1.
Australia
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Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and numerous smaller islands. It is the worlds sixth-largest country by total area, the neighbouring countries are Papua New Guinea, Indonesia and East Timor to the north, the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu to the north-east, and New Zealand to the south-east. Australias capital is Canberra, and its largest urban area is Sydney, for about 50,000 years before the first British settlement in the late 18th century, Australia was inhabited by indigenous Australians, who spoke languages classifiable into roughly 250 groups. The population grew steadily in subsequent decades, and by the 1850s most of the continent had been explored, on 1 January 1901, the six colonies federated, forming the Commonwealth of Australia. Australia has since maintained a liberal democratic political system that functions as a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy comprising six states. The population of 24 million is highly urbanised and heavily concentrated on the eastern seaboard, Australia has the worlds 13th-largest economy and ninth-highest per capita income. With the second-highest human development index globally, the country highly in quality of life, health, education, economic freedom. The name Australia is derived from the Latin Terra Australis a name used for putative lands in the southern hemisphere since ancient times, the Dutch adjectival form Australische was used in a Dutch book in Batavia in 1638, to refer to the newly discovered lands to the south. On 12 December 1817, Macquarie recommended to the Colonial Office that it be formally adopted, in 1824, the Admiralty agreed that the continent should be known officially as Australia. The first official published use of the term Australia came with the 1830 publication of The Australia Directory and these first inhabitants may have been ancestors of modern Indigenous Australians. The Torres Strait Islanders, ethnically Melanesian, were originally horticulturists, the northern coasts and waters of Australia were visited sporadically by fishermen from Maritime Southeast Asia. The first recorded European sighting of the Australian mainland, and the first recorded European landfall on the Australian continent, are attributed to the Dutch. The first ship and crew to chart the Australian coast and meet with Aboriginal people was the Duyfken captained by Dutch navigator, Willem Janszoon. He sighted the coast of Cape York Peninsula in early 1606, the Dutch charted the whole of the western and northern coastlines and named the island continent New Holland during the 17th century, but made no attempt at settlement. William Dampier, an English explorer and privateer, landed on the north-west coast of New Holland in 1688, in 1770, James Cook sailed along and mapped the east coast, which he named New South Wales and claimed for Great Britain. The first settlement led to the foundation of Sydney, and the exploration, a British settlement was established in Van Diemens Land, now known as Tasmania, in 1803, and it became a separate colony in 1825. The United Kingdom formally claimed the part of Western Australia in 1828. Separate colonies were carved from parts of New South Wales, South Australia in 1836, Victoria in 1851, the Northern Territory was founded in 1911 when it was excised from South Australia
2.
Melbourne
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Melbourne is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in Australia and Oceania. The name Melbourne refers to an urban agglomeration spanning 9,900 km2, the metropolis is located on the large natural bay of Port Phillip and expands into the hinterlands towards the Dandenong and Macedon mountain ranges, Mornington Peninsula and Yarra Valley. It has a population of 4,641,636 as of 2016, and its inhabitants are called Melburnians. Founded by free settlers from the British Crown colony of Van Diemens Land on 30 August 1835, in what was then the colony of New South Wales, it was incorporated as a Crown settlement in 1837. It was named Melbourne by the Governor of New South Wales, Sir Richard Bourke, in honour of the British Prime Minister of the day, William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne. It was officially declared a city by Queen Victoria, to whom Lord Melbourne was close, in 1847, during the Victorian gold rush of the 1850s, it was transformed into one of the worlds largest and wealthiest cities. After the federation of Australia in 1901, it served as the interim seat of government until 1927. It is a financial centre in the Asia-Pacific region. It is recognised as a UNESCO City of Literature and a centre for street art, music. It was the host city of the 1956 Summer Olympics and the 2006 Commonwealth Games, the main passenger airport serving the metropolis and the state is Melbourne Airport, the second busiest in Australia. The Port of Melbourne is Australias busiest seaport for containerised and general cargo, Melbourne has an extensive transport network. The main metropolitan train terminus is Flinders Street Station, and the regional train. Melbourne is also home to Australias most extensive network and has the worlds largest urban tram network. Before the arrival of settlers, humans had occupied the area for an estimated 31,000 to 40,000 years. At the time of European settlement, it was inhabited by under 2000 hunter-gatherers from three indigenous tribes, the Wurundjeri, Boonwurrung and Wathaurong. The area was an important meeting place for the clans of the Kulin nation alliance and it would be 30 years before another settlement was attempted. Batman selected a site on the bank of the Yarra River. Batman then returned to Launceston in Tasmania, in early August 1835 a different group of settlers, including John Pascoe Fawkner, left Launceston on the ship Enterprize
3.
