Maru Koala and Animal Park, a totally awesome must-visit!

 
Maru Koala and Animal Park is an awesome place that everyone should visit! Unless you're someone who hates getting up close and personal with animals, in which case, avoid this place at all costs.

It may not be cheap if you purchase the Close Encounter option with three animals like I did, but still... there isn't such an opportunity in Singapore, and it's a whole lot cheaper than flying back to Australia to do it again, so I decided to pay more than S$100 to get my photos taken while holding and interacting with three critters!

Check out their admission fees here!

Close Encounter- Snake

Close Encounter- Snake

Close Encounter- Koala

Close Encounter- Koala

Close Encounter- Wallaby

Close Encounter- Wallaby

In between my Close Encounters, I got to see many animals just doing their own thing without too much of a restriction! There weren't too many fences up, I guess all these animals are used to humans and are friendly!

There is also the option to buy feed and well, feed the animals! As you can see, the llama and donkey are such tame darlings!

My friend opted to buy Close Encounter with just the dingo! It was actually supposed to be the Dingo pup, but they weren't available at the time for some reason, so we got the elderly ones. They're amazing- dingoes don't live till such a ripe old age in the wild, but the ones we met here are like... around 10 years old? Don't quote me, I can't really remember.

They're so friendly! They're like, an in-between of a dog and wolf- I think the handler could tell that I had no clue about animals at all so she simplified it for me.

There was also a huge horse!

Not sure what this is (ostrich??), but I took a photo of it anyway! #touristmode

More kangaroos! There were some albino kangaroos... somewhere.

Baby!!! I got to feed and pet a cute joey.^^

Then I saw what I thought was old farm equipment, so I had to have a photo with it!

As we went down the path... oh yes, we explored the park simply by just going down the path. If you have a small child with you... whoa. I didn't keep an eye out for outhouses or anything along the way.

To be on the safe side, I think you had better make sure all potty breaks are taken before you start on the path. It's a short way to go, but children can be difficult, right?

Beginning of the path, leading into the unknown... lol it's not that long actually.

So as we went down the path, we saw a mom just warming up in the sun with her joey in her pouch! Photos again! #ofcourse

Here's me getting spectacularly ignored by the mommy!

Mommy Kangaroo left soon after we took photos. I think it went off to look for a peaceful place without annoying tourists. Oops. I didn't touch her or her Joey, but I wished I had been faster in taking photos and leaving them alone.

Ah, here's the albino kangaroo! The sun might've been too strong for its eyes? It was just squinting the whole time we were there.

Looking wise, for some reason

Here are the Tasmanian Devils! Look at how badass they look! Maybe they're fierce? I'm not sure why they weren't allowed to roam freely but it should almost definitely be that it's not safe (for us or for them, that's what idk hahah)

By this point, we had come one round. The cute little Devils are at the start/end, and we also caught the end of the sheep shearing show that was held opposite to their enclosure!

They sold natural goods made from these animals, such as soft blankets and shoes made from sheep wool, beauty product made from placenta (sounds gross, but don't we use eggs, mud and snails in our beauty products too?), and other "regular" touristy stuff such as keychains, plush toys, and more!

Lastly, we saw some peacocks! They were strutting their stuff near the Tasmanian Devil enclosure, but I think they were being naughty too, because they would jump onto the fence of the enclosure and walk around, then jump off again. It's like they're showing off to the Devils that they have more freedom! Hahaha

Woohoo! That's the end of the animal part of my Maru adventure, but there's another bit- the mini golf that's also part of Maru Koala and Animal Park! I think I'll leave that for another post. This is getting too long!

Address: 1650 Bass Hwy, Grantville VIC 3984, Australia

Phone: +613 5678 8548

Opening Hours (not sure): 10am to 4pm daily  

- Anna^^