Crikey

Well you can't come to the sunshine coast without paying a visit to Steve Irwin's Australia Zoo, even if it costs $49 each to get through the gates.

The Irwin family have long been involved in running a zoo here at Beerwah and have earned respect for their work in animal conservation, not just at Australia Zoo or through Steve Irwin's television appearances but also because the family have invested huge amounts of their own money to buy land up and down Australia just so that it can be used as habitat for wild animals.

And Steve Irwin loved his zoo so much, he's actually buried inside, though it's anybody's guess where (rumour has it his ashes were fed to his favorite croc, which is obviously, well, a croc).

The selling point about Australia Zoo is it's supposed to be different from other zoos, you're supposed to be able to get more up close and personal with the animals, like this wombat, who was being walked about on a toddler harness in much the same way we used to be able to restrain Ella.

It's hard not to respect the family's work but having been to the zoo today it's also hard not to feel cynical about the direction it's moving in, and that's without even touching on the issue of Bindi Irwin (Steve's daughter), who seems to have been catapulted to some sort of iconic status since her dad died; fitness videos, a range of clothing, that sort of thing.

Anyway, here's Ella riding on the back of a plaster crocodile, shortly before she rode on the teacups with Mummy, who had a bit of a hangover. Take it from me, the teacups ride isn't somewhere you want to be if you've got a headache.