An educational outing

Teachers' children are at a disadvantage during the holidays. Because many teachers use their holidays and weekends for work preparation they don't always take the time to spend with their children that they should. That was my excuse, anyway.
When they do take their children out they tend to take them to places that are 'educational'. Do you remember your parents taking you to places that were good for you, whether or not they were enjoyable? Do you remember, for instance, the 'duty' visits to relatives?
What I am leading toward in my usually roundabout way is that Val and I took John and Caetlyn to the Sir Colin Mackenzie Fauna Park at Badger Creek, the 'Healesville Sanctuary'. We had thought, for their ages, the children knew a fair bit about the country.
We were rather staggered at John's concern, therefore, when he asked whether the kangaroos might bite him! It was time he met a few animals. It is a nice drive there from Guys Hill, even in a Mini which tends to climb down one side of a pothole and up the other rather than just bouncing over them.
I didn't know anything about the history of the park, so I bought all the brochures I could and the next four paragraphs are taken more or less verbatim from one of them.
"In 1921 32 hectares of bushland at Badger Creek, which is now the Fauna park, was leased from the Victorian Government by Dr (later Sir) Colin MacKenzie, of Melbourne, to carry out medical research on the anatomy of some Australian animals, particularly the Koala. In 1928 Dr MacKenzie moved to Canberra to become the first Director of the Australian Institute of Anatomy. When he left Healesville the (area was proclaimed) a sanctuary for native wildlife, to be known as the Sir Colin MacKenzie Sanctuary…"
"A local committee of management was appointed, with Mr Robert Eadie as honorary curator, to operate the reserve as a tourist attraction. Mr Daid Fleay served as director from 1937-1947, successfully breeding the platypus in captivity, for the first time, in 1944. In 1948 Mr J. M. Pinches succeeded Mr Fleay as director and the committee of management was restructured the following year, with responsibility transferred from the Shire of Healesville to the Premier's Department. Mr W. R. Gasking served as director 1956-1963, Mr V. C. Mullett 1963-75, and the present director, Mr G. G. George, started in 1975" (This was first written in 1980)
"In 1955 the government added to the original reserve and additional 142 hectares of adjacent bushland, part of the former Coranderrk Aboriginal reserve. For administrative purposes the whole area placed under the control of a committee of management appointed under the Land Act. The original 32 hectares is now the fauna park open to the public. The Coranderrk Bushland was retained…for research purposes."
"In 1975 responsibility…was transferred… to the Ministry for Conservation and the title was altered to The Sir Colin MacKenzie Fauna Park. In July 1978 control of the fauna park was transferred to the Zoological Board of Victoria." And so on.
So much for history. The importance of the park lies in the present and in the future. All our conservation is at best a compromise, and the park is doing its share. My children, however, were interested in neither history nor conservation.
Caetlyn was somewhat more sophisticated than John because she was six and he was only three. She was a bit annoyed when she jammed her fingers in the door of the budgerigar house, and she was a bit annoying when she stopped to pose every time she saw me lift my camera. John, on the other hand, was highly excited. He ran everywhere for the first hour, walked everywhere for the next half hour and was carried for the last twenty minutes. He was asleep before we left the car park, which was good.
He was very pleased that the kangaroos didn't bite him. I think the poor beasties would have been somewhat offended if they knew the trepidation with which he approached them.
He was delighted with the koalas, too. We stood in front of them for a long time John giving everyone a running commentary on them. You can only say so much about a koala's daytime movements. "Look, he go up…Asleep now…Look, he go down…Asleep now…Go up again…There's one… Asleep now."
There was a certain sameness about it after a while but it was difficult to get him away from them. Everyone else left us alone there.
The snake house didn't appeal to the children at all. One taipan was awake and active and the way it moved affected them the way snakes have affected humans since there were snakes. I don't really care for the conservation of snakes. I grew up on a farm and the only good snake is a dead one hanging on a fence.
The goannas John didn't like either. They were too dirty. It was no use explaining to him that they were really rather beautiful when they were clean and that all they had on them was a good, honest dust. He's like his mother. To him dirt is just plain dirt, except when it is on him. Nor was there any point in trying to persuade him that the dingoes were dingoes and not just dogs. They were dogs. "Yes, John, but a special kind of dog. O'Neill (our setter) is another kind of dog." "No dingoes. Dogs." "Yes, in a way, but…" "Dogs." "Yes, mate. Dogs." "But nice dogs, Dad." Yes, John, nice dogs." And on to the next enclosure.
This one was full of parrots and it was rather spoilt for us all by Caetlyn's concern that we had to walk underneath the birds. Understandable, really. The livestock which most impressed my children, however, was the large number of ducks and ibis which were not enclosed and which were more than willing to share our lunch. They were exactly like the ones at home. There is a lesson there somewhere.