Caversham Wildlife Park
A short half-hour drive north-east of Perth is Whiteman Park, almost 4,000 hectares of natural bushland consisting of some eucalypts, banksia, grass tree, paperbark and other small shrubs adapted to growing in sand. But this is also a recreational park containing a village with manicured lawns and picnic areas, walking and cycling trails, dog exercising areas, a tractor museum, car museum, art gallery, pottery shop, lolly shop, handicraft centre, cafe, tennis courts etc. And in one corner is the Caversham Wildlife Park.
The brochures I had seen for Caversham displayed images of people in contact with the animals - holding wombats, feeding roos and wallabies, patting koalas - and promoting Molly's Farm, with images of farm animals, shearing etc. So I had some idea of what to expect, and my expectations weren't high. I imagined this would be a small working farm with a few enclosures with some common natives, an aviary with some common cage birds, and a paddock or two for some macropods. But I was wrong.
I spent four hours at the park and was very impressed. Privately owned and run they have an impressive collection of Australian fauna, with a more diverse bird collection than most of the major zoos in Australia. The paths are thickly planted and lush, as are many of the enclosures, resulting in a cool shady environment which is in contrast to the hot dry environment throughout most of Whiteman Park.
The eastern quarter of the park is Molly's Farm, and it's a typical small farm with lots of farm animals most of which the public can come in contact with - sheep, goats, cows, horses, chickens, geese, rabbits, guinea pigs, alpacas, and a llama. They also had fancy doves, guineafowl and a pair of ostriches.
The rest of the park was all native wildlife. In the centre is a large walkthrough macropod enclosure with Red and Western Grey Kangaroos, and Agile Wallabies. Around this central enclosure are four zones displaying the fauna of that zone - North-eastern Australia, the South-west, North-west and South-east. And there's also a small but modern Reptile House.
Although the Wildlife Park was moved here in 2003, very few of the enclosures look old. There are some very new enclosures that have been well-planted but the plants haven't yet established and really started to grow, and there are new aviaries nearing completion and a new penguin enclosure which looks almost complete. And these exhibits are not small; like many of the existing enclosures they are quite sizable and give the occupants adequate space.
I had a very enjoyable time wandering the grounds; with its narrow winding paths and many enclosures/aviaries, it reminded me of Featherdale or Gorge. My only criticism would be that some of the signage needs to be updated, although probably only a pedant like myself (and a few other ZooChatters) would notice, with one exception - a label for Kori Bustard on the Australian Bustard aviary.
If you ever find yourself in Perth, do yourself a favour and make the effort to visit - I think you'll be as suitably impressed as I was.
Hix
For the record (and because Chlidonias likes to add to his lists) I'm including a full listing of all the wildlife on display with the exception of the Farm. I compiled this list by photographing every label on every enclosure, and photographing anything I saw in an enclosure that wasn't labelled (although I usually saw the mammal or bird in another enclosure as well, this time with a label).
