Lower levels:

Navigation:

Believe it or not, you can travel vast tracts of the Australian outback, trample through mangrove swamps and peer endlessly into the canopies of the ever present Eucalypt trees and not one, I repeat, not once, spy a single marsupial, crocodile or pink parrot.

Strange but true...

Take a minor detour from the main highway between Cairns and Brisbane however, and you can see more wildlife than you can shake several  sticks at. Welcome to the Billabong.

Billabong means water-hole, and you already know that a swagman waltzes Matilda and waits for  his billie to boil beside one... with a sheep...

Usually a weed covered marsh with brackish water and often populated by incredibly voracious pre-historic reptiles which are all tail and teeth.

Here we see just how immensely fast Estuarine Crocodiles can strike, and also see just how predictable their behaviour is. You see, Crocodiles know that with short fat (but not hairy) legs, and flat sensitive underbellies, they are not likely to be able to catch lunch by impersonating a Cheetah. Instead, they lurk underwater, close to the edge of rivers or waterholes and wait for a telltale ripple created by an animal lapping at the water. In a split second they open their jaws and crush their victim with a force approaching 100 tons. You would not want to meet one on a dark night I can tell you.

At first we were introduced to 'Snapping Tom', a 17 foot monster which dutifully snapped with a resounding clap each time meat on a stick was bounced of his snout - eventually he got the bait.  We moved on to meet 'Psycho'... though a mere 5 footer, Psycho made up for his relatively diminutive size by jumping out of the water and chasing his keeper around its edge - a well rehearsed pantomime but one the keeper will no doubt regret sometime in the future when it grows up.

Moving on we visited some cuter inhabitants of the Billabong - Koalas. As expected, these Eucalyptus eating machines are about as animated as stuffed toys. Evolution must have come up with some really inept predators for them - I doubt they could outrun a slug with a machete.

Next we visited the heavily caged Cassowaries - a kind of Emu and Cockerel combination with Veloceraptor like toes that's 6 foot tall. Apparently these are all but extinct due to a bad habit of head butting cars.

However, not all deadly animals got away without a good petting - we held Koalas and even got to cuddle a baby croc, with elastic bands around its jaws.

Navigation: