We found this week how much fun adults and kids can have at Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary on the Gold Coast. Our family had a lovely day watching the beautiful expressions on the faces of two young children as they experienced Aussie animals, reptiles and birds for the first time in their young lives! It was awesome to see!

Prices (as at October 2012)

General Admission – E-Ticket Price (Online Only)
    More Fun 4 in 1 Pass
Adult $ 49 $ 59
Child (4-14 Years Inclusive) $ 33 $ 43
Child (Under 4 Years) Free Free
Pensioner / Senior $ 40 $ 50
Student $ 40 $ 50
Family Pass (2 Adults + 3 Kids) $164 $204

 

Buy your tickets Online at the Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary website to receive the Discounted prices above.


Special 100 Years Celebration Prices
[10th to 31st October 2011 only]

Come to Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary before the end of October 2011 for the special Discount entry prices in honour of Alex Griffiths who was born 100 years ago, in 1911.

Adults    Kids (4-14 Years Inclusive)     Kids (Under 4 Years)
$19 $11 Free

 

 

Hours of Operation

Daily: 8:00am to 5:00pm
Closed Christmas Day
Anzac Day: 1:30pm to 5:00pm

Address:

28 Tomewin St,
Currumbin, Qld 4223 Australia

Location:


View Larger Map

Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary Aerial View:


View Larger Map

Parking:

Parking is available for $5 a day in the large car park opposite. If you arrive early, before 8am then you may be able to get in before the attendants set up. There are also a few parking spots on the street that are free.

Disabled parking is also available in a few specially marked spots outside the Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary.


Wheelchair Access?

There are boardwalks and ramps throughout the sanctuary that give access to most locations within the park for wheelchairs, strollers and wheelie walkers. The minature train does not currently have the facility to allow passengers sitting in a wheelchair to ride, but if the person is able to take a seat on the train then their wheelchair can be lifted on to the storage section of the train and then removed at the desired stop.

Lorikeet Feeding

Arm Protection
When the lorikeets land on visitors’ arms their feet can leave small marks. I did not find that they hurt or anything, but it may be worthwhile to protect your arms. Especially for young children and the elderly, you may want to wear a jacket or a piece of clothing with long sleeves to protect your arms. You can always take the jacket off when you go to see the rest of the park.

Bird Feeding Times:
8am and 4pm Daily

Greg and I arrived just before 8am to make sure that we got to see all of the wild lorikeets coming in for breakfast. We were happily surprised to find out that the shop, cafe and the lorikeet feeding area are all open for free to the public. So anyone who wants can enter the first section of the Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary without having to buy any tickets. Then for a donation, visitors are given a metal plate and so specially formulated food for the lorikeets. Everyone can then stand with their plate of food and watch as the lorikeets fly in for some breakfast.

Rainbow Lorikeets Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary

We noticed that there were two different types of lorikeets and so asked the volunteers about the different species. We found out the more prolific and colourful lorikeets are the Rainbow Lorikeets who are brightly coloured red, blue, green, orange and yellow. The smaller species, that usually travels in pairs, are known as the Scaly-Breasted Lorikeet, these are green in colour with yellow flecks on their chest. On the day that we visited, there were three pairs of the Scaly-Breasted Lorikeet flying around feeding. Apparently this number various each day, with some days only having one visiting pair of Scaly-Breasted Lorikeets. Since they are smaller in size and number they are easily intimidated and driven away by their larger Rainbow Lorikeet cousins.

We were greeted by Eastern Water Dragons spread around the park, beginning right next to the wild lorikeet feeding area. These native Aussie lizards delighted our two young nieces. They even bravely reached out and patted the one of the Eastern Water Dragon’s tail.

Holding A Baby Crocodile

After the lorikeet feeding we all had turns holding a baby crocodile. Our two and three year old nieces really enjoyed this and so did the adults, as we had our photo taken by the sanctuary’s professional photographer. We were later able to view the images that were displayed for purchase up on a wall next to the lorikeet feeding area. After handling the croc we were sent to sanitize our hands before continuing into the park. We found that throughout the sanctuary there are washing and sanitizing stations where soap or hand sanitizer is provided so that our hands are clean both before and after we touch any of the native animals, reptiles or birds. This way everyone keeps clean and healthy.

History of Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary

My first visit to the sanctuary was with my family back in 1974 when we all came on a trip from Melbourne up to the Gold Coast for a holiday. Back then it was called the Currumbin Bird Sanctuary as the main focus of the park was the lorikeets and feeding them. Since this time there have been lots of additions and changes, including to the name of the park.

Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary is a non-profit organization and so any funds that are raised from Donations, entry tickets, food, souvenir purchases, photographs, segway safari rides and the Green Challenge are all put back into helping the animals, whether towards their food or the animal hospital, which is on-site at the sanctuary. So you can rest assured that anything you spend at Currumbin will be well used to help our native wildlife.

We then all purchased our tickets at the Visitor Services counter right next to where we feed the lorikeets and went inside the entry to the Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary.

