A visit to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary is a must-do when visiting Brisbane and was our favorite animal encounter in all of Australia. This budget friendly sanctuary feels like the most intimate zoo you’ve ever visited. And since holding a koala is on many people’s Australian bucket list, this is the best place to do that! Between the amazing price and the amazing care that the animals here are treated with, we know you’ll enjoy a visit to Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. We enjoyed our visit, even in the pouring rain.
When To Visit Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary?
We recommend visiting first thing in the morning. This gives you the best experience with all the animals before they get tired of interacting with us humans. Weekdays are also preferable as traffic getting here on weekends can be a bit troublesome.
How Long To Spend At Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary?
We recommend spending 3-6 hours at Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. This will allow you time to have a few animal encounters as well as attending several shows put on by staff. We went to Lone Pine to hold a koala, and we ended up staying much longer than planned because all of the programming offered is top notch.
We recommend grabbing a schedule of the days events when you arrive, along with a map, so you can plan your day around the events you would like to attend.
Getting To Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary
Lone Pine is outside of Brisbane. You can take a ride share, taxi or bus there. Driving directly, takes about 20 minutes. We drove there with our rental car, and there is a large car park. The sanctuary is also located on the river and a river cruise provides a stop at Lone Pine. So if you are interested in a river cruise, this may be a great way to arrive in style.
Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary Photos and Favorite Things To Do
Holding a Koala
Two times daily, you can hold a koala at Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. We suggest booking this add-on experience ahead of time as tickets frequently sell out. If you visit the sanctuary and you want to hold a koala, we suggest booking your ticket ahead of time and planning your visit around the time of your koala cuddle.
Prior to holding a koala, you will be given instructions on how to properly hold your koala marsupial. You can take as many photos as you wish during your time slot, but you should bring a photographer friend as you need two hands to hold a koala. The staff are also amazing about telling your photographer friend all the best ways to get the perfect shots. Additionally, you are given one professional photograph to take home with you.
Learning About Koalas
In addition to holding koalas, you can also learn a ton about koalas on your visit to the sanctuary. They really stress that koala marsupials are not koala bears and that they all are dying from clamydia. At least those are the things that stuck out to us. You can visit different rescue batches of koalas and learn about conservation efforts to protect them. Or you can attend a staff talk to learn about the species in general.
Besides learning about koalas, you’ll see dozens, if not hundreds of koalas. This is a koala sanctuary. So while zoos may have a handful of koalas, Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary has them everywhere you look. They are in trees, they are hopping around on the ground, they are in little hospitals and they are even available for your cuddles.
We think this is the best place to see koalas in all of Australia!
Wild Lorikeet Feeding
We are amateur ornithological enthusiasts, which is our fancy way of saying we like birds. And feeding wild lorikeets at Lone Pine was amazing. These birds are fed twice daily by Sanctuary staff. They come from the surrounding neighborhoods for food. You can pick up the feeding dishes and hold on to the lorikeets via these dishes. However, don’t be surprised if they land on your head or shoulders if you are in the melee of feeding.
Wallaby and Kangaroo Feeding
This was such a surprising experience for us. We did not know that there was Kangaroo feeding and petting at Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. And this experience was almost cooler than the koalas. There are dozens of kangaroos and wallabies here! They are gentle critters and they are used to humans and will eat out of your hand.
These kangaroos and wallabies have a feeding area that humans are allowed in and a napping area that humans are not allowed in. In our experience there, they retreat to their no-humans-allowed napping area later in the day. So if you’d like to feed these hopping marsupials, you’ll want to make your way there first thing in the morning.
These kangaroos are voracious when they are interested. So keep a strong hand hold on your bags of food. They are smart animals and they know that the bags of food are where the mother-load is. They are also incredibly soft – way softer than they look. So make sure to get a few pets in while you’re feeding them.
Raptor Show
The raptor show (aka hawks and owl show to us Americans) was surprisingly amazing. Handlers teach you about the different raptor species of Australia and you see several of them in flight. They even do some feedings during the show. It’s very exciting, especially to amateur ornithological enthusiasts like us.
After the show, you can take photos with the different raptors for an extra fee.
Crocodile Shows
Crocodile shows are held daily. As someone who has been to some questionable alligator shows held in the overly commercialized areas of Florida, these shows are not similar. The handlers will feed the crocodiles and tell you about them, but there are no death defying stunts or “trained” crocodiles.
Dingo Experiences
You can pet and pose with dingos or simply learn about them from the professionals. Their is a daily dingo talk where you learn more about these wild Australian dogs.
There are loads of other Australian animals on view at Lone PIne Koala Sanctuary, including platypus, Tasmanian devils, echidnas and snakes. Visit to check them all out!
Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary Price
We thought that the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary was one of the best zoos/animal sanctuaries we’ve ever been to for the price. It is a value!
General Admission into the sanctuary is $35 AUD/person. This includes visiting all of the animals and entrance into the wallaby feeding area. We also recommend you bring $2 in cash to buy bags of kangaroo food. This is a suggested donation but it goes towards keeping the sanctuary up and running.
For human food, there is a shop at Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. However, you can also bring your own food into the sanctuary to eat in the picnic areas. The food shop was very reasonable considering most zoos highly inflate their food prices.
Animal Upgrades
There is an opportunity for several animal upgrades at Lone Pine.
The most popular upgrade, and the one we would recommend for first time Australian visitors is holding a koala. This is a $49 AUD/adult and booking ahead of time is highly recommended.
Holding a koala in Australia is highly regulated. Each koala has a strict weekly and daily work allowance, no overtime allowed. So daily koala holds are often sold out. Booking ahead by 1-2 days is generally enough time to secure yourself a spot. These experiences include professional photos and an opportunity for someone in your group to take additional photos.
There are several other animal encounters at Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. These include Dingo photos ($15), snake photos ($15), platypus encounters ($50), and owl/raptor encounters ($50). All prices are in Australian Dollars. There are also several different behind the scenes tours and special packages. If you are interested in multiple experiences, consider booking one of the special packages as it may save your group a bit of money rather than booking individual experiences.
Overall, we felt this was one of the best value animal experiences we have ever had!
We hope this information has helped you prepare for your own visit to Brisbane and Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. If you have any questions about our experience or would like to share your own experiences, please leave them in the comments section below.
