Jirrahlinga Dingo Conservation & Wildlife Education Centre - BASED IN CHEWTON VICTORIA — Attraction in Chewton

What an amazing sanctuary this is... Certainly it's an amazing conservation and wildlife haven....We went there with fam on a hot summer day (well it did touch 30 for Melbs summer 😆) from our location, this place is 2 hours away and it was worth it.

We got our tickets booked online, which is also good to purchase prior to going as it may give a bit of heads up to the management of the number of confirmed visitors, helping them with staffing and other things .

The place has visible signage all the way to the entrance from almost 2 km before.

We interacted with the lady at the cafe, who was very friendly. However Rohan as I can recollect - our guide, animal keeper was genuinely nice and absolutely easy going. He ensured that everyone in different groups should be able to pat the beautiful creatures and gave valuable info about them. Not only he made sure to offer everyone a chance which included diverse age groups but he did go at such ease which is such a great thing. We were impressed that they didn't rush and that was such a joy for all people present there.

Plenty of experiences including Wombats, Koala, Blue tongue snake , Lizards, Emu's, We almost ended up spending half a day there and place has ample shade for anyone, big or small groups to sit and enjoy.

Even bumped with one of the co-owner who told us that they have great plans to do upgrade current arrangements which will be terrific. We did discuss about parking lot marking etc and perils face due to bushfires etc and it's amazing to know what all they have to do to prepare their facility.

Highly recommend to visit this sanctuary and get treated with kindest of team who are beyond amazing. We will be coming soon again to enjoy time again.

Keep up the...

I wish I could leave a review without a rating, because I don't know what to make of this place. Since it's called a sanctuary, I expected that there'd be a few species of animals in large areas and we'd have limited access to them. Actually there are many species of animal, mostly in enclosures that are not tiny but much too small to be kept in every day. My first thought on walking in was "wait - this is a zoo!". And not a modern zoo where they're well-funded and enclosures tend to be big and open, but the old-fashioned kind where it feels like nearly everything is in a cage. Later I wondered if this is fair. The koala handling seems good (though I didn't see where they live). A lone dingo in small roofed enclosure/large cage shocked me, but it looked pretty chill and later a keeper told me that they have a separate dingo sanctuary and the dingoes are rotated through that enclosure for visitors. Emus and kangaroos and wombats had some space, but definitely not as much as they'd get in a zoo, and in most cases it didn't feel like enough. I found it suspicious that there were so many species of birds, yet only a few of each (with the exception of cockatoos which I can absolutely believe were all rescues). Is this a sanctuary rescuing animals, with not enough funding to keep the animals as ideally as they'd like? Or is it a zoo keeping animals that COULD be released but are kept because they bring in tourists? Is it some...

Tad conflicted here with the rating.

This is the only place where I’ve been able to see a wombat that’s not sleeping in its burrow/shelter. So yay for that.

This is the smallest wildlife sanctuary I’ve been to which isn’t a bad thing but unless you have young kids with you, you probably won’t spend more than 20 minutes here. I recommend timing your arrival around the time of the keeper talks (where you go from dingo to koala to reptiles) that’s where you’re going to get the better experience (hands on) compared to if you went at a time where they weren’t doing it. (11am, 1pm, or 3pm)

Weren’t able to pat the koalas due to covid. Was rushed through the enclosure while the lady spoke so wasn’t able to get nice photos. (Recommend Marcus over Judy for this one)

Was able to pat the dingos, blue tongue lizard, bearded lizard, a python, and albino jag snake.

Marcus was great with handling the reptiles around young kids. (Recommend going to Marcus over Harrison if you want your little one to have a pat or hold of a reptile as he wasn’t as hesitant to let kids touch the snakes and helped more with handling of all reptiles)

There aren’t that many animals or areas here. Lots and lots of birds though.

I liked the random dinosaurs throughout the sanctuary and the little photo ops.

It is pram and wheelchair accessible.

There are toilets and a small cafe.

Free parking on Taits Rd.

Visit here if you’re...