Set in tranquil bushland about an hour from Melbourne, Healesville Sanctuary is one of the Yarra Valley’s most-loved wildlife destinations. Operated by Zoos Victoria, the not-for-profit body that also runs Melbourne Zoo and Werribee Open Range Zoo, the sanctuary focuses exclusively on Australian native species. Wandering its shaded bush trails you can meet koalas, kangaroos, wallabies, wombats, dingoes, Tasmanian devils and the elusive platypus, alongside more than 200 species of birds and 140-plus species in total. Conservation, breeding and wildlife rehabilitation sit at the heart of everything it does.
A highlight of any visit is Spirits of the Sky, a free-flight bird presentation included in general admission and staged daily at 12pm and 3pm. You can watch a wedge-tailed eagle, black-breasted buzzard, barking owl, parrots and more take to the air just overhead. Because every presentation is led by what the birds choose to do and can be affected by weather, no two shows are exactly the same, so it is worth checking on the day.
Behind the scenes, the sanctuary runs serious conservation work that visitors are welcome to witness. At the Australian Wildlife Health Centre, a working veterinary hospital, you can watch surgery and recovery through viewing glass; the centre treats well over 1,500 sick, injured and orphaned wild animals each year. In 2025 the sanctuary opened the Australian Platypus Conservation Centre, a facility dedicated to platypus rehabilitation and research, deepening a relationship with the species that stretches back decades.
The sanctuary carries a long and significant history. Dr Colin MacKenzie founded an Institute of Anatomical Research on the site in 1920, on land that had formerly been part of the Coranderrk Aboriginal Reserve. It opened to the public as the Sir Colin MacKenzie Sanctuary on 30 May 1934, and in 1943, under naturalist David Fleay, achieved the world-first captive breeding of a platypus, a feat very few places have ever repeated. Open daily, year-round, it remains a place where families can spend an unhurried day close to Australia’s wildlife.