Four decades of education and conservation

IT has been 40 years since Greg Parker founded the Ballarat Wildlife Park to champion conservation, education and hands-on experiences.

The park opened its gates in February 1985, and today the 10-hectare park has over 100 free-roaming kangaroos, Victoria’s largest colony of koalas in human care, exotic species like Sumatran and Siberian tigers, penguins, and a range of reptiles.

Mr Parker said the park’s success is due to its focus on animal welfare.

“Our animals are just as important as our guests that come through the gate,” he said.

“They’re part of our family and we aim for very high standards of animal care.

“My partner Julia [Leonard] is absolutely uncompromising in animal welfare, and I think that’s one of the reasons we are successful.”

Mr Parker had previously worked at Healesville Sanctuary and had his own private collection of reptiles when he decided to open a wildlife park.

After tossing up opening the facility in Bendigo or Phillip Island, Mr Parker decided Ballarat was the best option due to its proximity to Melbourne and having Sovereign Hill as an established tourist attraction nearby.

“It got down to lifestyle and we just loved Ballarat and the fact that it has Sovereign Hill there which was a big drawcard,” he said.

“They’re not competing attractions, they’re complementary attractions.

“At the time it was regularly an hour-and-a-quarter to get to Ballarat [from Melbourne] so it fits really nicely into a day tour.”

The park was the first privately-owned facility to breed Tasmanian devils on the Australian mainland, and Mr Parker has also hand-raised and bred crocodiles.

He said these are some of the park’s greatest achievements.

“I reared a crocodile from a hatchling to a healthy four-and-a-half-metre adult and then I paired him up with a female crocodile which I also grew up,” he said.

“I created a new habitat for them, and they started to breed.

“They were the only breeding crocodiles in southern states outside the tropics and we had to create a totally artificial environment to breed them.”

To discover more about the Ballarat Wildlife Park, visit the website.