Zoo
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A zoo is a facility in which animals are confined within enclosures, displayed to the public, and in which they may also breed. The term zoological garden refers to zoology, the study of animals, the abbreviation zoo was first used of the London Zoological Gardens, which was opened for scientific study in 1828 and to the public in 1857. The number of animal collections open to the public around the world now exceeds to 1,000. In the United States of America alone, zoos are visited by over 180 million people annually, London Zoo, which opened in 1826, first called itself a menagerie or zoological forest, which is short for Gardens and Menagerie of the Zoological Society of London. The term zoological park was used for more facilities in Washington, D. C. and the Bronx in New York. Relatively new terms for zoos coined in the late 20th century are conservation park or biopark, adopting a new name is a strategy used by some zoo professionals to distance their institutions from the stereotypical and nowadays criticized zoo concept of the 19th century. The term biopark was first coined and developed by the National Zoo in Washington D. C. in the late 1980s, in 1993, the New York Zoological Society changed its name to the Wildlife Conservation Society and rebranded the zoos under its jurisdiction as wildlife conservation parks. The predecessor of the garden is the menagerie, which has a long history from the ancient world to modern times. The oldest known collection was revealed during excavations at Hierakonpolis, Egypt in 2009. The exotic animals included hippopotami, hartebeest, elephants, baboons, King Ashur-bel-kala of the Middle Assyrian Empire created zoological and botanical gardens in the 11th century BCE. In the 2nd century BCE, the Chinese Empress Tanki had a house of deer built, other well-known collectors of animals included King Solomon of the Kingdom of Israel and Judah, queen Semiramis and King Ashurbanipal of Assyria, and King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia. By the 4th century BCE, zoos existed in most of the Greek city states, the Roman emperors kept private collections of animals for study or for use in the arena, the latter faring notoriously poorly. The 19th-century historian W. E. H. Lecky wrote of the Roman games, first held in 366 BCE, At one time, a bear, four hundred bears were killed in a single day under Caligula. Under Nero, four hundred tigers fought with bulls and elephants, in a single day, at the dedication of the Colosseum by Titus, five thousand animals perished. Lions, tigers, elephants, rhinoceroses, hippopotami, giraffes, bulls, stags, even crocodiles, henry I of England kept a collection of animals at his palace in Woodstock, which reportedly included lions, leopards, and camels. The most prominent collection in medieval England was in the Tower of London and it was opened to the public during the reign of Elizabeth I in the 16th century. During the 18th century, the price of admission was three half-pence, or the supply of a cat or dog for feeding to the lions, the animals were moved to the London Zoo when it opened. The oldest zoo in the still in existence is the Tiergarten Schönbrunn in Vienna
4.
