Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary with Kids

If you are looking to take the kids to see a wide variety of native Australian animals, Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary is the place for you.

Located on the Gold Coast, about an hour and fifteen minutes south of Brisbane, Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary makes a great family day trip or can be added to a longer Gold Coast getaway.

Tickets are available online in advance. If you need to reschedule your booked time, just call, and they will change the date for you.

Extra packages are available to purchase online. You can eat breakfast with the koalas, zipline through the trees, or meet a large variety of Australian animals up close.

This location of TreeTop Challenge does not have a junior course like the Sunshine Coast and Tamborine Mountain locations. To zipline at Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary, children need to be at least 8 years old.

Keep reading to find out more about how to spend a day at Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary with kids.

Arriving at Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary

We drove straight to Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary from Brisbane and arrived a few minutes before 9:30 a.m. The park opens at 9 am.

They have a parking lot, which costs $10 per car. We did not see it until it was too late to turn and drove straight past the dedicated parking lot. In the end, that was a good decision as there is free street parking available close by.

We parked around the block and walked to the entrance.

Before the entry gate to Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary is the Sanctuary Cafe, which is open for breakfast and lunch. You do not need tickets to the wildlife sanctuary to eat at the Sanctuary Cafe.

Once you walk through the cafe, there is an area where they feed the lorikeets. There are 2 feedings each day, and the first one is from 8 am to 9 am, which is before the park opens.

You do not need a ticket to Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary to feed the lorikeets.

We showed the person at the gate our QR codes and entered Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary.

They are not currently offering paper maps or showtimes. There is a copy of the showtimes at the front that you can take a picture of. You can take a picture of the map, or you can get it on your phone.

The kids were upset to have missed the lorikeet feeding, so our first stop was the next feeding, the pelicans, and the eels.

There are koalas at the front of the park, so they are always the first animals you will see.

Pelican and Eel Feeding

The pelican and eel feeding takes place on a lake near the front of the park.

We arrived early for the 10 a.m. feeding and sat down at picnic benches nearby for a snack.

Some of the pelicans were walking around near us, as were bush turkeys. We saw a lot of bush turkeys at Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary.

As soon as the person arrived for the feeding, all of the pelicans went back behind the ropes at the lake.

We could see the eels swimming in the shallow areas.

I was surprised to find out that there is only 1 pelican at Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary; the rest are wild pelicans who fly in during feeding time.

Pelicans typically have a 25-year lifespan, but the pelican that lives at Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary, due to an injury, is thought to be about 50 years old. They found her in Sydney in the 80s.

Blinky Bill’s Rookie Ranger Station and Wild Island

As soon as the pelican and eel feeding was over, we walked to the next show, Blinky Bill’s Rookie Ranger Station.

The show is close by, and we had no problem making it in time for the 10:15 show.

The show is on a stage with bench seating. There is also a fenced-in playground right there, and the kids wanted to go to the playground, so they watched the show from the top of the slide.

Blinky Bill is a koala who sings about recycling and how to take care of the earth.

We passed Wild Island on the way to the Blinky Bill show, and of course, the kids wanted to go to the bigger playground there.

There is usually a splash park at Wild Island, but it was closed for maintenance.

The kids did not care at all, as there was a flying fox zip line. They ignored the large playground, giant crocodile statue, and even the spider web rope climb.

Mark and I found a table to sit down at in the shade, and the kids played.

Around 11, I asked them if they wanted to see any animals (no, not now), and we decided they could play until lunchtime, and then we would continue to walk around and look at the animals.

Lunch Options at Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary

There are multiple dining options at Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary.

The closest one to Wild Island is located right next to the Blinky Bill’s show, which we could see from our table at Wild Island.

Wild Burgers has burgers, bowls, and kids’ meals. There is a candy shop on the other side of the stage.

Just a few minutes’ walk away is Kangaroo Outpost. This is more of a quick lunch stop without hot meals. They have premade sandwiches and wraps.

