A keeper’s beginnings
Greg Parker kept his first python at the age of ten and built a collection of more than 300 reptiles. In the late 1970s he worked at Healesville Sanctuary.
Opening in 1985
After a year of planning, he bought ten hectares of land in Ballarat East and opened Ballarat Wildlife Park in February 1985. The park remains family-owned.
Patrick and Crunch
Patrick the wombat came to the park as an orphan in 1989, after his mother was hit by a car, and lived there until 2017. Crunch, a five-metre saltwater crocodile, arrived in December 2013.


