Billabong Wildlife Sanctuary

Last week I finally caved and did what every American international student does while studying at JCU—I went to the Billabong Wildlife Sanctuary. Billabong houses native Australian animals, including koalas, wombats, echidnas, kangaroos, wallabies, bandicoots, kookaburras, dingoes, and crocodiles (no, these animals did not walk out of a Dr. Seuss book). I went with Katie, a friend of mine. We spent the first part of the morning walking around. My favorite was the dingoes, they were so pretty and even though they looked so domestic, I know they could have destroyed my face.

There were “shows” beginning at 10:30. First was at the koala exhibit. A bad-tempered, really pessimistic, and overly dramatic handler told us about the marsupial, how stupid they apparently are, how much we waste our time and money with them, and why he thinks they are too pampered. I don’t care what he says that unreasonable, childish handler, those koalas are adorable. If you paid $16 you could hold one and get a picture with a koala –I saved my money and just stood by the koala and got my own picture. Next on the program were the wombats. Same handler, same story. Wombats are distant relatives to koalas, however, this part of the animal family seems to have developed a rather aggressive food addiction, chubbed-up a bit, slept more and morphed themselves into what looks like an overstuffed hybrid of a koala, gopher, and porcupine…they are so cute. I did the same thing as with the koala, just sat next to it, pet it and got Katie to take my picture. The thing could barely stay awake in the handler’s arms (unless you tickle its toes, then it just lackadaisically “moves” its appendages).

Before the crocodile show I got to hold a bearded-dragon, shingleback skink and stand next to a beautiful eagle named Malikite. The crocodile show was stereotypically Australian –Steve Irwin style. There was steak hanging on the end of long poles, screaming handlers, jumping crocs, you know, the Aussie thing to do. Billabong was totally worth it—even if it was a mild tourist trap, I successfully avoided it, enjoyed myself, and saw some incredible Australian fauna.