Cleland Wildlife Park 2007: Keith checks out what's new at the park in the Adelaide Hills region of South Australia
Cleland Wildlife Park is celebrating forty years. Think Cleland and you think koalas, emus and kangaroos - but there's a lot more. Maybe we're a little complacent about it but interstate and international visitors marvel that it's only a 20 minute trip up from town to meet the iconic residents of the South Australian bush face to face.
The actual Wildlife Park is a central 35 hectare chunk of the much bigger Cleland Conservation Park that nurtures 1,000 hectares of precious hills face bushland stretching from Mount Lofty summit right down to the leafy suburbs of Waterfall Gully below.
The park residents are renowned for being a photogenic and friendly lot - with literally thousands of snaps of the cuddly koalas and sometimes contrary kangaroos gracing wallets and websites around the world every year.
You can ogle a Mulga snake in the Ocean to Outback exhibition in the Interpretive Centre… Or pat a local Blue Tongue lizard. Keep an eye out for the various feeding times around the place and you can even check out the dingo pups' table-manners.
There are new experiences being added all the time and one of the latest is a real show-stopper - 'Buzz', the Black Breasted Buzzard. We watched in awe as Buzz and his handler, Brett Haby went through their paces.
"The interesting thing about this bird is that it can use a device to get into one of its favourite food sources," explained Brett. With that Brett produced an emu egg from his pocket and that really caught Buzz's attention.
"The black breasted buzzard loves to eat emu eggs,' said Brett. He put the egg on the floor, along with a few small stones. It wasn't long before Buzz was on the floor too - picking up the stones in his beak and dropping them on the egg!
After 4 or 5 attempts - success. The egg broke and Buzz got his reward! (Not the contents of the egg but a treat from Brett)
The Black Breasted Buzzard and the Vulture are the only two birds in the world known to use a rock in this way so to have Buzz breaking into showbiz at our very own Cleland is ground-breaking stuff.
Buzz is still only a youngster. At three and a half years old, he's still to develop the brilliant black chest that gives him is name. He'll also get bigger - and will eventually have an impressive wing-span of one and a half metres. The Rangers are keen to point out that they haven't taught Buzz to do all this - it's instinctive.
And according to Cleland's Education Officer, Ben Luxton, that's why Buzz and the other animals at Cleland are ideal to help spread the conservation message.
The next star of the show is Casper the Barn Owl. Ben explains that Barn Owls are cosmopolitan in their distribution, which means that they are the same the world over. Birds like Casper also help the education process. They might look mysteriously innocent, but barn owls are also birds of prey. They use stealth to sneak up on their prey so have evolved to fly without making a single sound.
Casper and Buzz are powerful lessons in conservation. When the school kids learn all about them and see them in the flesh - they get to see first hand the importance of protecting their habitat. It's a 'living lesson.'
And the same can be said for all of Cleland… after all, the park nearly didn't happen. Tobacco crops were trialled in the clearings, grapevines too. There was even a housing development planned in the 1920s - the Obelisk Estate.
But one man, naturalist Professor John Burton Cleland would have none of it. He used to wander these hills as a boy. In fact, the fireplace of the hut he used to camp in is preserved near the parks' main pavilion.
Like Buzz chipping away at that egg, Professor Cleland chipped away at state governments for 20 years until the pollies relented.
The huge priceless tract of hills face bush was saved. The Kaurna aboriginal people of the plains had made hunting forays up the slopes for hundreds of years before the timber-fellers went to work. Now their bullock wagon tracks serve as walking trails.
And forty years ago, on April sixteenth, 1967 Cleland Wildlife Park was opened and the conservation message has never been stronger.
The 40 Wild Days celebrating 40 Wild Years at Cleland kicks off in May. Contact the park direct for a rundown of events. Or why not pop up for a visit anyway - you won't regret it.
'Ocean to Outback'
Cleland Wildlife Park
Mount Lofty
Summit Rd
Crafers
Open 7 days 9.30am-5pm
Ph 8339 2444
www.clelandwildlifepark.sa.gov.auPublished 15th April 2007
