Crowds return to wildlife park

Greenough Wildlife and Bird Park had “a cracker of a day” for its Saturday re-opening, manager-owner Michelle Jones says.

“It was great to be back educating the kids and seeing the smiles on people’s faces when they get up

close to the wildlife,” she said.“There were a couple of kids about six months old — what I call the COVID babies.

“It was their first big outing with their parents.”

Ms Jones said staff were careful to remind people to practise social distancing and encouraged the use of the new SafeWA app for COVID-19 tracing.

“It was really good to see a lot of people had downloaded the app,” she said. “Some people were a bit nervous about putting their details in.

“But I pointed out that they had given out the same information by joining social media anyway.”

Ms Jones said about 100 people came over the weekend. She entertained a group of children and parents with crocodile feeding before inviting them to handle an olive python and other native animals.

“The reptile show was a bonus — we did a lot with the local kids,” Ms Jones said.

“We are very thankful to be able to open our doors again with public safety in full swing.”

Ms Jones also runs a wildlife rescue service.