Monarto Safari Park Adelaide Zoo hunting investors for Monarto safari park

Simon Hampel

Simon Hampel

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AdelaideNow... Adelaide Zoo hunting investors for Monarto safari park

ADELAIDE Zoo will turn to the private sector to fund a $20 million luxury safari park at Monarto.

Chief executive Chris West said the park had already spoken with international and Australian tourism operators with experience in the safari sector.

The safari park is expected to be an Australian first.

"We are waiting to put the formal expressions of interst ourt and then negoations can begin, but we have already had groups out here," Mr West said.

"They have come, they have looked, they have talked with us, and they like it, but they are waiting for formal invitations (to invest)."

The project, which will include accommodation, restaurants and the planting of an African-style savannah, is expected to take up to three years, but may form only the first phase of a much larger development, Professor West said.
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not so keen on provate sector investment.

so glad werribee dodged the village roadshow bullet........
 
I spose the advantage is that ZoosSA is not government owned. they just recieve alot of funding :)
 
ZYBen said:
I spose the advantage is that ZoosSA is not government owned. they just recieve alot of funding :)
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HI Ben who is behind ZoosSA?
 
I think that the problem I have with this development is that it is aimed at the high luxery end of the market, making it out of the reach of the majority of Australians.
 
jay said:
I think that the problem I have with this development is that it is aimed at the high luxery end of the market, making it out of the reach of the majority of Australians.
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I believe there were originally plans for a range of accommodation options from high end luxury down to safari tent-style accommodation. Not sure what the current plan is.
 
i've never quite understood the definition of zoos SA being "private" and the other big zoos being not. i'm not saying its not. only i don't understand what makes it so.

isn't taronga and melbourne both board run too? and it would be my understanding that neither of these zoos would actually make a profit either and that any siphoning between zoo and government coffers would be a one way street. i doubt that melbourne MAKES money for anyone but themselves.

does anyone know what it is precisely that makes the difference?
 
phoenix said:
i've never quite understood the definition of zoos SA being "private" and the other big zoos being not. i'm not saying its not. only i don't understand what makes it so.

isn't taronga and melbourne both board run too? and it would be my understanding that neither of these zoos would actually make a profit either and that any siphoning between zoo and government coffers would be a one way street. i doubt that melbourne MAKES money for anyone but themselves.

does anyone know what it is precisely that makes the difference?
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I think what Ben was trying to explain was that the zoo's in South Austraila were/are run buy a " Zoological Society" which is run by a zoo board, the London zoo is run by the "Zoological Society of London" which is not goverment run, San Diego is another ect. Hope that helps.
 
And Taronga is run by the Zoological Parks Board of NSW. None of their 'profits' go back to the government.

:p

Hix
 
Don't know where they go these days. I'm out of the loop.
 
Well, your cheeky comment made me laugh, Steve!
Surely you are not insinuating that Taronga is putting profit first! (Outrage!)

Last Tuesday my son, daughter-in-law and granddaughter went to Taronga. It cost them (2 adults and 1 child), $102 just to get in and another $15 to park their car. Add the outrageous food prices and you practically had to take out a second mortgage for the days outing. They wont go back for years now, and that's a shame. Relatively speaking, Taronga must be close to the most expensive zoo on earth to visit.
 
Ara said:
Well, your cheeky comment made me laugh, Steve!
Surely you are not insinuating that Taronga is putting profit first! (Outrage!)

Tongue in cheek comment, mate!

My interest is in the fact that, despite what many consider to be high admission/parking prices and definitely high prices for very mediocre food, the place does NOT make a profit.

Sorry for taking this off topic.

I think that the Monarto plan was always inevitable given the success of the TWPZ and Werribee accomodation models. It would be nice to see Monarto catering for all levels of society.
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Ara said:
Last Tuesday my son, daughter-in-law and granddaughter went to Taronga. It cost them (2 adults and 1 child), $102 just to get in and another $15 to park their car. Add the outrageous food prices and you practically had to take out a second mortgage for the days outing. They wont go back for years now, and that's a shame. Relatively speaking, Taronga must be close to the most expensive zoo on earth to visit.
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We are fortunate to get in to Taronga for free, so we've always made a point of buying lunch to at least give something back ... but we've been so disappointed with the poor quality and the astronomical cost of the food that we're going to start taking our lunch as well now!
 
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