Moonlit Sanctuary

The city of Melbourne extends to the south along the shore of the bay called Port Phillip. Our group rode a van for a little over an hour to this area to visit Moonlit Sanctuary Wildlife Conservation Park. This facility houses animals indigenous to Australia that have been injured or for other reasons can't be returned to the wild. It's quite a collection!

Our first encounter was with a southern hairy-nosed wombat who was busy eating and couldn't have cared less that we were taking his (or her) photograph. We really couldn't get close enough to determine how hairy its nose was compared to other wombats.

We then strolled through the kangaroo and wallaby "resting area." Many, particularly the large male kangaroos, were so busy resting that they couldn't be bothered to come greet us, even when we had food in our hands.

Female and joey wallabies were most eager to be fed, though a couple of young kangaroos did eventually feel motivated.

Many ducks and other birds fly into the sanctuary looking for a free meal, though they are not actually part of the exhibit. Some of the ducks have amazingly large feet.

Large male kangaroos can be aggressive, but several here didn't seem to care that we were there, so long as we didn't disturb their rest.

As we drew near to some baby emus, we could hear the dingos howling in the distance. They sound much like wolves, to which they are more closely related than to domestic dogs.

Koalas sleep up to 20 hours a day, so we felt fortunate to be able to see half a dozen or so when they were feeding or otherwise fairly active.

To be able to actually touch a koala was an additional fee of 25 Australian dollars (about $16.00 U.S.), but we were told that it causes stress to the koalas, so only a few in our group paid for that ticket. While those folks were waiting their turn for the koala petting, we moved around the park to get views of some of the other animals. These included:

A Tasmanian Devil (more ferocious than they look).

A spot-tailed Quoll -- not an animal with which we were familiar, but by the construction of its pen and the signage around it, one that would gladly feed on your fingers.

Cockatoos, as well as several species of owls. And of course, the laughing kookaburra.

At 11 a.m. there was a show in which a couple of young trainers, following a well-worn script, demonstrated some tricks by various animals. 

They had a dingo on a leash, a barking owl flying very low over our heads, and a glider -- a marsupial that has many of the same talents as a flying squirrel.

On the way out of the park, we saw a pair of huge wedge-tailed eagles. This is one of the largest eagle species in the world, probably half-again larger than an American bald eagle.

From the wildlife sanctuary we drove a short distance to Heronswood Gardens, formerly an old country estate, now a garden nursery and cafe. We enjoyed a nice lunch and walked through the gardens. 

There were lots of flowers, but also a considerable display of edible garden vegetables. As it's springtime in Australia, many are planting gardens this time of year.

Our evening meal at a Greek restaurant celebrated our last evening in Melbourne. The city has more Greeks than any city in the world outside of Greece, so Greek food was an appropriate farewell to the city. Tomorrow we fly to the outback.