Work hands-on with some of Australia's unique and diverse native birds and mammal species. Your main responsibility will fall into one or more of the following three areas at the Park:

  • Native animal-based experience,
  • Grounds-keeping experience,
  • Retail / Tourism experience (optional).

Native Animal-based Experience:
This revolves around the daily care and maintenance of the animals and their enclosures, including cleaning, feeding, feed preparation, enclosure maintenance, behaviour observation and environmental enhancement.

Your role is to assist the Wildlife carers employed by the Park with their daily tasks. On a typical day you could do cleaning and maintenance of the animal enclosures and surrounding grounds of the park in the mornings, then stop for lunch at around midday, In the afternoon you'll prepare the food for the animals by cutting up fruit and vegetables, and then you'll feed the animals.

Grounds-keeping Experience: 
This involves the maintenance of the Wildlife Park grounds and facilities, including planting, mulching, repairs and general grounds-keeping duties. Instructions are given to volunteers daily, depending on what is required for that day. This activity is ideal for you if you really like to get stuck into things.

Retail / Tourism Experience (optional):
If you'd like to gain some experience in Retail & Tourism while on your project, you'll get the chance to improve communication skills; meet people and gain skills in retail sales as well as basic food preparation and service.

The Park is very happy when some volunteers choose to get involved in all areas of running the park, because this not only helps them to sustain their work, it also gives you a broad spectrum of experience and knowledge in what it takes to manage the facility. Thus you can also gain experience in dealing with retail sales, customer liaison, restocking of items, maintenance of the shop area, answering customer queries, answering the telephone and helping with a vast multitude of daily functions required to keep the Park functioning efficiently and well.

You'll be a part of the Park team and they are particularly keen to listen to and discuss any ideas you may have, especially if you have specific skills or experience that might help them, such as in marketing or education, for example.

ACCOMMODATION

You'll live in a backpackers conveniently located in the heart of the town. We team up with two different hostels that are very similar in the facilities they provide and in their excellent location that is close to everything! You'll have the beach, the City Centre and lots of other attractions all within two minutes walk and you’ll be able to explore the nearby forests, national parks, beautiful waterways, historic towns, many vineyards and the incredibly beautiful coast-line on your days off.

In the town there is a colourful street of sidewalk cafes called the "Cappuccino Strip" that buzzes all day. There are lots of sidewalk cafes and a variety of waterside dining options offer numerous opportunities to taste the wonders of the local produce. These cafes and the award-winning restaurants, as well as atmospheric historic pubs, ensure the town hums. There are also plenty of Entertainment Centres, Art Galleries and cinemas.

FOOD

Is not included in this project so you should budget for meals. We feel that a good guide would be a weekly budget of around AUD$70

You'll stay in a dorm room with access to many facilities in the Backpackers. There is a kitchen where you can cook and an excellent BBQ and outdoor area that is very popular. Other facilities that you'll have free use of include a pool table, table tennis, board games, sporting equipment and off-street parking. you'll also be given a unique Visitor's Guide and you'll have free access to tea and coffee.

There are fast-speed internet facilities at the Backpackers which you can use for a nominal charge.