Australia - The Billabong animal sanctuary - Townsville.

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Townsville - Billabong animal sanctuary

11th October

Whilst in Townsville we visited the Billabong animal sanctuary which we thought may be a tacky day out when we arrived at their site but we continued in because we'd heard good reports from a friend.

In the end we held just about every animal it was possible to hold including a wombat, koala, lizard, snake and baby crocodile with its jaws rubber-banded together. Most of the animal keepers seemed well informed and one woman in particular gave us all a good explanation of the animlas we saw. We also managed to hand feed a number of Kangeroos as we walked about and see too-many teeth of a few crocodiles as they were fed by their keeper.

Apparently something like only 40 people have ever died as a result of a Crocodile attack, 38 of them were Australians probably ignoring Croc' warnings according to the keeper, the reamining 2 tourists.

This entry is purely to show you the animals we saw.

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Sylvia casually hand-feeding a Roo.

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...whilst I play the fool.

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Koalas do just laze around all day, apparently sometimes their Mothers literally have to chase them away as they become too dependant.

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We did however see some action when leaf chewing was deemed absolutely necessary.........

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..and then it was back to napping again.

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The infamous Dingo, this ferocious animal with its pal, were patted and cuddled by thier keeper...(but don't tell anyone.) Apparently some of the reported Dingo killings are now being questioned and the Jury still is out.

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Our first Croc..

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...which can hide in less than one metre of water and....

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...pounce quicker than a cat.:eek:

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A few more with very good natural camoflage.

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An inviting smile.....

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A Lizard.

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Sylvia bravely grapples with a snake.

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Which I duly do the snake photo with.....

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...and show my maturer side !!:D:augie:rolleyes:

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A special type of Possum...can't remember it's proper name, just that it was very shy and particular about being touched behind its head.

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A couple more Croc-shots taken around lunch-time.

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.....lunch is fed via a Tea-bag-type string and the Croc is teased a little before they get to keep the food.

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One I held earlier...:augie:augie:augie:D

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Monitor Lizard.

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The infamous Laughing Kookaburra.

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The endangered Cassowary, a bit smaller than an Emu.

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Mike.

p.s. whilst in a fish & chip shop in Townsville one evening we saw an advert offering $AU800/week for a counter assistant-that's around 350 pounds per week or 18,000 pounds per year !
 


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