Australia’s Green Cauldron

Our first stop once inside the sanctuary was Australia’s Green Cauldron. Here we saw a green tree snake and other pythons and venomous snakes. There were also two salt-water crocs and native turtles. There were also two small active Long-nosed Potoroos and two Tawny Frogmouth birds sitting in the trees.

Miniature Train & Animal Hospital

We then all got onto the Miniature Train to continue our tour of the sanctuary. Mum’s wheely walker and my sister’s pram were both placed into the storage section of the train by the driver. We travelled passed the water in flat Rock Creek and through a tunnel that took us under the Gold Coast Highway. We then all got off at the first stop at the Hospital Precinct. We were unable to see any of the Tassie devils, as they must have been sleeping, so we went for a walk behind the cafe to the animal hospital. There was a turtle on the operating table that we could see through the large glass-viewing window. The turtle had swallowed some fishing line and a hook and needed to have these removed.

Gigantic Spider Currumbin Wildlife SanctuaryAs we were leaving a short time later a Cormorant seabird was brought in and placed on the table next to the turtle. The oxygen mask was placed over the bird’s beak as the surgeons prepared to operate to remove the hook and fishing line that this bird had also swallowed!

It was the first time any of us had seen wildlife being treated and operated on like this. We were really impressed with the set up at Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary so that visitors get a birds eye view (literally!) of how the hospital staff and volunteers are helping our Australian wildlife on a daily basis! There were also donation stations around the hospital so that guests could contribute towards the high costs involved in looking after our native animals.

Koala Junction

We caught the train to Koala junction, rather than walking with mum and her wheeley walker. We grabbed some lunch at the Koala Junction Kiosk and the kids played in the playground next door.

Wild Island Adventure Playground

After lunch we walked the short distance across the train tracks to Wild Island Adventure area. We had fun taking some photos sitting on top of the gigantic Crocodile and with the huge spider suspended above his web! The kids played in the adventure playground and had a great time!

Huge Crocodile Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary

Kangaroos

Again we caught the miniature train from Koala junction to the next stop at the kangaroos, called Kangaroo Crossing. We spent a long time here patting the kangaroos, seeing the cute little joeys hiding inside their mum’s pouch and also feeding the roos. There were lots of joeys around. Some were even outside the pouch, but were still poking their head inside the pouch to have a drink of their mum’s milk. There were also several happy duck families walking around with their 5 or 6 little, fluffy ducklings. They were so cute!

There were also inquisitive emus that kept coming up and having a look at what we were doing. One emu thought my four-month-old little nephew, Joel, looked kind of interesting in his stroller and so the emu stuck his head in to say “Hi” to Joel. That was funny!

Adorable Joey Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary

Our two-year-old niece was a little nervous in the beginning and did not want to pat the kangaroos, but after around 30 minutes she got used to them and had a wonderful time chatting with the roos and patting their backs. It was lovely to watch.

Tasmanian Devils, Dingoes and Koalas

We caught the train again around passed the main station and back to the Hospital precinct station. Here we disembarked and had a look at the Tasmanian devils enclosures again. We were not disappointed. They were all starting to wake up and run around their enclosure. In fact, two Tassie Devils climbed up onto the top of rock structures in their enclosure to get a better look at us and this also gave us a great, clear view of them!

We began to walk over the train tracks and towards the Koala enclosures when we were especially blessed by two park keepers walking past with two Aussie dingoes on leashes. It was so awesome! The dingoes walked right passed us, we could almost reach out and touch them!

Baby Koala Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary We got to the koala enclosures and were really happy to see the koalas all awake and happily looking around. There was one baby koala sitting in the tree hanging onto his mum’s back! So cute! The girls loved seeing these sweet little Australian mammals.

Departing the Sanctuary

After our fun time seeing the koalas we walked back to the hospital train station and waited for the train. We were happy to learn that it was in fact the last train of the day, at around 4.35pm. So we got to travel right through the park again, passed the water birds and through the kangaroo enclosure and back to main station.

We had been at Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary since just before 8am and so by now our feet were feeling weary. We sad down at the cafe near the entrance to the park and relaxed with a cold drink and snack. Joel had his bottle of milk heated up here, thanks to the lovely lady in the cafe, and so he was also quite content.

We got to see and enjoy many different animals, reptiles, birds and different experiences through out the day, but there were still many different birds, mammals and reptiles that we did not get to see, due to time and lack of energy with three young kids and mum with her walker.

I would say that you could easily spend two days at Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary to see and enjoy everything that this native park has to offer to visitors. We hope to return in the not to distant future!

Thanks Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary for a fantastic, memorable, fun, family day out!

Until next time, Remember to Enjoy Life, Smile at a Stranger and Make a Difference in the World!

Leanne Annett <><

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  1. Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary Alex Griffiths 100 Year Celebration

    […] is so much to do at Currumbin Sanctuary that it is easy to spend the whole day enjoying the wildlife and everything that this venue has to […]