Kangaroos and Caverns, Too!
Unique learning experience captivates adults and kids alike

Sticking out of the brightly striped sling bag were the pricked ears of an animal I could not identify. A clump of grass emerged from the bag and the critter began to chew.

“This is Patonga,” said Jaana Sipila, marketing director for Kentucky Down Under (KDU). “He’s a baby wallaby. Want to hold him?”

I took the surprisingly weighty bundle in my arms. Unfazed, Patonga kept right on eating, his eyes focused on my face. I looked into those two tiny, shiny black marbles and immediately lost my heart.

Sipila assured me it happens all the time at the 75–acre attraction just outside Horse Cave.

“What makes Kentucky Down Under different from a roadside petting zoo or high end regular zoo is that we offer hands-on experiences with the animals,” she explained. “The animals aren’t in cages. People can pet the kangaroos and wallabies, and go in the aviary and feed the birds, which land all over them. In the wool shed, they get to bottle feed the lambs and milk a cow.”

Or, watch a spunky Border collie herd sheep, see a parade of rams and get laughed at by a kookaburra in a gum tree. This is not your average theme park. Not by a long shot. Actually, this outback extraordinaire is two attractions rolled into one. Located in the midst of “cave country,” the nature park surrounds Kentucky Caverns, where a constant 60 degrees lure visitors all year to climb underground on a guided tour and gaze in awe at massive columns, delicate coral and lovely crystalline formations.

Australian animals and a cave may seem strange bedfellows, but the combination was the 1990 culmination of a dream for two adventurous spirits, both with fascinating interests. In the late 1960s, Horse Cave native Bill Austin, an engineer with the National Science Foundation, was in New Zealand preparing for an expedition to Antarctica when he met Judy, a physical therapist running a therapeutic horseback riding center there.

After marrying, the couple returned to Bill’s hometown, where he became manager of Mammoth Onyx Cave, bought by his granddad in the 1920s. Seeing how visitors enjoyed the peafowl and small animals added for entertainment between cave trips, the Austins purchased a herd of bison in the 1970s. As Judy had grown up on an outback sheep station in Queensland with kangaroos for pets, adding Australian animals and a “down under” experience in 1990 and opening the whole shebang to the public was a natural.

These days, extremely knowledgeable staffers welcome guests to an amazing menagerie, complete with a slew of birds, emus and several types of kangaroos and wallabies.

“Education is a huge part of what we do here,” said Judy Austin, who has run the park alone since Bill’s death several years ago. “We put a very high emphasis on educating the staff so they know not only about the animals, but about the environment, so they can pass along information about the impact people have had on the whole ecological system and how we can become better stewards of and on the earth.

Schoolchildren come to KDU by the droves, reveling in field trips that feature biology, history and social studies in the guise of petting Aussie animals, including snakes; watching a shaggy Papuan Frogmouth owl named Punk spin his head around; feeding gorgeously-bright rainbow lorikeets that alight in your hair; hearing aborigine folklore at Camp Corribee; cuddling baby ‘roos; mining for gems; exploring caverns deep in the earth; and tooting a blast on an ancient aborigine musical instrument.

All year, KDU’s outreach programs – which focus on Australia’s history, culture and animals, caves and geology, and the responsibility of having pets – travel to classrooms across the state. Little Patonga has quite a fan club among the youngsters.

Through the years, Austin’s critters also have brought joy free of charge on special visits to cancer patients, emotionally and physically challenged kids, and nursing home residents. Grownups, Austin said, profess to learn just as much and to have just as much fun as kids, whether onsite or off.

“There’s a whole different emotional experience between people and animals when there’s not a fence between you,” says Austin. “You’re in their country. It gets your adrenalin pumping, and that makes for a memorable experience. When you’re walking along a fence and reading some signs about what’s inside, that’s nice. But when you’re inside and that old emu is eyeballing you, that is indeed pretty cool!”

Find out more at www.kdu.com or call (800) 762-2869.

Katherine Tandy Brown is a staff writer for The Lane Report.
editorial@lanereport.com

Back to Tourism Index

Back to March Issue

Copyright 1996-2005, by Kentucky Business Online.  All rights reserved.

Editorial content is copyright 2005, Lane Communications Group
All editorial material is fully protected and must not be reproduced in any manner without prior permission.

The Lane Report is a trademark of Lane Communications Group.  All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.