Bookable
An Apollonaut travel guide
The place behind the visit.
A family craft business, a shop on the road to Phillip Island and a park rebuilt after a fire offer several ways into the story of Maru.
On this page
A family business
Ruth Heffer registered Maru Craft in 1974; the name joins the first letters of her daughter Marilyn’s name and her own. The family later bought an uncleared bush block at Grantville.
From 1983 the Grantville shop drew coaches on their way to Phillip Island, and animals were added. Ruth’s son Ian took over in 1990, and the park is still family owned and operated.
A wildlife shelter
Maru runs a wildlife shelter. It cares for injured and orphaned native animals and releases them near where they were found; animals in rehabilitation are kept in a quiet area away from visitors.
Since 2006 Maru has also taken part in Dreamnight at the Zoo, a free evening each November for children with special needs and their families, by invitation. This page reports the park’s own account; it does not add claims of its own.
Maru today
The park covers about five acres near the shore of Western Port, with koalas, kangaroos, dingoes, wombats, reptiles and farm animals, and Pirate Pete’s Mini-Golf beside it.
This history belongs to the place and the people who shaped it. The History page offers a longer introduction, and the timeline gives a short route through selected milestones.
Read at the source
Sources & further reading
Links lead to the original publishers.