Tiger quoll
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The tiger quoll, also known as the spotted-tail quoll, the spotted quoll, the spotted-tailed dasyure or the tiger cat, is a carnivorous marsupial of the quoll genus Dasyurus native to Australia. With males and females weighing around 3.5 and 1.8 kg, respectively, it is mainland Australias largest carnivorous marsupial, the tiger quoll is a member of the family Dasyuridae, which includes most carnivorous marsupial mammals. This quoll was first described in 1792 by Robert Kerr, the Scottish writer and naturalist, who placed it in the genus Didelphis, the species name, maculatus, indicates this species is spotted. Males and females of D. m. maculatus weigh on average 3.5 and 1.8 kg, respectively, the next-largest species, the western quoll, weighs on average 1.31 kg for males and 0.89 kg for females. The tiger quoll has relatively short legs, but its tail is as long as its body and it has a thick head and neck and a slightly rounded and elongated snout. It has five toes on each foot, both front and hind, and the feet have well-developed halluces. Its long pink foot pads are ridged, an adaptation for its arboreal lifestyle and this makes up for the fact that its tail is not prehensile. The tiger quoll has a pelage with white spots. It is the only species with spots on its tail in addition to its body. Its fur and skin are covered in orange-brown-coloured oil, the underside is typically grayish or creamy white. The average length of D. m. maculatus is 930 mm for males and 811 mm for females, for D. m. gracilis, the average length of males and females, respectively, is 801 and 742 mm. The tiger quoll is found in eastern Australia where more than 600 mm of rain fall per year, historically, the quoll was present throughout southeastern Queensland, through eastern New South Wales, Victoria, southeastern South Australia, and Tasmania. European settlement has severely decimated and fragmented the quolls mainland distribution, tiger quolls are rare in southeastern Queensland and mainly restricted to national parks. In Victoria, quoll populations have declined by nearly 50%, the range decline was not as severe in New South Wales, but they are still rare. The quoll was probably never very numerous in South Australia, in Tasmania, the tiger quoll mostly frequents the northern and western areas where rains are seasonal. Tiger quolls were once native to Flinders and King Islands, but were extirpated since the 20th century, tiger quolls live in a variety of habitats, but seem to prefer wet forests such as rainforests and closed eucalypt forest. They are arboreal, but only moderately, as 11% of their travelling is done above ground. Prey items eaten by quolls include insects, crayfish, lizards, snakes, birds, domestic poultry, small mammals, platypus, rabbits, arboreal possums, pademelons, small wallabies and they may scavenge larger prey such as kangaroos, feral pigs, cattle, and dingoes
5.
Melbourne Zoo
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The Royal Melbourne Zoological Gardens, commonly known as the Melbourne Zoo, contains more than 320 animal species from Australia and around the world. The zoo is 4 kilometres north of the centre of Melbourne and it is accessible via Royal Park station on the Upfield railway line, and is also accessible via tram routes 55 and 19, as well as by bicycle on the Capital City Trail. Bicycles are not allowed inside the zoo itself, the Royal Melbourne Zoological Gardens is a full institutional member of the Zoo and Aquarium Association and the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums. Melbourne Zoo is Australias oldest zoo and was modeled on London Zoo, the zoo was opened on 6 October 1862 at the Royal Park site of 55-acre on land donated by the City of Melbourne. Before this, animals were housed at the gardens in Melbourne. Initially the zoo was important for the acclimatisation of domestic animals recovering from their trip to Australia. It was only with the appointment of Albert Alexander Cochrane Le Souef in 1870 that more exotic animals were procured for public display, and these evenings allow the public to see some of the nocturnal animals at the zoo in evening guided tours by keepers. One of the most famous exhibits was Queenie the elephant, the zoo is set among flower gardens and picnic areas. Popular exhibits also include the Butterfly House, the great flight aviary, Melbourne Zoo recently obtained three new Asian elephants from Thailand amidst much controversy regarding their safety and well-being. The zoo includes a large section and caters to many school visitors annually. On 15 January 2010 Melbourne Zoo welcomed its first elephant calf and this is the second elephant calf born in Australia, the first being in Sydney in July 2009. Melbourne Zoo new seal enclosure has been completed and was opened in December 2009, Melbourne Zoo commemorated 150 years of operation in 2012 and this was celebrated in an Australian Zoos collectors edition of stamps released by Australia Post in September 2012. Trails of the Elephants, five Asian elephants — male Bong Su and females Mek Kapah, Dokkoon, Kulab, there are two baby elephants, Mali and her half brother Ongard. Butterfly House, a greenhouse-style walk-through exhibit for tropical butterflies, orangutan Sanctuary, Home for the Zoos families of orangutans. Australian Outback, features kangaroos, emus, wombats, koalas, echidnas, lace monitors, great Flight Aviary, a large free-flight aviary dating from the 1930s. Visitors walk along a boardwalk through three different bioregions representing an Australian rainforest, wetlands and bushland, significant species include southern cassowaries, brolga, royal spoonbills, eclectus parrots, and red-tailed black cockatoos. Lion Gorge, Melbourne Zoos male lions live in this exhibit. Adjoining the lion enclosure is an exhibit for African hunting dogs, wild Sea, This $20 million development will provide new exhibits for seals, little penguins, Australian pelicans and fiddler rays
6.
