Alma Park Zoo was a

zoo A zoo (short for zoological garden; also called an animal park or menagerie) is a facility where animals are kept within enclosures for public exhibition and often bred for conservation purposes. The term ''zoological garden'' refers to zoology, ...

located in Alma Road,

Dakabin Dakabin is a Suburbs and localities (Australia), locality in the City of Moreton Bay, Queensland, Australia. In the , Dakabin had a population of 5,275 people. Geography The western boundary is aligned with the North Coast railway line, Quee ...

in the

City of Moreton Bay The City of Moreton Bay, known until July 2023 as the Moreton Bay Region, is a Local government in Australia, local government area in the north of the Brisbane metropolitan city in South East Queensland, South East Queensland, Australia. Estab ...

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

, Australia. The park was filled with Australian and exotic species. It opened in 1969. When it closed in 2014, Alma Park Zoo was the oldest zoo in Queensland.

Attractions

Alma Park Zoo was fully landscaped with walking paths through

tropical garden A tropical garden is a type of garden that features tropical plants and requires heavy rainfall or a decent irrigation or sprinkler system for watering. These gardens typically need fertilizer and heavy mulching. Tropical gardens are no longe ...

s under a canopy of rainforest trees and plants. A number of enclosures were walkthrough, such as the

wallaby A wallaby () is a small or middle-sized Macropodidae, macropod native to Australia and New Guinea, with introduced populations in New Zealand, Hawaii, the United Kingdom and other countries. They belong to the same Taxonomy (biology), taxon ...

and

kangaroo Kangaroos are marsupials from the family Macropodidae (macropods, meaning "large foot"). In common use, the term is used to describe the largest species from this family, the red kangaroo, as well as the antilopine kangaroo, eastern gre ...

enclosures.

Koala The koala (''Phascolarctos cinereus''), sometimes inaccurately called the koala bear, is an arboreal herbivorous marsupial native to Australia. It is the only Extant taxon, extant representative of the Family (biology), family ''Phascolar ...

snake Snakes are elongated limbless reptiles of the suborder Serpentes (). Cladistically squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping scales much like other members of the group. Many species of snakes have s ...

s and

crocodile Crocodiles (family (biology), family Crocodylidae) or true crocodiles are large, semiaquatic reptiles that live throughout the tropics in Africa, Asia, the Americas and Australia. The term "crocodile" is sometimes used more loosely to include ...

s could be patted and guests also had the opportunity to be photographed with these animals. Exotic animals in the collection included

sun bear The sun bear (''Helarctos malayanus'') is a bear species in the Family (biology), family Ursidae found in the tropical forests of Southeast Asia. It is the only species in the genus ''Helarctos'' and the smallest bear species, standing nearly ...

s and numerous primate species.

Lemur island

Lemur island was a tropical zone in the northern part of the zoo. It had a wooden cabin to protect the

lemur Lemurs ( ; from Latin ) are Strepsirrhini, wet-nosed primates of the Superfamily (biology), superfamily Lemuroidea ( ), divided into 8 Family (biology), families and consisting of 15 genera and around 100 existing species. They are Endemism, ...

s from bad weather conditions such as rain. Reptiles could be also found on the island such as

tortoise Tortoises ( ) are reptiles of the family Testudinidae of the order Testudines (Latin for "tortoise"). Like other turtles, tortoises have a shell to protect from predation and other threats. The shell in tortoises is generally hard, and like o ...

s and

eastern water dragon The Australian water dragon (''Intellagama lesueurii)'', which includes the eastern water dragon (''Intellagama lesueurii lesueurii)'' and the Gippsland water dragon (''Intellagama lesueurii howittii)'' subspecies, is a semi aquatic agamid spec ...

History

The zoo was owned by Bill Williams who also owned a business called WW Shock Absorbers, but was built by workers, led by Leroy Pidgeon, who lived with his family in the caretakers cottage in the zoo at the time. Leroy also recovered, transported and replanted many of the mature palm trees that were a statement of the zoo. These came from older farm blocks around Brisbane that were being sub divided in the early 1970s period and Bill Williams had struck deals to acquire them. The zoo closed on 31 March 2014 and many of the animals were transferred to Wildlife HQ Zoo. There were plans for the zoo to open in

Logan City The City of Logan is a local government area (LGA) located in the south of Greater Brisbane in South East Queensland (SEQ), Australia. Situated between the City of Brisbane to the north and the City of Gold Coast to the south, the City of Lo ...

; however, this plan was cancelled in May 2015. Alma Park Zoo was open every day from 9 am to 4 pm, excluding Christmas Day and reduced hours on ANZAC Day (25 April).

References

External links

* {{Zoos of Queensland 1969 establishments in Australia Zoos established in 1969 Zoos in Queensland Parks in Queensland 2014 disestablishments in Australia Former zoos Zoos disestablished in the 2010s Educational organizations disestablished in 2014

Attractions

Lemur island

History

See also

References

External links