Potoroo Palace

Being marsupial, kangaroos give birth to a tiny joey the size of a jelly bean. It crawls straight away from the mother's cloaca, up through the fur on the outside of her pouch, then down into the pouch where it attaches itself to a nipple. It has no fur and its eyes are closed. Its ears are plastered to the side of its head. The mother can produce two kinds of milk from her two nipples. She may be feeding the new tiny baby on one nipple and a fully furred juvenile, who does not need to be in the pouch any more, on the other. The bigger joey gets the richer milk.

The Kangaroos at Potoroo Palace are friendly. They wander amongst visitors.

Our two Tammar Wallabies are both male. Tammars are not native to NSW, but to S.W. Western Australia, Southern South Australia and Kangaroo Island. The Tammar Wallaby was the first kangaroo seen by Europeans in 1629. They like to graze and browse in open grassy areas. When they rest in the heat of the day they like to hide amongst bushes, so we have built hides for them out of branches.

We have 3 male dingoes and 1 female. The dingo evolved from the Indian wolf about 6 thousand years ago and came to Australia in boats from Asia about 3500 – 4000 years ago. It has spread all over Australia, except for Tasmania. In wilderness areas dingoes form packs of up to 12 and usually only the dominant pair breeds. Dingoes will eat carrion or kill buffalo, kangaroos, rabbits, geese or even insects.

Our dingoes have a huge enclosure with a pool, caves and places to explore, but they like to talk to people, so you can see them easily.

It is becoming more and more evident that the presence of Dingoes in an area excludes feral cats and therefore protects the smaller marsupials who are in danger of extinction.

Bill, Wilma and Charlie are not wild birds. They are all well over 30years old (cockatoos have been known to live for 150 years in captivity) and have not been brought up with other birds. They prefer the company of humans. Charlie is a builder at heart. He digs burrows and makes complex arrangements of sticks and bark inside them. If you sing to Bill he will dance. Wilma mutters in low tones. Charlie chuckles at odd moments.

Cockatoos are very intelligent. They eat seeds, roots, buds, berries, nuts and insects. 

 Our three emus seem like a cross between a ballerina and a dinosaur. They eat all sorts of different seeds, fruits, leaves, grasses, flowers and insects. Emus can run at 48kms per hour. In the wild the female lays eggs but leaves the male to incubate for 8 weeks and then care for the chicks when they hatch. He keeps them warm under his feathers at night. Emus make a strange deep booming sound as they communicate with each other. They have huge deep amber eyes.

Our gentle emus wander among the kangaroos and the people.

Vombatus ursinus.

The palatial pen where our two female wombats live makes it possible for them to hide underground or in a mud brick tunnel in the heat of the day. 10ºC is their favourite temperature. Wombats are our most intelligent marsupial. They are related to koalas, but they feed on grasses and roots. They have a backward facing pouch so the baby does not get a face full of soil when the mother is digging. The baby stays with the mother until it is two years old. 

Potorous tridactylus.

Our adult male potoroo is called Ezra. He has been recently joined by 5 females and one baby male potoroo from S.A.

A Long-nosed Potoroo is the size of a small cat. It has small ears close together sticking straight up on top of its head, and a slightly punk hairdo. Its nose is very long and thin. When it digs for truffles (its favourite food) or grubs, it uses its long sharp claws and then sticks its nose into the hole leaving a funnel-shaped depression in the earth. 

Tiliqua rugosa

We have several friendly Shinglebacks who can be seen up close and handled during talks. They are also called Pine Cone Lizards, Two-headed Lizards, Bob-tailed Lizards, Stumpy-tail Lizards or Sleepy Lizards. They are a type of Bluetongue Lizard and are from the skink family. They are usually found west of the Great Dividing Range in the southern parts of Australia in dry forest or sandy deserts. They like to eat berries, juicy leaves, insects and yellow flowers. When they curl up in a horseshoe shape, their heads and tails look very similar and may confuse a predator. They pair for life and bear live young.

Phascolarctos cinereus.

This is Susie, one of our resident koalas. She now has a new friend, Blinky, a young male. Koalas live on gum leaves. There are over 30 species of eucalypt which they will eat. We give our koalas branches of at least 3 different species fresh each day. Koalas have adapted to this strange diet in various ways: they save energy by sleeping for 18 to 20 hours per day; they chew the leaves very thoroughly, to a fine paste; food stays a very long time fermenting in the gut; lastly, the koala has a small brain, because thinking takes a lot of energy.

Tachyglossus aculeatus.

This is Priscilla who lives with Spike, another echidna, in a rocky grassy enclosure with a waterfall and a stream. She is a monotreme and so lays eggs and suckles her young. She produces milk from a milk patch on her belly (no nipples). Her back is covered in spines with fur between them. Echidnas eat termites and ants. They dig into termite mounds with their claws and snout and then extend their long sticky tongue to get insects out. In the wild, echidnas can bury themselves very fast, but Priscilla and Spike stroll around in a relaxed way.

An exciting new addition to our Potoroo Palace family is a young white echidna, who is charming everyone with her quirky personality. She has a special new enclosure near the lizard sunning areas.