Werribee Open Range Zoo
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Werribee Open Range Zoo is an African themed zoo in Werribee, about 32 kilometres south-west of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It is part of the Zoological Parks and Gardens Board or Zoos Victoria which also includes Melbourne Zoo and it is situated on approximately 225 hectares and is located on the Werribee River in Werribee Park, adjacent to the Werribee Mansion. It was originally agistment land to the Melbourne Zoo, visitors to the zoo can take a bus tour, which normally lasts 35–40 minutes, multiple times a day, and takes up to 140 people per bus. The tour includes animals such as the hippo as well as animals of the grassland, such as zebra, waterbuck, giraffe, ostrich and rhinoceros, as well as the camel and the oryx. There is a Learning Centre, which teaches more about the history, visitors can also book various specialty tours, including the Off Road Safari, or close encounters with gorillas, servals or giraffe. Werribee Open Range Zoo also has a sponsorship program, which is used for gifts. In April 2008 it was announced that a park known as African Safari World was proposed. On July 1,2008 the proposed theme park plans were indefinitely postponed, in 2011, Werribee Zoo gained three male western lowland gorillas from Melbourne Zoo. These consist of an adult silverback and his two sons, the new public display gorilla habitat is a huge 10,000 m2 sanctuary that features wide-open spaces, climbing structures and indoor facilities. This new facility enable Zoos Victoria to provide care for the bachelor gorillas. The Victorian Government recently gave $1.5 million to support the construction of this $2.2 million facility, Zoos Victoria Foundation is seeking public support to help raise the remaining $700,000 through the Gorillas in the West campaign. Some viewers believed the zoo to be attempting to con them and complained
7.
Victoria (Australia)
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Victoria is a state in southeast Australia. Victoria is Australias most densely populated state and its second-most populous state overall, most of its population is concentrated in the area surrounding Port Phillip Bay, which includes the metropolitan area of its state capital and largest city, Melbourne, Australias second-largest city. Prior to British European settlement, the area now constituting Victoria was inhabited by a number of Aboriginal peoples. With Great Britain having claimed the entire Australian continent east of the 135th meridian east in 1788, Victoria was included in the wider colony of New South Wales. The first settlement in the area occurred in 1803 at Sullivan Bay, and much of what is now Victoria was included in the Port Phillip District in 1836, Victoria was officially created as a separate colony in 1851, and achieved self-government in 1855. Politically, Victoria has 37 seats in the Australian House of Representatives and 12 seats in the Australian Senate, at state level, the Parliament of Victoria consists of the Legislative Assembly and the Legislative Council. Victoria is currently governed by the Labor Party, with Daniel Andrews the current Premier, the personal representative of the Queen of Australia in the state is the Governor of Victoria, currently Linda Dessau. Local government is concentrated in 79 municipal districts, including 33 cities, although a number of unincorporated areas still exist, Victorias total gross state product is ranked second in Australia, although Victoria is ranked fourth in terms of GSP per capita because of its limited mining activity. Culturally, Melbourne is home to a number of museums, art galleries and theatres and is described as the sporting capital of Australia. The Melbourne Cricket Ground is the largest stadium in Australia, and the host of the 1956 Summer Olympics, Victoria has eight public universities, with the oldest, the University of Melbourne, having been founded in 1853. Victoria, like Queensland, was named after Queen Victoria, who had been on the British throne for 14 years when the colony was established in 1851. The first British settlement in the later known as Victoria was established in October 1803 under Lieutenant-Governor David Collins at Sullivan Bay on Port Phillip. In the year 1826 Colonel Stewart, Captain S. Wright, fly and the brigs Dragon and Amity, took a number of convicts and a small force composed of detachments of the 3rd and 93rd regiments. Victorias next settlement was at Portland, on the south west coast of what is now Victoria, edward Henty settled Portland Bay in 1834. Melbourne was founded in 1835 by John Batman, who set up a base in Indented Head, from settlement the region around Melbourne was known as the Port Phillip District, a separately administered part of New South Wales. Shortly after the now known as Geelong was surveyed by Assistant Surveyor W. H. Smythe. And in 1838 Geelong was officially declared a town, despite earlier white settlements dating back to 1826, days later, still in 1851 gold was discovered near Ballarat, and subsequently at Bendigo. Later discoveries occurred at sites across Victoria
8.
