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Wallaroo Station, where you can feed fig cookies to kangaroos and wallabies, is the latest hands-on exhibit to open at Lowry Park Zoo.
By LEA IADAROLA, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times, published May 9, 2002
The Australian outback comes to Lowry Park Zoo on Saturday as Wallaroo Station, the new 41/2-acre children's exhibit, opens. It's the largest exhibit built since the zoo reopened in 1988.
Wallaroo Station joins Stingray Bay, the petting zoo and Lorikeet Landing as the fourth Lowry Park Zoo exhibit where guests can reach out and touch the animals.
And like the other exhibits, Wallaroo will be educational.
"If they (children) have fun, they'll learn, and if they're bored, they won't," said David Zimmerman, the zoo's executive vice president.
The $6.2-million Australian-themed children's exhibit was about three years in the making, according to Zimmerman. The zoo was looking to expand with a new exhibit, so officials asked the public what they wanted. They responded: fish, water and ponies. What the zoo came up with was Wallaroo Station.
For safety reasons, there is only one way in and out of Wallaroo. At the entrance to the exhibit, guests are alerted by the map outside the entrance "You are here" -- in Alice Springs, Australia.
And since Wallaroo is aimed at children, the first thing visitors will notice is all the colors. Everything inside Wallaroo is stained in muted shades of the rainbow, down to the signs, fences and sidewalks.
Through the opening and to the right, there is a water tower where the palm cockatoo will perch. The tower teaches water conservation methods because Australians, like Floridians, have scarce fresh water resources.
Behind the water tower is the highlight of Wallaroo Station -- the Kangaroo Walkabout. Here visitors can feed Eastern Grey kangaroos and Bennett's wallabies as they bounce around. The 'roos and wallabies love Fig Newtons, said Tracy Conley, a hospital keeper at the zoo.
Down the colorful path at the Grub and Grog restaurant, guests can munch on a variety of foods: hand-dipped ice cream, pizza and Australian-style potato chips, which are thick-sliced french fries.
Parents can keep cool inside in the air conditioning or outside under the fans while watching the kids play in the Billabong water fountain, where cool water sprays from turtles and bright orange fish.
Beside the Billabong is the koi pool where visitors can feed the fish and watch them swim. Koi, a form of carp, are used for aquaculture in Australia.
Children can also go for a pony ride at the Pony Trek, pet one of the three breeds of goats in the petting zoo or use minimotor jeeps to round up, or muster, Barbados sheep in the Muster Ride.
Phase two of Wallaroo Station is scheduled to open in July and will feature a building for special events, a children's playground, flying foxes, emus, bats and New Guinea singing dogs.
Wallaroo Station opens Saturday at Lowry Park Zoo, 1101 W Sligh Ave., Tampa. Hours: 9:30 a.m.-5 p.m. daily. Admission is $9.50 adults, $8.50 for those 50 and older, $5.95 ages 3 to 11. (813) 935-8552 or www.lowryparkzoo.com.