rlgreen

My wife and I will be in Sydney in early June. Several sources have suggested that because of construction the Taronga Zoo is not now worth a visit. Opinions, observations, please, from recent visitors. Thank you in advance.

Alan

Well, I am not a "recent" visitor to Taronga, so maybe I shouldn't be chiming in; actually, my last visit there was in 2003 with a San Diego family whom I met, of all places, right here on this forum.

But I would have to say that I have been to Taronga about twenty times in the past thirty years (that's what comes of having two distinct families of kids two decades apart), and there is ALWAYS construction going on on SOME part of the Zoo; I think there probably will be if you write in in another twenty-five years. The point is, that the reason Taronga is in such a great place in Sydney (there's hardly a better location in the whole harbour) is that they got in early; this is an OLD zoo, and many of its cages are only just barely "politically-correct" in these days of animal rights (is it true that in the credits of the movie "The Perfect Storm" there was a title assuring us that "no fish were harmed during the making of this picture"?) The old bear cages, for instance, are still there, though nothing lives in them anymore.... and when you see them, you'll know why. Maybe this week they're being torn down and made into a red panda enclosure.... who knows?

But, to cut a long story short, I have never found any of the construction going on in the zoo to be more than a trivial inconvenience.... the worst that is likely to happen is that you'll follow a signposted trail to an animal only to find a sign at the end saying that it has been tempoararily relocated to another part of the zoo.

It's still a good day out -- that view of the harbour will never be "renovated out"!

benderbabe

I am a zoo sponsor and a regular visitor of the Taronga Zoo.

They have just completed a multi-million dollar upgrade of the Taronga Zoo's new Safari area, although they are late opening it due to a problem with gettting some new elephants imported from Thailand.

Nonetheless, through the new construction, part of which was in a before unused area, and part of which was in the previous safari area which had only a few hooved animals such as goats, it has not interfered with being able to view any animals, and has not been an inconvenience.

I strongly suggest a visit. Best way to arrive is by ferry, which you can easily catch from Circular Quay in the city.

I also suggest that you take the sky tram from the ferry up to the top of the zoo, and work your way down... otherwise the hills can be quite unpleasant.

Aside from lots of animals you may not have seen before (wombats, kangaroos, platypus, koalas, echidnas), there is a fantastic view of the city and the opera house from both the giraffe area and the bird show arena.

Definitely don't miss out on this!

You can access their website here:

www.zoo.nsw.gov.au

You may also be interested in the information on Taronga's Zoo Pass:

http://www.sydneyferries.info/attractions/zoopass.php

quimbymoy

i second the awesome view of sydney from the zoo! and don't forget to visit the friendly giraffes ;-)

SnRSeattle

We usually skip the animal "shows" in places as being too cutsey, but the shows we saw at Taronga were great. Views of the city and the lovely Australian sunshine and light, even the food at the cafe place was good--don't miss it.
Sally in Seattle (we went in July 2004 amid a lot of construction and didn't have any problems seeing the Australian animals, which were what we went there to see.)

jbstrig

We just returned from a month in AU and 10 days in Sydney. The Taronga Zoo was very nice, beautiful view. Lots to see so get there early. We were told to see the bird show, which was definately worth the visit, amazing. Construction, if any, wasn't noticable. Have fun. jb