@steveroberts apparently birds continued to arrive at Hallstrom's from all over throughout the fifties. Smuggler? It does not seem that anybody was doing much to stop him.
When did Bannamah close? Or is it still there? Just I have never heard of it.
Oh the ocelot exhibit within the GFA back in the 60s sounded comparitevely good for the time with it being heavily planted for the ocelot(s) while the other cats languished on hard concrete and barren tiny dwellings.
Ok yeah so Hallstrom was still receiving exotic birds throughout the fifities, I believe the critique of him came out a bit later during the 1960s, he was apparently quite hurt by some of the things said including the very critical report of the zoo (Taronga) by the director of Basel Zoo in '67 (Taronga did need to modernise though lot more and subsequently did over next few decades a.y.k).
Bannamah closed in early 2002 and now the site is Bailey Brewing Co (1710 Caves Rd, Dunsborough, WA, the main building still stands built by the parks second owners Bob Evans and son Wayne) and a high ropes course called Next Level Monkey Business (theres a childrens farm next door called Country Life Farm that believe the parks kangaroos and emus went to when it closed, CLF think opened next door in '89). Apparently Bannamah's dromedary camel Bluey 1.0 may have had very impressive longevity, he came from a rodeo in the '70s and believe he went to (now also closed) Marapana Wildlife World near Mandurah when Bannamah closed (along with the park's freshwater crocodiles). Think after Aub' and Cath' Chugg retired, the next owners were Bob Evans and his family including his son Wayne (and head keepers Des Hume first then Peter Tootle who have heard were both amazing head keepers) from about 1980 until '88 when was bought by another owner and then another; but heard from one of the former senior keepers that the last owners essentially '' (had) no idea how to run the wildlife park'' and the park closed soon after. Fair few Western Australian reminisce about the place on facebook. My dad and his brothers it was their local animal park so they and my grandmother have fond memories of it (same for me as a kid in the '90s).
@MRJ "For many years I thought I had seen vultures there. Nobody I asked ever knew anything about them, and so I thought it was my imagination. However, not so long ago I found out that Melbourne Zoo imported king vultures post WW2. So, it is quite possible I saw them in the early '60's."
I have a map (found online) from "1960" (that's how I filed it, though I notice than in pencil is scribbed "Royal Park [195?]") that is very close to the map posted here (earlier though, eg: no lion park yet). The enclosure marked here as "HAWKS" is labeled "HAWKS VULTURES" on that map.
It's not the GFA, and this predates me so I'm just going off what is on the map, but is some evidence that there were vultures at the Melbourne zoo. Maybe this is what you're remembering.
Hmmm, it doesn't appear that I can edit my post. But anyway, I tracked down the map I am referring to that references VULTURES: State Library Victoria - Viewer
Map of Melbourne Zoo in The Age May 20, 1959 (page 5)
*was some kind of treasure hunt thing around the zoo organised for the kids of Melbourne, imagine clues or whatever were where the bold lettering writing on map was, the map itself is kind-of a boring one imo like looks like not much there..but they havent filled in names for every exhibit on the map either have noticed.
@steveroberts Wow thanks for this Steve. It's really cool to see Melbourne before the period where massive change begun, kickstarted by Lion Park's opening in 1967.
It seems like the zoo had quite an impressive native collection still at that time. The map also confirms a few things;
that Eagles used to be displayed in the GFA.
Rhesus Macaques used to be displayed in the current Amazon Aviary.
Small Cat Row used to house some of the Big Cats (Lions and Jaguars)
The old Bear pits were in the location of what was to later be the Big Cat Row.
And that the Chimps were kept in the second Monkey Cage beside the Main Roundabout (as was speculated).
