Billabong Zoo is a wildlife park and koala breeding centre located in

Port Macquarie, New South Wales Port Macquarie is a coastal town in the local government area of Port Macquarie-Hastings. It is located on the Mid North Coast of New South Wales, Australia, about north of Sydney, and south of Brisbane. The town is located on the Tasman Sea co ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. It was opened in 1986, and features a wide variety of Australian and exotic animals.

History

The park was opened in 1986, and was a major breeding centre for koalas. Starting in 2005, new ownership of the park has seen it move from simply breeding koalas to a more common wildlife park.

Exhibits

The park contains a number of native and exotic animals. *

African lion The lion (''Panthera leo'') is a large cat of the genus '' Panthera'' native to Africa and India. It has a muscular, broad-chested body; short, rounded head; round ears; and a hairy tuft at the end of its tail. It is sexually dimorphic; adult ...

Bare-nosed wombat The common wombat (''Vombatus ursinus''), also known as the coarse-haired wombat or bare-nosed wombat, is a marsupial, one of three extant species of wombats and the only one in the genus ''Vombatus''. The common wombat grows to an average of lo ...

* Black-handed spider monkey *

Blue-and-gold macaw The blue-and-yellow macaw (''Ara ararauna''), also known as the blue-and-gold macaw, is a large South American parrot with mostly blue top parts and light orange underparts, with gradient hues of green on top of its head. It is a member of the la ...

* Blue-fronted amazon * Bush stone-curlew * Cheetah * Common death adder * Common marmoset * Cotton-top tamarin *

Dingo The dingo (''Canis familiaris'', ''Canis familiaris dingo'', ''Canis dingo'', or ''Canis lupus dingo'') is an ancient (Basal (phylogenetics), basal) lineage of dog found in Australia (continent), Australia. Its taxonomic classification is de ...

* Eastern grey kangaroo * Eastern quoll *

Emu The emu () (''Dromaius novaehollandiae'') is the second-tallest living bird after its ratite relative the ostrich. It is endemic to Australia where it is the largest native bird and the only extant member of the genus ''Dromaius''. The emu' ...

* Fennec fox * Fijian crested iguana * Glossy black cockatoo * Green and golden bell frog * Green iguana * Koala *

Little penguin The little penguin (''Eudyptula minor'') is a species of penguin from New Zealand. They are commonly known as little blue penguins or blue penguins owing to their slate-blue plumage and are also known by their Māori name . The Australian lit ...

* Lumholtz's tree-kangaroo *

Meerkat MeerKAT, originally the Karoo Array Telescope, is a radio telescope consisting of 64 antennas in the Meerkat National Park, in the Northern Cape of South Africa. In 2003, South Africa submitted an expression of interest to host the Square Kilom ...

* Pygmy bearded dragon * Red panda * Red-necked wallaby * Saltwater crocodile * Snow leopard *

Southern cassowary The southern cassowary (''Casuarius casuarius''), also known as double-wattled cassowary, Australian cassowary or two-wattled cassowary, is a large flightless black bird. It is one of the three living species of cassowary, alongside the dwarf c ...

Southern hairy-nosed wombat The southern hairy-nosed wombat (''Lasiorhinus latifrons'') is one of three extant species of wombats. It is found in scattered areas of semiarid scrub and mallee from the eastern Nullarbor Plain to the New South Wales border area. It is the s ...

Facilities

The park also contains picnic barbeques, gardens, and billabongs (small lakes) covered with water lilies and stocked with

koi carp or more specifically , are colored varieties of the Amur carp (''Cyprinus rubrofuscus'') that are kept for decorative purposes in outdoor koi ponds or water gardens. Koi is an informal name for the colored variants of ''C. rubrofuscus'' kept ...

and a visiting speckled longfin eel. It also features a café in the main entrance building.

Education

The park has a number of education talks through the day including a koala photo session.

Conservation

The park breeds koalas to send to other zoos in the Australasian breeding program. In 2011 the park joined the Zoo and Aquarium Association and has participated in a number of species management programs including koalas and snow leopards.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Billabong Zoo: Koala and Wildlife park Zoos in New South Wales 1989 establishments in Australia Mid North Coast Zoos established in 1989