Public aquarium
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A public aquarium is the aquatic counterpart of a zoo, which houses living aquatic animal and plant specimens for public viewing. Most public aquariums feature tanks larger than those kept by home aquarists, since the first public aquariums were built in the mid-19th century, they have become popular and their numbers have increased. Most modern accredited aquariums stress conservation issues and educating the public, the first public aquarium was opened in London Zoo in May 1853, the Fish House, as it came to be known, was constructed much like a greenhouse. P. T. Barnum quickly followed in 1856 with the first American aquarium as part of his established Barnums American Museum, in 1859, the Aquarial Gardens were founded in Boston. The old Berlin Aquarium opened in 1869, the building site was to be Unter den Linden, in the centre of town, not at the Berlin Zoo. The aquariums first director, Alfred Brehm, former director of the Hamburg Zoo from 1863 to 1866, with its emphasis on education, the public aquarium was designed like a grotto, part of it made of natural rock. The Geologische Grotte depicted the strata of the earths crust, the grotto also featured birds and pools for seals. The Aquarium Unter den Linden was a three-story building, machinery and water tanks were on the ground floor, aquarium basins for the fish on the first floor. Because of Brehms special interest in birds, a huge aviary, the Artis aquarium at Amsterdam Zoo was constructed inside a Victorian building in 1882, and was renovated in 1997. At the end of the 19th century the Artis aquarium was considered state-of-the-art, prior to its closing on September 30,2013, the oldest American aquarium was the National Aquarium in Washington, D. C. founded in 1873. This was followed by the opening of public aquariums, San Francisco, Woods Hole, New York, La Jolla, Honolulu, Detroit, Philadelphia, San Francisco. For many years, the Shedd Aquarium was the largest aquarium in the United States until the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta opened 2005, the first Japanese public aquarium, a small freshwater aquarium, was opened at the Ueno Zoo in 1882. In 2005, the Georgia Aquarium, with more than 8 million U. S. gallons of marine and fresh water, the aquariums notable specimens include whale sharks and beluga whales. Modern aquarium tanks can hold millions of litres of water and can house large species, including dolphins and this is accomplished through thick, clear acrylic glass windows. Aquatic and semiaquatic mammals, including otters, and seals are cared for at aquariums. Some establishments, such as the Oregon Coast Aquarium or the Monterey Bay Aquarium, have aquatic aviaries, modern aquariums also include land animals and plants that spend time in or near the water. For marketing purposes, many aquariums promote special exhibits, in addition to their permanent collections, some have aquatic versions of a petting zoo. The Monterey Bay Aquarium has a tank filled with common types of rays which visitors are encouraged to touch
9.
