This is a set of three new enclosures (built 2015). I really liked the design here. Generally speaking, wombat enclosures are built by digging out a big pit, lining the whole thing in concrete or mesh, and then filling it back in. This stops the wombats digging out. But it also restricts the size of the enclosure somewhat.
Here the fence is simply metal poles driven into the ground 1.2m deep. It is comparitively cheap and effective, and means that the size of the enclosure is not really an issue. You can make it as large as you need. The tops of the poles come up a couple of feet to form the visitor barrier (the verticals seen here under the wooden beams).
I did not at all realise that this was how the exhibit had been constructed, what a great idea!
There are some large wombat yards at the Philip Island Wildlife Park that can't have been fully lined, but thinking about it I guess most of the other wombat enclosures I've seen in Australia are relatively small and bowl-shaped or otherwise clearly lined.
yeah, one of the additional cool things with the fencing method is that it looks really nice compared to the traditional solid wall of wood or metal. It's not at all obvious how it is done, so I wouldn't have known if MRJ hadn't told me.
I'd imagine that the larger the enclosure the more interesting you could make the interior too, because in small enclosures the wombats just dig it all over.
I'm guessing you could use solid walls in the same way (sunk down deeply enough all around the sides, and hence have similarly larger enclosures) but that would be much more laborious and probably not effective long-term..
I'm home in British Columbia, Canada, with the two youngest kids while my wife is visiting her dad in Melbourne, Australia, and she has our two older kids. Every few years she goes back to see her dad and they always makes a point to visit Melbourne Zoo, Healesville Sanctuary, Werribee Open Range Zoo, Sea Life Melbourne Aquarium and Moonlit Sanctuary. Sometimes she goes to Phillip Island Wildlife Park as well and we chat, text and email about the various zoos that she sees and when all 4 of our kids are older then we'll all join in on a big family vacation.
Anyway, she raved about these new wombat exhibits and thought that the combination of the natural surroundings, detailed signs, tasteful fencing and all-around high quality was very impressive. She could scarcely believe how destructive wombats are as there are apparently some huge holes that have been dug in the enclosures.
