The Irwins now offer luxury accommodation – complete with live crocs

Three crocodiles are lurking just off the terrace of my room, a few metres from where my two small children are swimming.

It’s not as bad as it sounds. For one thing, these are freshwater crocs – much smaller than their saltwater cousins, with a diet that’s almost entirely fish. Secondly, they’re separated from my kids by a high perspex fence, so we can look at them from our private pool in total safety.

The lagoon vista from our room, complete with waterfall and crocodiles, seems entirely appropriate given where we’re staying. We’re at the Crocodile Hunter Lodge, the accommodation adjacent to Steve Irwin’s internationally renowned Australia Zoo on the Sunshine Coast.

We arrived directly from the airport as the sun sank low, to find a mob of kangaroos nibbling the grass of the lodge’s lawn. It couldn’t be a more perfect arrival, and although it felt like they had been put there on purpose – standing, picture perfect, either side of the lodge’s sign – they’re just a wild mob that happens to like the area.

We’re staying in one of the lodge’s new luxury cabins. “Luxury” may not be a word one normally associates with the Irwins, given the family’s reputation for getting down and dirty with wildlife across Australia and beyond.

But luxurious these cabins certainly are – as fancy as anything you’ll find in capital city hotels. In fact, “cabin” feels far too rustic a term for something that feels more like a house. Our two-storey Crocodile Cabin (each cabin type is named after a native animal) features a large full kitchen, dining and living area, a gigantic television, a terrace with a heated plunge pool, two bedrooms, two large bathrooms and a laundry. We’re here for just one night, but it could easily accommodate an extended stay.

The Irwins might have been criticised for representing an old-fashioned stereotype of Australia and Australians to the world, but there’s nothing old-fashioned about the cabin – it’s all sleek, modern design with just a few cheeky elements of Irwin humour (the doormat, for example, is emblazoned not with “Welcome” but with “Crikey!”).

After a dinner at the nearby Warrior restaurant (where everyone seems to be dining very early – almost every table has at least one child present), we head to bed. We’ve got a big day tomorrow, when it’s time to visit the zoo.

It’s my first time at Australia Zoo and, arriving reasonably early in the morning, I’m surprised to see the car park already filling up and streams of visitors heading for the entrance.

While it wouldn’t be accurate to say Australia Zoo is like an Australian version of Disneyland – this is a wildlife park, not a theme park – there’s one aspect that reminds me of the Magic Kingdom: its scale. Australia Zoo is huge, spread across 700 acres, dwarfing Melbourne and Taronga zoos (and many others around the world).

We get a sense of that scale when we need to get across to the giraffe enclosure, as we’re booked in for a feeding encounter with the African giants. A signpost points us in the direction and notes the time it will take to walk there – 25 minutes! With two small kids, that’s quite a hike. There is a shuttle that runs around the zoo, but we’re running late, so decide to leg it.

We arrive in time to participate in the morning feeding of the giraffes, where we’re given sticks of celery and go forward, one by one, to offer them up to the enormous beasts, which seem even bigger when you’re this close. I’m a bit worried my four-year-old will be too scared to approach the giraffe, but he duly takes his turn and giggles as the giraffe’s long blue tongue wraps around the stick before pulling it into its mouth.

The park is split into geographic regions, with animals from Africa, Asia and Australia. The crocs, however, get their own dedicated section, where you can see these giant monsters up close.

There are presentations, activities and feeding sessions throughout the day, but the main event at the zoo is the Wildlife Warrior show, held in the amusingly named Crocoseum stadium. It’s here the zookeepers bring in one of the crocodiles for feeding, sharing plenty of information about the animals and their behaviour, while nimbly avoiding their snapping jaws.

We’ve stayed only one night in the Crocodile Hunter Lodge, but I can envisage staying an extra night and having a second day at the zoo. There’s a lot of ground to cover, particularly if you have small kids, who are likely to be exhausted by early afternoon (ours are tired out after the Wildlife Warrior Show, so there are plenty of exhibits we miss out on, though we end up seeing a lot in one day – we see five extra animals, including Komodo dragons, as we make our way to the exit).

THE DETAILS

Fly
Jetstar flies non-stop to Sunshine Coast Airport from Melbourne and Sydney. See jetstar.com.au

Stay
The two-storey, two or three-bedroom Crocodile Cabins cost between $2099 and $2199 a night, including breakfast, a gift pack, transport and unlimited entry to the zoo, a visit to the Australia Zoo Wildlife Hospital and a dining credit for the Warrior restaurant. Other cabins start from $949 a night for the one-bedroom Red Kangaroo. See thecrocodilehunterlodge.com.au

Visit
Australia Zoo is $74.95 per adult and $49.95 per child for a single day entry, or $104.95 per adult and $69.95 per child for a two-day pass. A one-day family pass (two adults, two children) is $225.65 or $315.65 for a two-day pass. See go.australiazoo.com.au

The writer stayed as a guest of Australia Zoo and Visit Sunshine Coast.

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