Sea Life Melbourne Aquarium
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Sea Life Melbourne Aquarium is a Southern Ocean and Antarctic aquarium in central Melbourne, Australia. It is located on the banks of the Yarra River beside and under the Flinders Street Viaduct, the attraction is a Sea Life Centre owned by Merlin Entertainments. The current building was built between February 1998 and December 1999, the building was designed by Peddle Thorp architects to resemble a ship moored to the river, and opened in January 2000. The depth of the building however was designed not to be imposing at street level, at its centre is a world first 2,200, 000-litre oceanarium in the round where the spectators become the spectacle to the marine life swimming around them. Soon after opening, the building had a disease outbreak that resulted in 2 deaths. Those affected had visited the aquarium between 11 and 27 April 2000, a damages action was brought in May 2000, ending in February 2004. On November 28,2008 Melbourne Aquarium officially opened after a significant expansion, also designed by Peddle Thorp, a new entrance was built on the corner of Flinders and King Streets. The expansion features exhibits with king penguins and gentoo penguins, as well as many Antarctic fish, the exhibits also feature real ice and snow to simulate Antarctic conditions, and take visitors on an expedition to Antarctica. The penguins were sourced from Kelly Tarltons Underwater World in New Zealand, in April 2013, Melbourne Aquariums owners, Merlin Entertainments, announced that they would be spending $8 million on the refurbishment of the facilities. As part of the process, the aquarium will be rebranded as a Sea Life Centre, the Aquarium currently has one grey nurse sharks and the program is looking at intra vitro fertilization as a method of breeding. Sea Life Melbourne Aquarium is home to the first-ever in-vitro fertilised shark in existence, the brown-banded bamboo shark pup was born on March 3,2014, ending a process which began in September when aquarists collected a semen sample from a shark in Mooloolaba in northeastern Australia. The aquarium is also involved in the rehabilitation of turtles washed down to the cold Victorian waters where they cannot survive, the sea turtles are housed at the aquarium to gain strength, a which point they are taken north to Queensland to be released. Melbourne Aquarium is one of the few worldwide to have bred the locally-endemic weedy seadragon in captivity. Sea Life Melbourne Aquarium formerly had a giant squid exhibit, which has moved to UnderWater World in Queensland. The Aquarium was also home to fish, the Japanese spider crab, jellyfish, blood sucking leeches, horseshoe crabs, poisonous scorpions. Media related to Sea Life Melbourne Aquarium at Wikimedia Commons Official website
10.
Mornington Peninsula
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The Mornington Peninsula is a peninsula located south-east of Melbourne, Australia. It is surrounded by Port Phillip to the west, Western Port to the east and Bass Strait to the south, geographically, the peninsula begins its protrusion from the mainland in the area between Pearcedale and Frankston. The area was home to the Mayone-bulluk and Boonwurrung-Balluk clans. Much of the peninsula has been cleared for agriculture and settlements, however, small areas of the native ecology remain in the peninsulas south and west, some of which is protected by the Mornington Peninsula National Park. The peninsula is primarily a local tourist region, with natural attractions such as the variety of beaches both sheltered and open-sea and many scenic sights and views. Other popular attractions include the various wineries, mazes and the array of water sports made available by the diversity of beaches and calm waters of Port Phillip. Most visitors to the peninsula are residents of Melbourne who camp, rent villas, the peninsula was formed by the flooding of Port Phillip Bay after the end of the Ice Age about 10000 BC. It may have extended into Port Phillip at various times, most recently between 800 BC and 1000 AD when Port Phillip Bay may have dried out, indigenous Australians of the Mayone-bulluk and Boonwurrung-Balluk clans lived on the peninsula as part of the Boonwurrung Peoples territory prior to European settlement. The territory hosted six clans who lived along the Victorian coast from the Werribee River across to Western Port Bay, the peninsula may have been home to between 100 –500 people prior to European settlement. The first European settlement on the Mornington Peninsula was also the first settlement in Victoria, the Sullivans Bay settlement was a short-lived penal colony established in 1803,30 years before the establishment of Melbourne, by Lieutenant-Colonel David Collins. At the time of European settlement in 1803 much of the Mornington Peninsula was covered with she-oak forests and these were quickly cleared to provide firewood for the growing city of Melbourne, and much of the peninsula was then covered with fruit orchards. Nevertheless, much natural vegetation still exists, especially in an area of bushland in the known as Greens Bush. Most large areas of bushland are now included within the Mornington Peninsula National Park, as serious farming has declined, hobby farmers with an interest in the aesthetic and the natural environment have taken over much of the peninsula. This has led to an expansion of natural bushland on private property, the local council also has a slight lean towards sustainable practices. On 17 December 1967, Prime Minister Harold Holt went swimming at Cheviot Beach on what is now Point Nepean National Park, at the time this was still a restricted area. Mr. Holt, who was 59 and had had a recent shoulder injury and he disappeared from view and was never seen again. Despite an extensive search his body was never found and he was officially presumed dead on 19 December 1967. The peninsula extends from the mainland between Pearcedale and Frankston in a direction for about 40 km at a width of about 15–20 kilometres
11.