We decided to take the train back to the front and eat at Sanctuary Cafe. We promised the kids we would take the train, and heading back to the front offered us the chance to take 2 train rides, to the front and then back to the animals.

The train comes by every few minutes.

One of the reasons that we chose Sanctuary Cafe is for the air conditioning. While it happened to be a nice spring day, the kids were hot from running around on the playground. The other reason is the chance of healthier food.

Sanctuary Cafe has more expensive options, but also items that are comparable to the food served at Wild Burgers and Kangaroo Outpost.

As Sanctuary Cafe is out of the park, you have to show your ticket at the gate to get back in.

We took the train after lunch and got off at the stop past Wild Island, as the kids wanted to go to The Lost World to see the monkeys.

The train drops you off by the kangaroos and wallabies, which my kids had no interest in seeing. To be fair, they have seen a lot of kangaroos and wallabies in the wild recently.

As we were walking from the train to The Lost World entrance, we could see zipliners over our heads.

The kids were upset because they were too young to zipline at Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary, but we could see why. This location has the zip liners attaching themselves to the zip lines, and many of them were breaking too soon and had to use their arms to “walk” to the end of the zip line.

The Lost World

Playing a Game Inside of The Lost World

Entry to The Lost World is gated and begins with a QR code to download to participate in a scavenger hunt. You need the Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary’s App to play.

I thought the kids would want to play, and Mark downloaded the app, but the kids had no interest. The game wasn’t working correctly, so we didn’t play for long. The idea is to aim your phone at whatever animal they are asking for, and then something pops up on your screen.

No matter how many times Mark aimed his phone directly at the red panda, the app said that the animal wasn’t visible.

Walking Through the Lost World

In The Lost World, there is a boardwalk high above the ground and lots of native trees and plants.

The first animal that we saw was the Cassowary, which I remember from Australia Zoo. There are 2 Cassowaries at Currumbin Wildlife Center, but we could not get as close to them as we did at the zoo.

Other animals in The Lost World include red pandas, capybaras, binturong, cottony top tamarin monkeys, and 2 types of tree kangaroos.

We did not know that tree kangaroos even existed. Lumhitz’s tree kangaroos and Goodfellow’s tree kangaroos both live at Currumbin Wildlife Center.

I feel like no matter how many native Australian animals I learn about, there are always many more. In the past year, I have learned that Australian animals are way more than just kangaroos, koalas, and kookaburras.

After walking past all of these animals, there is another gate to take you into a very large aviary.

The first thing we saw in the aviary was a ringtail lemur that was right in the middle of the path.

The aviary has waterfalls and multiple paths. There is a wide variety of birds and plants inside.

We exited out the other side of the aviary and The Lost World Exhibit. We could see people zip-lining as we headed to the echidnas.

Crocodiles, Wombats, Echidnas, Tasmanian Devils

Unfortunately, we were not able to see any wombats on this trip. I am not sure if they were in the wombat enclosure or not. Probably they were hiding in the holes.

We just saw a bunch of wild wombats during our vacation to Tasmania, so we did not spend too much time trying to seek out the wombats.

Having looked for Echidnas on our hikes in Tasmania and never spotting one, we were excited to see multiple echidnas.

It is kind of hard to spot the echidnas when they are at the front of their enclosure, but there are windows for the kids, and luckily, they walked up higher so we could easily see them.

The Tasmanian Devil that we saw is larger than the devils I have seen before.

I first saw a Tasmanian Devil in Tasmania 10 years ago, and they were scary! I still remember the high-pitched sounds that they made as they ran around. This devil was quiet and just roamed around.

Wildlife Hospital

We missed the Wildlife Hospital presentation and arrived later than the suggested time to see anything at the hospital.

Outside, there are 3 tools for measuring, and the kids enjoyed comparing their weight, height, and wingspan to various animals.

We saw people working inside the hospital, but there were no visible animals.

