Onya Magazine is syndicating this column from the incredibly talented Olivia Hambrett. One of the finest voices in Australian writing, we hope you enjoy her Month of Australia, and we encourage you to delve into the many wonderful articles on her website.
Not far from my home lies something of a Sydney institution, if only because it has been going for so long most of those who went to school in Sydney have, at some point, been bussed out there for a school excursion alongside camera-toting tourists, desperate for a glimpse of a real, live koala. This place goes by the name of Koala Park and has been around, quietly and unassumingly, since 1930. It was founded by Noel Burnet as a sanctuary for Australia’s iconic eucalyptus lover, a species which was, at that time, in real danger of extinction, thanks to a booming fur trade.
Eighty years later, twenty after I checked it out as a young thing with Vegemite sandwiches in my school bag, it is a real little gem of a place, ten acres of well maintained land called home by some of Australia’s most significant species. Plenty of wallabies, koalas, emus, birds, a few dingoes and a couple of ridiculously cute wombats are well looked after – there are even a few sheep who partake in the shearing shows (done by a shearer nearing retirement who can no longer maintain his sheep-a-minute pace but can throw a boomerang with reasonable success. I was impressed).
We went because, just like you can’t come to Australia without seeing a crocodile and kangaroo (hopefully the latter not in the mouth of the former), you can’t come without checking out a koala. Koala Park has four feeding times a day, during which you can take photos and give the little guy having a snack, a nice and gentle pat. We came back after the crowd had dissipated somewhat and had a lovely little interlude with an extremely well-natured female koala by the name of Tadpole.
If you don’t have time to do a big zoo, or all you really want to do while you’re here is cut to the chase and pat a koala without spending a small fortune (nothing out here comes cheap and that includes zoo tickets), then head to Koala Park. Australians, this includes you too – pretty sure today was the first time (that I can remember, anyway) I felt that deliciously soft and dense fur.
