Halls Gap Zoo
4061 Ararat-Halls Gap Rd, Halls Gap
(03) 5356 4668
Open 10am-5pm 7 days a week
Adult entry: $38, child $19
hallsgapzoo.com.au

More Grampians posts:

• Grampians: eating out and holidays 2023
• Grampians: Australian bush, flora and fauna
• Grampians: Halls Gap, holiday and eating 2017  
• Melbourne to Grampians Roadtrip 2017