Reptiles - all in the Reptile House unless noted as 'outside'
1. Splendid Tree Frog
2. Green Tree Frog
3. Macquarie Turtle - outside
4. Northern Red-faced Turtle
5. Plate-shelled Turtle - outside
6. Northern Spiny-tail Gecko
7. Banded Knob-tailed Gecko
8. Central Bearded Dragon
9. Boyd's Forest Dragon
10. Frilled Dragon
11. Eastern Water Dragon - outside
12. Ridge-tailed Monitor
13. Merten's Water Monitor
14. Lace Monitor - outside
15. Perentie - outside
16. Northern Bluetongue Skink
17. Centralian Bluetongue Skink
18. Blotched Bluetongue Skink
19. Shingleback Skink
20. Olive Python
21. Stimson's Python
22. Water Python
23. Black-headed Python
24. Woma
25. South-west Carpet Python
26. Brown Tree Snake
27. Death Adder
28. Johnstone's Crocodile - outside
Mammals
1. Echidna
2. Long-nose Potoroo
3. Rufous Bettong
4. Brushtail Bettong
5. Red-necked Pademelon
6. Red-bellied Pademelon
7. Yellow-footed Rock Wallaby
8. Northern Nailtail Wallaby
9. Quokka
10. Parma Wallaby
11. Tammar (Dama) Wallaby
12. Agile Wallaby
13. Bennett's Wallaby
14. Swamp Wallaby
15. Western Grey Kangaroo
16. Red Kangaroo
17. Wallaroo
18. Southern Brown Bandicoot
19. Squirrel Glider
20. Sugar Glider
21. Brushtail Possum (all those I saw were the golden Tasmanian variety)
22. Common Wombat
23. Southern Hairy-nosed Wombat
24. Koala (at least 18)
25. Spotted-tail Quoll
26. Tasmanian Devil
27. Spectacled Fruit Bat
28. Black Fruit Bat
29. Grey-headed Fruit Bat
30. Red Fox
31. Dingo
Birds
1. Ostrich (in the Farm)
2. Southern Cassowary
3. Emu
4. Black Swan
5. Cape Barren Goose
6. Australian Shelduck
7. Hardhead
8. Black Duck
9. Blue-billed Duck
10. Chestnut Teal
11. Radjah (Burdekin) Duck
12. Plumed Whistling Duck
13. Magpie Goose
14. White-faced Heron
15. Cattle Egret
16. Nankeen Night Heron
17. Glossy Ibis
18. Buff-banded Rail
19. Bush Thick-knee
20. Black-winged Stilt
21. Masked Lapwing (with chicks in two separate enclosures)
22. Banded Lapwing
23. Crested Tern
24. Golden Pheasant
25. Brown Quail
26. Black-breasted Button Quail (not labelled, but glimpsed a pair in an aviary)
27. Australian Bustard (1.4)
28. Australian Brush Turkey
29. Black-breasted Buzzard
30. Wedgetail Eagle
31. Nankeen Kestrel
32. Southern Boobook Owl
33. Masked Owl
34. Lesser Sooty Owl
35. Barking Owl
36. Grass Owl
37. Barn Owl
38. Tawny Frogmouth
39. Crested Pigeon
40. Common Bronzewing
41. Flock Bronzewing
42. Wonga Pigeon
43. Torres Strait Imperial Pigeon
44. White-headed Pigeon
45. Emerald Dove
46. Rose-crowned Fruit Dove
47. Superb Fruit Dove
48. Diamond Dove
49. Peaceful Dove
50. Bar-shouldered Dove
51. Spotted Turtle Dove
52. Rainbow Lorikeet
53. Red-collared Lorikeet
54. Musk Lorikeet
55. Purple-crowned Lorikeet
56. Varied Lorikeet
57. Elegant Parrot
58. Scarlet-chested Parrot
59. Western Rosella
60. Port Lincoln Ringneck Parrot
61. Regent Parrot
62. Superb Parrot
63. Princess Parrot
64. Budgerigar
65. Red-capped Parrot
66. Eclectus Parrot
67. Cockatiel
68. Little Corella
69. Sulphur-crested Cockatoo
70. Galah
71. Pink Cockatoo (aka Major Mitchell or Leadbeater's)
72. Gang Gang Cockatoo
73. White-tailed Black Cockatoo
74. Red-tailed Black Cockatoo
75. Laughing Kooaburra
76. Blue-winged Kookaburra
77. Splendid Fairy-wren
78. White-winged Fairy-wren
79. Yellow-throated Miner
80. Blue-faced Honeyeater
81. Satin Bowerbird
82. White-browed Woodswallow
83. Black-faced Cuckoo Shrike
84. Crimson Finch
85. Masked Finch
86. Star Finch
87. Gouldian Finch
88. Zebra Finch
89. Double-barred Finch
90. Red-browed Firetail Finch
91. Painted Firetail Finch
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