Ettamogah

Steve Robinson

Well-Known Member
15+ year member
Another Park to close down has been the curiously named Oz.e.Wildlife Park - or something similarly incomprehensible - located just north of Albury, NSW.

Closed at the end of February after the local Council declined to renew it's $50,000 annual subsidy.

However, the land is worth millions so the Trust that owns/operates it should still be able to carry out it's conservation work if it sells the property.
 
here's an article about it closing:
Lights out: Oz.e.Wildlife shut down | The Border Mail
30 May 2012

ETTAMOGAH'S Oz.e.wildlife sanctuary has been forced to close down after more than four decades on the Border.

Operators today announced the 42-year-old sanctuary was no longer financially viable, and will close tomorrow.

They said Albury Council's decision to abandon its funding, plus poor visitor numbers in the 2011-12 year, were the main reason for the closure.

Casual staff and volunteers will continue to care for the animals until they are rehomed to suitable zoos or parks.

The sanctuary was opened as a refuge for sick, injured and orphaned wildlife by Heidi Peck in 1969.

Albury Council has helped fund the sanctuary since 1995.
 
Not sure if this is the place your talking about or not, do you mean the wildlife park with the 'Big Pineapple', I have a feeling that was near the Ettamogah Pub?
 
Not sure if this is the place your talking about or not, do you mean the wildlife park with the 'Big Pineapple', I have a feeling that was near the Ettamogah Pub?

No - that one was in Queensland and has closed down also.

This one is in far southern NSW near the real district of Ettamogah.
 
Oh right, thanks for that. Do you know what the Queensland park was called?

That Park was called, I think, the Big Pineapple Wildlife Park and was just one component of a tourist farm, fruit shop complex. It is now closed.

The developers of the Queensland Ettamogah pub complex also had a reptile display in a building at that attraction for some time. That has now been closed for some years.

The Ettamogah name became saleable because it was the subject of a regular cartoon by Ken Maynard in a weekly magazine in this country. The cartoon featured characters who hung out at this weird shaped pub in a town called Ettamogah. The real Ettamogah in southern NSW never did have such a pub until an enterprising developer constructed such an edifice in an endeavour to develop it as a tourist attraction. With it's surrounding shops and caravan park it became quite a success. So much so that another one was built in Queensland.

The Ettamogah Sanctuary [aka Oz.e.Wildlife] that has recently closed, pre-dated the tourist development by many years and had nothing to do with it. Although in the same district, it was located several kilometres away.
 
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