On Walkabout At: Tasmania’s Natureworld

Prior Posting: Australia’s Island State of Tasmania

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When we reached the east coast of Tasmania the weather turned quite dreary and raining off and on.  As we drove down the coast we noticed a wildlife park just outside the city of Bicheno that we decided to go check out.  The park was called Natureworld and was located along a nice lagoon and seemed to be well maintained:

Natureworld turned out to be quite an expansive, family friendly wildlife park that we had a great time checking out:

The park is run by British man with his family who after one visit to Tasmania fell in love with the island:

There is much to love about Tasmania and the wildlife is definitely one of its strong points.  Unsurprisingly the first wildlife we saw at Natureworld was a mob of kangaroos:

The kangaroos were eager to get some food pellets from visitors that the park personnel were handing out:

The kids we saw with their parents had a great time playing with the kangaroos.  I can’t wait to one day bring my daughter here because I’m sure she would have a great time as well.  However, I would be worried about letting her get to close to the kangaroos considering how large their claws are:

These claws I’m sure could do some serious damage:

My wife and I have seen plenty of kangaroos hanging around our home in Victoria, but we never get tired of seeing them even at wildlife parks.  However, this cute little wombat was probably my wife’s favorite animal in the entire park:

The park also had this albino pademelon, which is the first time I had ever seen any albino marsupial in Australia:

Here is how the pademelons normally look:

These pademelons are now extinct on the mainland, but remain common in Tasmania.  The next little animals we looked at are not mice, but yet another species of marsupials:

Natureworld also has a large Tasmanian Tiger Snake holding area as well:

This is the same type of snake that earlier in the day scared the crap out of us along a hiking trail.  These snakes are huge, mean looking, and highly venomous:

However, for being such mean looking snakes they are actually pretty passive with one of the park employees walking inside the enclosure unafraid of being bitten by the snakes.  He walked around with a bucket feeding the snakes with small chicks to eat:

The park employee said that the snakes don’t bite him because they are used to his smell and know that he isn’t a danger.  He said if any of the park visitors tried to climb in with him the snakes would be startled because the snakes are not used to that person’s smell.  This could cause them to become defensive and potentially bite someone.  I don’t think the guy in the park had to worry about anyone jumping into that snake enclosure though.

I forget what these birds were called but they had greenish beaks and the park guide said that they were endangered and only small amount of them remain in Tasmania:

The park also had a number of these large pelicans that the park guide would throw food at that they would catch:

The pelicans actually know the schedule of the park guide and we watched them come flying in on time to get their morning meal.  My wife and I went around and saw many more colorful birds such as this collection of cockatoos:

Here were some other colorful birds found at the park:

As nice as all these animals were, we really enjoyed the park’s Tasmanian Devils:

The park’s owners raised these devil’s from when they were very little because their mom was hit by a car. So they think of the park operators as their parents:

The park operators told us that the devils are very smart and it is healthy for them to have to work to find their food.  So they would hide the food under rocks and in other hard to reach places in order to keep them thinking:

Of course whenever they found the food the devils like the meat eaters they are would quickly eat the meat

The only wildlife park we liked better than Natureworld in Australia was the Healsville Animal Sanctuary in Victoria, which is a much larger operation than this family run business.  However, if ever visiting Tasmania Natureworld is well worth stopping by and checking out.  We ended up spending most of the day at the park enjoying having close interaction with all the wildlife.

Next Posting: Wineglass Bay, Tasmania