Australia Zoo grew from a two-acre reptile park run by Steve Irwin's parents
In 1970 Bob and Lyn Irwin opened a two-acre wildlife park in Beerwah, Queensland, with lace monitors, tiger snakes, freshwater crocodiles and kangaroos. Their son Steve grew up feeding its crocodiles. Thanks to his television show The Crocodile Hunter, the family park became Australia Zoo, drawing roughly 700,000 visitors a year.
The founders had serious credentials. Bob was a herpetologist regarded as a pioneer in keeping and breeding reptiles, and Lyn was among the first people in South East Queensland to rehabilitate sick and injured wildlife. The park doubled in size in 1982 and opened a crocodile area in 1987 to house adult saltwater crocodiles relocated from the wild, which became known for its feeding displays. Steve took over management in 1991 with his wife Terri and renamed the park Australia Zoo in 1998.
Steve and Terri ploughed the money from filming and merchandise into conservation and new exhibits, with a stated order of priorities: animals first, staff second, visitors third. In 2004 they opened an animal hospital in an old avocado packing shed, dedicated to Lyn, and in 2008 a new $5 million hospital built of mud brick and hay, with two operating theatres and intensive care for mammals, birds and reptiles. During the 2019 to 2020 bushfire season it treated its 90,000th injured animal. The 5,000-seat Crocoseum was, when built, the first arena in the world to stage snake, bird and crocodile shows together.
Steve died from a stingray injury on 4 September 2006, and Terri became sole owner. Newspaper rumours in 2008 claimed the zoo would be sold to become a $100 million Disney-style park, but she denied any plan to sell and became an Australian citizen in 2009. Their daughter Bindi is now chief executive, with her brother Robert on the management team.
The zoo, spread over more than 750 acres of bushland with 110 open to visitors, houses over 1,200 animals, from Sumatran tigers in a temple-style enclosure to Sumatran elephants in Australia's largest elephant exhibit. Beyond its gates the family protects wild land, including an inland station where fewer than 12 koalas remained when it was bought in 1994, followed by the planting of 44,000 eucalypts.
Source: Australia Zoo
