Cleland Wildlife Park Cleland Wildlife Park species list, September 2025

[Chlidonias]

Cleland Wildlife Park

Cleland Wildlife Park is on the outskirts of Adelaide in the Cleland National Park. To get there without a car isn't difficult but needs precise timing if a long walk is to be avoided. Bus numbers 863 or T800 can be caught regularly (about every half an hour) from the city to the Crafers Park N Ride interchange, but then from there the Crafers-to-Cleland bus (#823) only runs to Cleland twice a day on weekdays (10.10am and 1.10pm) and three times a day on weekends (10.07am, 1.07pm and 4.07pm), although the return is three times each day (10.40am, 1.40pm and 4.40pm on weekdays; and 10.36am, 1.36pm and 4.36pm on weekends).

I walked to the park from Crafers via several kilometres of trails through the forest, looking for birds and stopping at the Mt Lofty Botanical Gardens on the way, arriving at the Wildlife Park just after noon. I wanted to go to the Laratinga Wetlands afterwards, so had to rush the park in order to make the 1.36pm bus back to Crafers (to catch another bus onwards to Laratinga). A longer visit would have been preferable, but four hours there would be too long if waiting for the 4.36pm bus and I wouldn't have had time to get to Laratinga.

The entry ticket is AU$34.50 for an adult. A family came up while I was entering, looked at the sign, and turned around because it was too expensive.

The area covered by the park is quite a bit bigger than it looks on the map, the whole left and top sections being large paddocks, and it takes a while to get around (especially when you're rushed for time).

There are three sizeable walk-through aviaries and a mixed cockatoo aviary (species lists below), and some individual smaller enclosures for mammals like devils wombats and echidnas.
Overall I wasn't that enthusiastic about Cleland. It's nice enough - I really liked the aviaries - but I think I would have liked it more if I hadn't been rushing it. After I'd left I was thinking it was interesting they didn't have any reptiles, and upon looking this up found that in fact they do, in a house called "Ocean to Outback" which is by the exit. This isn't labelled on the maps they give out nor on the map-signboard, so I completely missed it.

Kangaroo Island Kangaroo paddock.

Dingo enclosure - everything visible in the photo is part of the enclosure.



All species which were seen or signed, as of 14 September 2025 (sans the "Ocean to Outback" reptile house).


MAMMALS:

Short-beaked Echidna
Red Kangaroo
Kangaroo Island Kangaroo
Western Grey Kangaroo
Yellow-footed Rock Wallaby
Swamp Wallaby
Tammar Wallaby (unsigned, free-ranging)
Brush-tailed Bettong (not seen - I missed the enclosure)
Long-nosed Potoroo (not seen - enclosure marked as "under renovation")
Southern Hairy-nosed Wombat
Koala
Tasmanian Devil (not seen)
Dingo


BIRDS:

Emu
Australian Pelican
Black Swan
Magpie Goose
Cape Barren Goose
Radjah Shelduck
Plumed Whistling Duck
[plus wild waterbirds on the Wetlands lake]
Bush Stone-Curlew
Banded Lapwing
Pied Stilt
Glossy Ibis
Royal Spoonbill
Banded Rail
White-faced Heron (unsigned)
Bush Bronzewing
Diamond Dove
Peaceful Dove
Bar-shouldered Dove
Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo
Red-tailed Black Cockatoo
Greater Sulphur-crested Cockatoo
Galah
Pink Cockatoo (not seen)
Rainbow Lorikeet
Musk Lorikeet
Australian King Parrot (not seen)
Budgerigar
Regent Parrot
Princess Parrot
Tawny Frogmouth
Eastern Whipbird
White-browed Woodswallow
Regent Honeyeater
Helmeted Honeyeater (not seen)
Red-browed Finch
Zebra Finch

 

[Chlidonias]

Woodland Aviary: There was no identification signage in this aviary. Species which I saw: Bush Stone-Curlew, Banded Lapwing, Bush Bronzewing, Diamond Dove, Bar-shouldered Dove, Budgerigar, Princess Parrot, Tawny Frogmouth, Zebra Finch.

Forest Aviary: Banded Rail, Peaceful Dove, Musk Lorikeet, Australian King Parrot (not seen), Eastern Whipbird, White-browed Woodswallow, Regent Honeyeater, Red-browed Finch.

