Western Australia – Day 9 – Bunbury Animal Park

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Day 9, and we’re on our last leg of our 11 day vacation. We checked0out from our stay in MR – the Margaret River Hideaway – and slowly made our way back up north back to Perth. Unlike Day 2 when we essentially were in a mad rush to drive from Fremantle to Pemberton and all 375km between them and trying to fit a 3 hour stopover in Busselton inside it, we took our time in the return journey. The return journey was a much shorter 270km from Margaret River to Perth, so we had time for the second animal feeding at the farm stay, and also two stopovers at Bunbury, and also in Dawesville.

Our initial itinerary included visits to two wildlife parks – Bunbury Wildlife Park, and the Caversham Wildlife Park just outside Perth central. The latter is generally regarded to be a lot more slick and popular, but also a lot more pricey admission-wise. It would have also eaten up a good half day of Day 10. We were uncertain if at this point – after all the interactions with farm animals and also last year’s trip to Ballarat Wildlife Park would the kids still be wowed by such. So, we decided to drop Caversham and stick with just Bunbury, largely on account it was literally on the way back to Perth.

The Bunbury Wildlife Park isn’t very big – we finished the park in an hour at a fairly leisurely pace, and stayed for another hour for lunch at the park’s cafeteria – but it’s also a lot more laid back, and there were only a small handful of visitors besides us at the point we went by (about 11AM). We in fact had pretty much the entire free-roaming kangaroo enclosure to us. The highlight for us though is the bird aviary. It’s not quite the size of say the Jurong bird Park aviaries, and not as crazy dense in bird species, but there are numerous beautiful bird specimens specific to the region, which provided for great opportunities to put the 40-150mm f2.8 + 1.4x teleconverter to work. All the pictures below were taken with that lens and the Panasonic GX85, which again performed admirably – though I’m still getting used to its maximum f-stop quirks!

*munch munch*
One of the many specimens in the park.
Flock taking off and I was holding the wrong camera and lens – agggghh. Fastest camera/lens switch ever to catch the last couple of frames.
Big bully!
Wild birds that have found their home in Bunbury Wildlife Park.
Hey Simon – you see that dude with the long lens pointing at us? Wanna take a pass on his head and shiat on him?!
Bird shots all taken on the 40-150mm f2.8 + 1.4x converter.
Many of these birds were perched on trees and branches slightly off the main trail.
Another beauty hiding behind some trees and foilage.
Oh man – find a room!
Ling’s eagle-like vision helped me spot all these beauties at the Wildlife Park.
Wombats!
Someone always wants to do his own thing.
And of course, a free-roaming area where the ‘roos lie contendly waiting for the kids to stroke them.
Yes, you may stroke me, human.