Moonlit Sanctuary

Have you ever wanted to feed a wallaby or cuddle a koala? If so, the Moonlit Sanctuary is where you want to be! 

We checked out of our Melbourne hotel, picked up a rental car, and stopped here on our way down to the Mornington Peninsula. Once you get inside the sanctuary, you buy a cup of pellets and you can feed the packs of free-roaming wallabies and kangaroos. They’re pretty docile and will eat right out of your hand. 

If you’re gentle, they’ll even tolerate an ear scratch or two. 

We went to a couple of keepers talks. The one on wombats was particularly interesting. Wombats are the nearest relative to the koala, although they look and behave nothing alike. Unlike koalas, wombats don’t live in trees; they tunnel deep into the ground. They are gentle herbivores that eat grasses and roots and protect themselves from predators (dingoes) by diving headfirst into their burrows leaving their tough bony backside towards the predator. They are extremely docile and can even be leash trained (although they should never be kept as pets). 

Jimmy is one of the wombats at the sanctuary and he was trained to take walks by the zookeepers at his previous home. So now he will walk with his keepers around the grounds until he gets tired and calls a Wombat Uber to take him home. 

One of the most notorious inhabitants at the sanctuary is the Tasmanian Devil. Unlike the wombat, devils are not docile and will defend themselves with their sharp teeth if they feel cornered. But they aren't at all like the cartoon Tasmanian Devil -- they don't spin around like a vortex eating everything in sight. In fact the one at the sanctuary seemed quite curious about humans, ambling right up to the enclosure’s edge to us to give us a closer look. No ear scratches for this one, though!

For sure the highlight of a visit here is the Koala encounter. We paid a small extra fee for the privilege of meeting Mallee, one of the female koalas. 

Koalas are the pickiest eaters on the planet—they only eat eucalyptus leaves (and only certain varieties, so they are extremely choosy about their food). The keepers give the koalas their very favorite kinds of eucalyptus for the photo encounters, so little Mallee was just happily munching away while we took a few selfies with her!

As we got ready to leave we wanted to make sure to feed one last kangaroo—these two gray kangaroos came running and were particularly eager to finish off our supply! 

So we’ve now moved on from Melbourne and will be staying a couple nights on the Mornington Peninsula. Mornington is a wine and fresh food-lovers’ paradise, similar to the Napa valley but much less crowded. On our way back to our Airbnb in Shoreham, we stopped in at Point Leo Estate for a tasting and a stroll around their sculpture garden. 

The weather was spectacular and we had some lovely views of the sea as we walked through the interesting artworks. 

Taking advantage of the great weather, we bought some provisions and a nice bottle of wine at a local grocery store for dinner al fresco in the garden of our charming Airbnb. 

Since the sun hadn’t set yet, we took a walk just a short distance from our Airbnb. Our host said to keep an eye out for wild koalas, as there are a few in the neighborhood. We didn’t see any koalas, kangaroos, or other interesting wildlife but we enjoyed walking among the enormous old trees.