Here's a Melbourne fun fact for you: our city is home to a flourishing herd of Asian elephants. You might have paid them a visit at Melbourne Zoo over the years, but with the birth of three new calves in recent years, the herd had outgrown their enclosure and were ready for bigger and better things. Luckily, the team at Zoos Victoria had planned for the growing elephant clan, with the construction of a ginormous, world-class habitat at Werribee Open Range Zoo. It's been a long time coming, but the elephants are now ready for visitors at their impressive new digs.
Excitingly, this is the very first time that Werribee Zoo has been home to elephants. The new Elephant Trail is a world-class habitat for the herd, with the $88 million enclosure spanning a massive 21 hectares, which is equivalent to the size of a whopping five MCG stadiums and the entire Melbourne Zoo. It's essentially the elephant equivalent of a mega mansion.
It's designed to cater to their every need, with six different areas, two gigantic pools, massive weatherproof barns and a two-metre-deep sandpit. Two overpasses will cross above visitor walking trails, so the elephants will walk above visitors to cross between the different parts of their enclosure.
While the Elephant Trail is certainly huge, it's been carefully designed for a top-notch visitor experience. A walking trail connects the elephant’s open space, barns, pools and a café – so even in their spacious new home, people can still see the animals up close.
It took a lot of intensive planning to get the elephants into their new habitat, with a historic operation to transport the elephants across Melbourne back in February. Six adult elephants and three calves travelled in trucks on a 40 kilometre voyage from Parkville to Werribee over the course of five days. The elephants were transported in air-conditioned shipping containers, which were lifted by cranes onto and off the trucks.
Now the elephants have settled into their new home, they're ready for visitors. Luckily, it's just in time for the school holidays, so families looking for an exciting outing need look no further. And thanks to the state government, children under the age of 16 can visit the zoo for free. Find out more about the Elephant Trail here.
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