Warrawong Wildlife Sanctuary Warrawong

[Hix]

Warrawong Wildlife Sanctuary is exactly that, a sanctuary. They don’t have any cages like zoos and fauna parks which means you have to look for the wildlife. They run tours at night to see the nocturnal life, and there is accommodation onsite too. The sanctuary is built around a gully that has a stream running through it, forming several large ponds which are home to some waterbirds, turtles and platypus. Surrounding the ponds are some magnificent forests of tall eucalypts, and further down is a fern gully, thick with several varieties of ferns. Most of this has been replanted since 1969 when the then dairy farm was bought by John Walmsley, with hardly any native vegetation at all. After fencing the park and re-stocking it with natives, it is now a haven for wildlife.

http://www.zoochat.com/389/entrance-sign-158668/
http://www.zoochat.com/389/entrance-gates-158669/
http://www.zoochat.com/389/warrawong-158664/
http://www.zoochat.com/389/forest-158670/


During the day there is free admission to the sanctuary. The girl at the entrance asked me if there was anything in particular I wanted to see. “Platypus” I replied. “They don’t come out during the day, come back tonight”.
“Tonight I’ll be in Mildura. Any other wildlife will suit me, though”
“All our wildlife is nocturnal, you won’t see anything”
“Most birds aren’t nocturnal” I pointed out.
“Oh well, if you want to see birds you might see something”.

Not quite was I was expecting from a staff member.

Just inside the entrance, next to the café and tables, was a feeding platform for some birds, seed had been put out in trays and had attracted rainbow lorikeets, crested pigeons and common bronzewings.

http://www.zoochat.com/389/crested-pigeons-158666/
http://www.zoochat.com/389/common-bronzewing-158665/

As I said, the sanctuary is based around several large ponds, but there was much less bird life than I expected. There were quite a few Pacific Black Ducks on all the ponds – to be expected as this is a very common species found everywhere. On one of the larger ponds there was a pair of Black Swans, pulling up waterweeds, and some Dusky Moorhens in the undergrowth around the ponds. There also appeared to be Blue Wrens in the undergrowth throughout the park. I stood by this pond for a while hoping to see some platypus, as they will occasionally come out during the day to feed, especially if it’s overcast. As most of this pond was shaded I hoped I might get lucky, but all I saw was a few short-necked turtles.

http://www.zoochat.com/389/pond-158675/
http://www.zoochat.com/389/pond-reflection-158674/
http://www.zoochat.com/389/pond-158673/
http://www.zoochat.com/389/pacific-black-duck-158662/
http://www.zoochat.com/389/black-swan-158663/
http://www.zoochat.com/389/dusky-moorhen-158667/
http://www.zoochat.com/389/short-necked-turtle-158676/

The bottom-most pond was the largest, and has a two-tiered viewing platform along one side, I presume for presentations. This pond was bathed in the sun, and while looking out across it a pair of Australasian Grebes swam out from the reeds.

http://www.zoochat.com/389/australasian-grebe-158661/
http://www.zoochat.com/389/australasian-grebe-158660/

Below this large pond was the fern gully. The tall eucalypts grew here as well amongst the ferns. And in a smaller eucalypt I found a Koala.

http://www.zoochat.com/389/eucalypts-ferns-158671/
http://www.zoochat.com/389/koala-158672/

Heading back up the slope to the entrance I stopped at all the ponds again hoping to see platypus, but in vain. I also looked up in all the trees for koala, unsuccessfully. I did see an Adelaide Rosella, and came across some tammar and red-necked wallabies, and Western Grey Kangaroos, one of which was white.

http://www.zoochat.com/389/adelaide-rosella-wild-158659/
http://www.zoochat.com/389/western-grey-kangaroo-158677/

A mother pushing her child in a stroller told me of another part of the sanctuary I had missed that had more kangaroos, including red kangaroos, but as I was on my way out I didn’t get to check it out.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Overall, I think Warrawong is a pleasant and relaxing place to visit. I would certainly like to go back in the evenings to see what is on view then. According to one of their signs the park has Ringtail and Brushtail Possums, Potoroos, Rufous Bettongs, Western Brushtail Bettongs, Red-necked Pademelons, Swamp Wallabies and Southern Brown Bandicoots. Looking at the dense forests and the tall trees, I imagine it would be an ideal home to these species.