Wild Skies Bird Show

After picking up popsicles at the General Store (which also sells premade sandwiches if you are looking for lunch), we walked to the Wild Skies Bird Show.

I am not a bird lover, but my daughter is. She was thrilled to tell me facts she knows about the various birds that we saw.

Of course, the birds fly over your head, which the kids love.

At the end of the show, there was a bird that was not going back inside, or wherever they live between shows.

The staff said that sometimes a bird will fly off for a while and return days, weeks, or months later.

Wild Island

By the end of the bird show, we had seen all the animals (except we hadn’t spent time with the kangaroos or wallabies), and the kids wanted to head back to the playground.

Like before, they went straight to the flying fox, and that is where they stayed until we said it was time to leave.

The train was not running, or we would have taken it back to the front.

I am not sure if the train always stops running early, or if it was due to a special event.

When we got to the front of the park, we could see the train sitting there with wedding guests on it.

Lorikeet Feeding

We managed to get the kids out of Wild Island and to the front of Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary with a few minutes to spare before the 4 p.m. lorikeet feeding.

There are 2 shops at the front of Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary, both of which you can enter without paying to enter the park. We walked through them and then sat down to await the feeding.

I didn’t realize that everyone who wanted to would be able to feed the lorikeets. Lots of people showed up, more than we saw at any one place inside the park.

At 4, an announcement is made that anyone who wants to feed the lorikeets should line up for an aluminum dish. There is a gold coin donation recommendation. We only had one $1 coin, but they asked how many dishes you would like, no matter the size of your donation.

After you get the dish, there is an area to gather. The garden is fenced in, and the staff and volunteers stand inside and pour nectar onto the dishes. Then you hold your plate out and wait for a lorikeet to fly onto it.

The Best Spots for Guaranteed Lorikeets

Mark and Z went with the crowd, but M and I went to an emptier area. You need to be with the crowd. They had lorikeets eat from their dish, and Mark even had one land on his head.

Those who got their dishes first gathered near the spinning wheel furthest from the park entrance. The birds tend to gather on that wheel before finding food.

It took us about 20 minutes before we got our first bird. After that, we had plenty of birds eat from our dish, land on my arm, and land on my head.

I had at least 5 or 6 on my dish at a time, though, of course, that was way too hard to photograph.

The feeding lasts 1 hour, and you can stay as long as you want. As more people leave, the chances of having a bird land on you increase.

I do not like birds, but my kid does, and she was thrilled with the experience.

As usual, we were one of the last ones out.

Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary Wrap-Up

Despite the hours being 9 am to 4 pm, we managed to stay until nearly 5 pm.

It was a nice spring day, and it was shady at Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary. Most of the park has trees covering the paths.

We both noticed that it was not crowded. There were a few times when we were the only family in an area.

Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary is nice.

Having been to Australia Zoo and Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary, getting to Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary was not high on my list. If we hadn’t gotten those discount tickets, we probably would not have visited.

The whole family was happy that we went and spent a very full day out at Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary.

It is easily walkable, plus there is a train ride for added fun and ease. Besides all of the Australian animals, there is a wide variety of other animals at Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary. Plus, they have a lot of activities available throughout the day.

Ziplining over the kangaroo exhibit would be a fun thing to add to a day at Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary, though we did not need anything else to fill our time, as we were able to stay busy the entire day.

Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary FAQ

More Places to See Animals Near Brisbane

• Australia Zoo
• Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary
• Wildlife HQ
• Naughty Kids Goat Farm
• Summerland Camel Farm
• Daisy Hill Koala Center

Where am I guaranteed to see Australian Animals Near Brisbane?

More Fun on the Gold Coast

• Kid-Friendly Accommodations on the Gold Coast
• Things to do with Kids on the Gold Coast at Night
• Kid-Friendly Restaurants on the Gold Coast
• Where Kids Eat Free on the Gold Coast
• Cheap Things to Do on the Gold Coast

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