If there’s one thing I love about Australia it’s the wildlife. The animals are just so weird, random, and interesting, like nothing I’ve ever seen before! There’s colourful parrots, mobs of kangaroos, koalas in the trees and emus everywhere. And when I saw these animals in the wild for the first time the feeling of excitement I got made me feel like a big kid.

The only problem with seeing them in the wild is the challenge of capturing them on camera or video. Kangaroos won’t let you get any closer than about 3 metres tops before they hop off and the koalas will be so high up in the trees they look like a dot on your camera screen, unless you have a zoom lens.

That’s why I really enjoyed going to the Cleland Wildlife Park in the Adelaide Hills, SA. Here the animals are used to people so you can get up close and personal without freaking them out. You can stroke and feed them while getting some pretty good footage at the same time. And unlike a zoo they’re given large open spaces to roam around in. I loved it!

Vicki Larkin