Now here’s a place from my childhood I’ll never forget! I can’t tell you how many birthday parties I spent here, surrounded by emus, kangaroos and gorgeous peacocks! Going back here as an adult with memory difficulties was strange, but also really healing. Plus being around animals always lifts my spirits. So let’s go have some nostalgic fun!
Blackbutt Reserve is a free-entry nature and wildlife reserve occupying over 182 hectares of natural bushland. It includes walking trails, public picnic and barbeque spaces, wildlife exhibits, and an all new cafe! Along with the wildlife exhibits, Blackbutt Reserve also offers regular feeding and reptile shows to get the community more involved with Australia’s well-loved, and not-so-loved misunderstood creatures.
As soon as we entered the car park, we could tell how busy it was going to be. Granted, we forgot it was a public holiday as well as a Sunday so it made sense as to why the parks were jam-packed. But that didn’t spoil the fun date my partner and I had at Blackbutt Reserve looking at all the cute and unique Australian animals. Although it was a wildlife reserve, the first thing we noticed were the children… lots of them. Most of them were absolutely adorable having fun running around the playground or gawking at the animals they hadn’t seen in person before. Some of them, however… haven’t quite learnt how to behave in public spaces. Kids will be kids. It just got a little overstimulating after a while since it was so busy. Especially when you’re peacefully watching some cute birds eating and these children run up out of nowhere, screaming and climbing all over the viewing window.
The first area we visited was the pond with some very cute long-neck turtles and what looked to be moorhens, a waterbird resembling a duck. I thought this was a great photo opportunity to update some profile photos since I was feeling surprisingly confident that day. Plus the background was adorable with the water, lilypads and sunshine. I’ve never really liked taking photos of myself. In fact, a year ago I would be shying away from the camera. But since finding my people and starting my blog, I’ve realised the spotlight isn’t as scary as I once believed. Sure, some people may have been looking at me weirdly while I was doing a mini photo shoot by the pond, but who cares! I loved how the photos turned out and it’s a memory I can keep in my photo album forever!
Onto some Aussie classics; emus and wallabies! The emus were very interested in the people around them, almost as if they were the ones viewing us humans as an exhibit. The wallabies, however, wanted nothing to do with the people around them. There are also some really nice walks around Blackbutt Reserve for those wanting to get some exercise while taking in the natural bushland and birdlife. My partner and I started one of these walks before realising how long it would actually take us, deciding instead to go along Blackbutt Reserve’s animal boardwalk for the day. I mean, we came to see the animals, so…
We couldn’t actually find the first animal on the wildlife boardwalk. To be fair, the first animal was a wombat, a mostly nocturnal burrowing marsupial. And today was absolutely freezing! So the wombat pair at Blackbutt were probably enjoying the nice warmth in their cozy burrows. Oh well, onto the next marsupial! We entered the rock wallaby enclosure, and honestly for the first few minutes we thought we weren’t going to see these guys either. Boy can they blend in to their surroundings! I finally spotted a pair way up the back staring down at us and another pair of humans just wanting to admire these beautiful creatures. Then, out of nowhere, two other wallabies came hopping right down to eat!
Now for my favourite experience at Blackbutt Reserve, the flight aviary that you could walk into! If there was no closing time, I could’ve stayed here forever. It was so peaceful to me. Listening to all the different bird calls, having the birds fly all around you, spotting a new bird everywhere you look. I didn’t even realise there was a koala until someone else pointed it out. A very sleepy koala mind you. Despite the many different birds and the cuddly koala, they also had a tank for a diamond python and some sort of nesting area for some sort of animal. Although, there was nothing in there when we had a look.
Once we finally got away from the birds… we saw more birds! Blackbutt Reserve has a lot of birds, but they’re all so different and so stunning! We kept walking and saw a lace monitor, some very reserved-looking owls, and some adorable frogs and stick insects! Now something I hadn’t heard of before, varied lorikeets. They seemed fairly shy at first but then one cheeky little guy came to take a sip from its feeder right in front of us! They were all so colourful, like the rainbow lorikeet, but a little more… varied. There were some beautifully colourful finches and wrens a little further down, like the Gouldian finch and superb fairywren. There was no way I was getting any of these little guys on my camera though. All I could do was watch in awe.
We just caught the middle of the nocturnal animal feeding, where we could watch one of the keepers feed a pair of tawny frog mouths, sugar gliders and long-nosed potoroos. The potoroo is a small hopping marsupial related to the kangaroo and wallaby, and these little guys were eating right up close for us to see! They were honestly so adorable, probably my favourite animal of the day. The little boy next to me must have thought so too when he looked up at me and said, “They’re very cute!” While the little potoroos were eating from their bowls, the keeper was trying to feed the tawny frog mouths. I say trying because they seemed a little too grumpy to eat. It was still fun to watch though, especially since this is the type of career I’d love to be involved in in the future.
Sadly, we were at the end of the boardwalk. But guess what we got to see cozied up in their little burrows; the wombats! They were very cute and very much asleep. So, we let them have their nap while my partner and I checked out the new Blackbutt Reserve Cafe that has just opened up for business amongst the picnic shelters. And we weren’t the only ones it seemed! A peacock or two was strutting back and forth past the cafe door while we were waiting for our food. Our delicious, glorious food. Let’s just say I now have a food hyperfixation for halloumi burgers!
We came, we saw, we ate, and we had a blast! For a place so etched into my childhood memory, it’s wild to experience it again as an adult. It really didn’t feel the same. Although I do have a greater understanding and appreciation for animals now, wild and endangered, than I did as a kid. So it makes sense for it to feel different. I’m meeting these animals with new, yet wise and loving eyes. Just as every human should.
All images in this post were taken by me.
For more information about Blackbutt Reserve, visit https://newcastle.nsw.gov.au/blackbutt-reserve/blackbutt-reserve-home
The Travel Journal 
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