Platypus House — Attraction in Beauty Point

Yes yes yes. This place is 10 stars. There are 3 must do's in Tasmania, Cradle Mountain, Port Arthur and Platypus House. If you have lined up for hours at Taronga zoo to catch a glimpse of Platypus, only to be disappointed, this will literally take your breath away and renew your faith in the works wildlife rescue can achieve. The staff are courteous and friendly, and in no way do they talk it up or raise your expectations when you arrive. In fact we sat down and had a coffee whilst we waited for the next tour which was in about 20 minutes. They run on demand and we had 8 people on our tour. If I knew what we were about to experience I would have been toe tapping at the head of the line. The intro provides a thorough background to all those pesky Platypus questions, the ones you can never find in a textbook. The guide was great and we learnt a lot, in fact every Australian should have this Platypus background brief. The next room was incredible, we walked in to be fronted by a huge glass tank water level about 1.5 mtr (eye height) and we were immediately greeted with 3 female Platypuses feeding in the tank. The scene was as if someone had literally cut a section of a woodland river and placed it into this biosphere, incredible. I had my nose on the glass with a Platypus on the other side of the glass cm's away. Unbelievable. For 20 minutes we all stood there mesmerised watching these magnificent mammals feeding and frolicking. Taronga, come see how it can be done. There was more but you have to come see for yourself, having an echidna walk over your foot was rather interesting but also very cool. Web photos understate the true experience. I do not believe anyone could come here and leave...

Platypus House was amazing. We watched a great 15-minute doco on the platypus and then went on a 45-minute guided tour. LOVED IT

Platypus House is located at Beauty Point on the Tamar River, quite close to Beaconsfield, Tasmania.

It is a house of monotremes - Platypus & Echidna.

·        Both animals have hips that are backwards. Therefore, their back feet face backwards.

·        They are mammals that lay eggs and nurse their young with milk.

·        They both have hair (the echidna has hair as well as spines).

·        Both species have spurs on their back ankle region. The spurs are not functional in echidnas. The female platypus is the same, and most often, it will fall off. But the male platypus can inject venom from its’ spurs, but it will only do so if you try to handle it.

·        Their babies are called puggles.

On our tour, we met Jupiter, a male platypus. What a show off! He was amazing.

We then met the females. Dawn, Jupiter’s mate, was having a private sleep. But Pumpkin, Poppy & Freya were more than entertaining.

The echidnas were equally entertaining and thoroughly delightful. Thomas, Edwina & Eddie walked all around us while we were sitting on the floor. They are quite comical and inquisitive.

I would do this tour again in a heartbeat. It was so much fun and so very interesting.

We did both Platypus House and Seahorse World on the same day as they are at the same location. Both run a 45-minute tour, so it is best to pre-book and know your times to coordinate the two. Personally, we snagged it, but it could have gone horribly wrong.

YOUTUBE @JABINDAJOEY like & subscribe to follow our...

Located right next door to Seahorse World it's so convenient to get to. We weren't sure if we're going to going to go inside and even see a platypus, as they are such secretive creatures, so we didn't want to get our hopes up too much. But, we were blown away to go inside the exhibit and see multiple platypus actively swimming around, and our guide giving a really interesting and informative talk whilst feeding them. The little guys were so active it was crazy! The design of their main tank is so well done, so kids can easily see through the walls of the tank or walk up a ramp so they can look down on the tank. It's so good when operators really do think of their customers and get things right, and these guys have! 10/10 Once the platypus part of the tour is over we were led into another bushland settin/themed room for the echidna presentation, which was VERY interactive! Three echidna were allowed to roam free amongst us whilst we sat on the ground or seat or rock in a circle while our awesome guide, Hosanna, fed them. The echidna were so curious and friendly and literally walked all around and in between us. It was a wonderful experience. We highly...