Swamp Aviary: Radjah Shelduck, Plumed Whistling Duck, Bush Stone-Curlew (unsigned), White-faced Heron (unsigned), Pied Stilt, Glossy Ibis, Royal Spoonbill, Regent Parrot, Rainbow Lorikeet, Helmeted Honeyeater (not seen)

Cockatoo Aviary: Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo, Red-tailed Black Cockatoo, Greater Sulphur-crested Cockatoo, Galah, Pink Cockatoo (not seen)

 

[steveroberts]

Dingo enclosure - everything visible in the photo is part of the enclosure.

Great review and photos; seems like a good wildlife park.

That has to be the largest dingo enclosure have ever heard of, pretty cool if so.

 

[snowleopard]

One thing about Australian zoos that is evident from your ongoing bus tour of the nation, is that they are bloody expensive! There are loads of Aussie zoos that exceed $50 for a single ticket and even half-day wildlife parks are regularly $35 or more. I wonder why they cost so much money to visit in comparison to zoos on other continents. It's actually kind of outrageous.

With 13 mammal species and 36 bird species, the collection isn't large but it's too bad you missed the Ocean to Outback building as it's labeled on this 2024 map that's posted at the zoo.

@SpoonieSafari

But you are correct in that the photo you took of a posted map during your 2025 visit, the Reptile House is totally excluded. I remember that Ocean to Outback building when I visited Cleland in 2007 and I'm guessing that I saw 20 reptile and amphibian terrariums inside. Also, either in that structure or in the adjacent Visitor Centre, I distinctly recall an open-topped Bilby exhibit and the smell from the little mammals was almost overpowering!

 

[Steve Robinson]

I wonder why they cost so much money to visit in comparison to zoos on other continents. It's actually kind of outrageous.

Not at all "outrageous" when you consider the costs involved in running a business nowadays in this country. Just the range and size of the taxes we pay here is "outrageous" - let alone utility costs, wages and oncosts, staff featherbedding costs, fuel, infrastructure costs, professional fees [veterinarians, pathology, planners, consultants etc], insurance, fresh fruit, vegetables and meat, processed foods, medications - the list goes on forever.

It amazes me that we keep our admission costs as low as we do - we sure ain't getting rich in the process.

 

[snowleopard]

Not at all "outrageous" when you consider the costs involved in running a business nowadays in this country. Just the range and size of the taxes we pay here is "outrageous" - let alone utility costs, wages and oncosts, staff featherbedding costs, fuel, infrastructure costs, professional fees [veterinarians, pathology, planners, consultants etc], insurance, fresh fruit, vegetables and meat, processed foods, medications - the list goes on forever.

It amazes me that we keep our admission costs as low as we do - we sure ain't getting rich in the process.

I don't envy anyone running a zoo in Australia and I salute your efforts, but of course all zoos in the world have the same endless list of fees and costs. It's just quite remarkable that I've been to hundreds of zoos across the globe, been shocked by the admission prices of those in Denmark, Norway and Sweden especially, but nowhere tops Australia for ticket prices. I wonder what it is specifically about Oz that has zoos charging exorbitant admission prices. Surely the tax rate isn't higher there than Scandinavia.

 

[Steve Robinson]

I don't envy anyone running a zoo in Australia and I salute your efforts, but of course all zoos in the world have the same endless list of fees and costs. It's just quite remarkable that I've been to hundreds of zoos across the globe, been shocked by the admission prices of those in Denmark, Norway and Sweden especially, but nowhere tops Australia for ticket prices. I wonder what it is specifically about Oz that has zoos charging exorbitant admission prices. Surely the tax rate isn't higher there than Scandinavia.

I can't comment on tax rates in different parts of the world.

However, I can say without fear of contradiction that the various types of taxes (including compound taxes) in Australia are now pretty much at the point where they are discouraging small business initiative and destroying our incentive to work harder and invest more in our businesses.

Agreed that "all zoos in the world have the same endless list of fees and costs" but believe that, in total, ours are higher than most. As I mentioned earlier, despite your assertion that Aussie zoo admission prices are the highest in the world, none of us are making a fortune from our zoos.