As I didn’t get to visit at night, and in the interests of providing a more rounded review, I’d appreciate hearing about experiences from forum members who have had this opportunity.



Hix

 

[Electus Parrot]

I found Warrawong to be a very nice place. I was fortunate enough to see a glimpse of a platypus but only for a short while (until all of the screeming kids came). I mcame in the evening and was able to find a southern brown bandicoot, tammar wallabies, red-necked pademelons, red-necked wallabies, kangaroos (western grey and red) but also many bird species including brush bronzewings, Australian grey teals, blue wrens, diamond firetails, New Holland honeyeater and many more. Also I was able to find three species of lizard which included a gecko, a skink and the shingleback. I do recommend this place and very good review Hix.

 

[Chlidonias]

During the day there is free admission to the sanctuary. The girl at the entrance asked me if there was anything in particular I wanted to see. “Platypus” I replied. “They don’t come out during the day, come back tonight”.
“Tonight I’ll be in Mildura. Any other wildlife will suit me, though”
“All our wildlife is nocturnal, you won’t see anything”
“Most birds aren’t nocturnal” I pointed out.
“Oh well, if you want to see birds you might see something”.

that's brilliant

 

[snowleopard]

Nice review. When I visited Warrawong in 2007 there was a wire cage with a species of quoll, and plenty of gray kangaroos hopping around near the entrance, but other than that any sightings of wildlife were few and far between.

 

[Chlidonias]

'Extinct' wallaby goes back on show - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

15 Feb 2012

A wallaby species classed as extinct in the Australian wild until recently has been reintroduced and put back on public show.

The mainland tammar wallaby was saved because a small number of the marsupials were taken to New Zealand more than 150 years ago by former South Australian governor George Grey.

Some of the species were returned to Australia nearly a decade ago and there has been a successful breeding program since at Monarto open range zoo south-east of Adelaide.

Now some of the wallabies have been put on public show at Warrawong Sanctuary in the Adelaide Hills.

Brenton James of the sanctuary says their return to public view is welcome.

"It's really important for these mainlands to be here - they're a local species," he said.

"These guys have come back from the edge of extinction and [it's] extremely fortunate that they were in a island on New Zealand. That's a one-in-a-million chance."

Mick Post also works at Warrawong and is pleased to see the tammar wallabies back on show.

"The breeding program's been really successful. It started back in 2003 and we've done four releases now down to Innes National Park [on Yorke Peninsula in South Australia] ... maybe about 100 to 120 animals down in the wild," he said.

"The population seems to be sustaining itself quite well for the area it's in, so it may well be at the amount of animals we want [there]."

there is a video on the link as well

 

[Jet]

A good news story. On a recent trip to Kangaroo Island there were Tammar Wallabys everywhere. In fact they use population control on KI. But I understand this is a different subspecies to the mainland population and that's why they needed the wallabys from NZ to restart the mainland population (i.e. it was the mainland subspecies originally taken to NZ).

 

[nanoboy]

Visited yesterday. Not a bad little place to spend an hour for free.

I saw a wild koala, which was cool, lots of ducks, and other birds, a few turtles, some kangaroos and wallabies.

All the animals are wild or free roaming, so not exactly a zoo. Don't go out of your way to visit, but if you are in the area, then it will be a relaxing hour.

 

[Hix]

I didn't mention it in my original review but next time I'm in Adelaide I plan on staying at Warrawong overnight - they have accomodation onsite at (from memory) reasonable rates and and I think a night tour is included in the cost.



Hix

 

[nanoboy]

I didn't mention it in my original review but next time I'm in Adelaide I plan on staying at Warrawong overnight - they have accomodation onsite at (from memory) reasonable rates and and I think a night tour is included in the cost.



Hix

A night tour would be great, as a lot of the animals are nocturnal. So that's not a bad plan at all.