Healesville Sanctuary
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Healesville Sanctuary, formally known as the Sir Colin MacKenzie Sanctuary, is a zoo specialising in native Australian animals. It is located at Healesville in rural Victoria, Australia, and has a history of breeding native animals and it is one of only two places to have successfully bred a platypus, the other being Sydneys Taronga Zoo. It also assists with a population of the endangered helmeted honeyeater. The zoo is set in a bushland environment where paths wind through different habitat areas showcasing wallabies, wombats, dingoes, kangaroos. Guided tours, bird shows and information areas are available to visitors, dr Colin MacKenzie set up the Institute of Anatomical Research in 1920 on 78 acres of land which had formerly been part of the Coranderrk Aboriginal Reserve. The Reserve passed to the Healesville Council in 1927 and became the Sir Colin MacKenzie Sanctuary in 1934, the first platypus bred in captivity was born in the Sanctuary in year 1943 when it was managed by David Fleay. In 2009, the sanctuary was threatened by the Black Saturday bushfires, media related to Healesville Sanctuary at Wikimedia Commons Official website
12.
Squirrel glider
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The squirrel glider is a nocturnal gliding possum. The squirrel glider is one of the gliders of the genus Petaurus. This species home range extends from Bordertown near the South Australian/Victorian Border through south-eastern Australia to northern Queensland and this species was thought to be extinct in South Australia since 1939 until a genetic test confirmed their inhabitance in this area. The squirrel glider lives in south-eastern Australia in the dry sclerophyll forest, in Queensland, however, they occupy a wetter eucalypt forest. The glider will make a den in the tree and line it with leaves. Here it will sleep and usually lives in groups of one male,2 females, like most of the wrist-winged gliders, the squirrel glider is endemic to Australia. It is about twice the size of the sugar glider. Its body is 18–23 cm long and its tail measures at 22–33 cm long and it weighs about 230g or 0.5 lbs. They have blue-grey or brown-grey fur on their back and a white belly, the end of their tail is black and they have a black stripe from their eyes to the mid-back. They have a membrane that extends from their 5th front toe to the back of their foot on both sides. When they glide their prehensile tail can act as a rudder and they can glide up to 50m from tree to tree. They tend not to glide in captivity, the breeding season is between June and January. The gestation/pregnancy of a female is 18 days, the litter sizes are usually one to two offspring a year. The offspring will immediately crawl to the mothers marsupium and anchor itself to a teat where it will stay for about 3 months, the mother will wean off her offspring around 4 months while they stay in the den. The offspring become independent at 10 months and go off on their own, the life expectancy is 4–6 years. The squirrel glider eats mostly fruit and insects and it also feeds on tree sap, mainly eucalyptus or red bloodwood trees. In order to get the sap the squirrel glider will pierce the trunk of the tree causing sap to flow out of it and it also eats pollen, nectar, leaves, and bark. Natural predators of the squirrel glider include dogs, cats, foxes, habitat fragmentation and destruction by human agency is also impacting individual populations
